Video of a cap iron at work..and discussion about the cap

[David Weaver]

A 50 degree front edge works fine. There seems to be different thoughts (that are based on the practice shown here, there are tons of thoughts to be ignored, like places that tell you to set the cap iron at a fat 32nd or something). Anyway, the two schools seem to be:

* setting a shallow bevel and a very blunt secondary bevel on the chipbreaker (not something you can do with a standard stanley chipbreaker, but on the old woodies and on japanese planes you can do this). The idea is that you present a blunt 80º sliver of cap iron to the chip, but then make the primary bevel shallow so that there isn't any additional obstruction in the way of the shaving

* setting somewhere around 50 degrees at the front, which seems closer to where the stanley design is, but maybe it's steeper, I don't know, either curved or just one flat bevel.

Either one works. A full thick bevel of 80 degrees seems like it creates more extra work than is needed, and in some planes it'll cause feeding problems (well, poorly designed planes might have feeding problems no matter what.. I have some old woodies that absolutely won't feed with the chipbreaker set close).

If you have a stock stanley type chipbreaker, I would leave the profile alone and just make sure it has a nice clean face.

If you still get tearout after the plane is feeding fine, then the iron should be closer to the edge. The only tearout you'll get is if you go across the grain (end grain and cross grain cuts are for low angle or skewed planes), though you can skew the plane and still make those cuts.

[george wilson]

The ultimate solution is a micrometer adjustable cap iron.

[Bob Strawn]

The ultimate solution is a micrometer adjustable cap iron.

Those are for sale, George. But the plane is not what we call a hand tool.

Bob

[John Walkowiak]

IMG_8243.jpgIMG_8240.jpgIMG_8241.jpgIMG_8242.jpg

The ultimate solution is a micrometer adjustable cap iron.

As the saying goes: everything old is new again. I have seen adjustable cap irons at Mid West meetings. Don't remember if they were Dutch or German. The cap iron laid on the iron, no srcew, the wedge held it tight. Threre is a round adjuster with 4 holes in the disk. Looked like you used an ice pick to adjust it. Here are some pictures of a plane I have. The adjuster works in the same way. It was made by the Sandusky Tool Co. It was patented in 1870 by Z. Phillips. It is quite flimzy and I doubt if it worked. There are only a few known. But, it shows that between this and the other I mentioned "mechanics" in the 19th C. were trying to get a more precise way of adjusting the cap iron on the blade.

[george wilson]

This has been an unusually interesting thread!! The thread on that screw is pretty coarse for a precise adjustment,but someone tried.

I have seen one of those planers that use a stationary blade at Federal surplus. Not a machine I would have wanted to resurrect,myself. They came out in the 70's,I think. Never got popular.

The wood was run through them very rapidly by a powerful feed belt. I don't know how they worked with unusual or downhill grain.

[John Coloccia]

This has been an unusually interesting thread!! The thread on that screw is pretty coarse for a precise adjustment,but someone tried.

I have seen one of those planers that use a stationary blade at Federal surplus. Not a machine I would have wanted to resurrect,myself. They came out in the 70's,I think. Never got popular.

The wood was run through them very rapidly by a powerful feed belt. I don't know how they worked with unusual or downhill grain.

I wonder how they set their chip breaker....

[David Weaver]

Thanks to mark hennebury (who is probably the origin of that video), we know the answer to that question, they use a jig to set what they refer to as a "back iron" (or chipbreaker):

supers28.jpg

I always wondered how they bruted those things across a board without getting tearout somewhere on it, and now we know the answer. I think they have control for mouth size, back iron and skew.

[george wilson]

Must have been a bear to keep the blade sharp! Just 1 blade to do all the cutting=3 or 4X the wear on the cutting edge. Probably today you couldn't get the blade resharpened-if you ever could.

There actually was a thickness planer of similar concept in the 18th.C.. A wooden block mounted overhead of the platen,on 4 wooden corner posts. Height adjustable by wedges or some such. Wide blade in the top mounted block. You had to SHOVE the wood through,though!! A crude attempt to plane lumber to the same thickness all over. I never saw one in person.

This is from a VERY OLD recollection.

[David Weaver]

I wonder if they make a jig for it - to sharpen. Mark made the comment on wood central that they make that jig (with micrometer type adjustments) because they found out that the setting on the second iron is critical.

I have no idea how the irons are set in the planer, but if they're set in square, then everything would have to be extremely accurately ground and honed.

It's fascinating that they went to the trouble they did to make a planer that would plane a board quickly, but leave it looking like a shiny hand planed surface (since traditional building in japan apparently has unfinished show surfaces in the house). But doubly interesting that they have made the second iron a vital part of the machine since it will never do anything other than a straight through shaving, or perhaps with the blade turned askew. they could've probably gone with a steeper pitch (and had a much less complicated setup), but the finish wouldn't have been as good.

Based on the fact that a lot of my trim work in my house still has planer chatter on it (and it's from the '50s), I'd say we're not quite so particular over here. Cover it with stain and varnish back then, nobody will notice.

[george wilson]

Maybe if they had used those Japanese planers over here to make repro 17th.&18th.C. houses,we wouldn't have to look at the LARGE planer chomp marks on the woodwork in movies like "The New World",and all the rest!!

The truly original interior woodwork I have seen in Williamsburg,on major houses,like the obviously rich Roscoe Cole house,has unbelievably coarse,huge tear outs in the yellow pine chair railings. And very noticeably different crudely hand turned stair balusters. The spacing on their components looked like the turner was pretty drunk most of the time(and probably was.)

[John Walkowiak]

The ultimate solution is a micrometer adjustable cap iron.

Here is an earlier example of a "micro adjust" cap iron. It was made by John Green, it would date from the late 18th C. to the early 19th C. The image is from the 3rd edition of British Planemakers. This is very much like the 19th C. European example I tried to describe in my first post. IMG_8245.jpg

[John Coloccia]

Thanks to mark hennebury (who is probably the origin of that video), we know the answer to that question, they use a jig to set what they refer to as a "back iron" (or chipbreaker):

supers28.jpg

Ha ha...that's great!

[george wilson]

I like the John Green idea better. Much more handy looking-and a LOT better looking!!