Shoulder planes

[lowell holmes]

I use chisels on the shoulders and router plane to size the tenon.

I have a small shoulder plane, but I don't find much use for it.

[bridger berdel]

..... shallow angle on the chisel made a big difference..........I have duplicates for many size chisels, so I'm mulling sharpening a few just for paring. Maybe 25 degrees or a bit less?........

I have a tendency to grind bench chisels to lower and lower angles. it's probably an artifact of my freehand bench grinder technique. anyway, it tends to produce edges that are good for paring. eventually they reach the point of failure, chipping or folding, before they expire from abrasive wear. when that happens I steepen up the honed bevel a bit.... I guess the point is that for bench chisels I like to keep them near the low angle limit. this really highlights the difference in steels- some are stable at much lower angles than others.

recently I made a handle for and did some grinder work on a bevel edge socket chisel I picked up somewhere. it is a pretty much generic made in germany one bearing the dunlap logo, with about 3" or so of blade length left. I ground the body a bit thinner, reduced the lands to almost nothing and gave it a primary bevel of right about 10 degrees, and honed just a tiny bit more. so far so good, though it doesn't have too much use yet.

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