Wooden Handplane supplies

[Andy Howard]

I recently saw the Woodworks on making a wooden handplane, and would like to try this out for myself.

Does anyone have a good source for the iron and chipbreaker combo?

Thanks
Andy

[Mike Wenzloff]

You can get an entire kit from Hock for just under $90. You can also just buy the blades and chip breakers from him.

http://www.hocktools.com/kf175.htm

[Tom LaRussa]

I recently saw the Woodworks on making a wooden handplane, and would like to try this out for myself.

Does anyone have a good source for the iron and chipbreaker combo?

Thanks
Andy

Andy,

About what size are you looking for?

I've got a few oldies that not only would look great in a shop-built plane, but they are very thick and made from laminated steel, just like the Japanese ones.

[James Mittlefehldt]

Andy,

About what size are you looking for?

I've got a few oldies that not only would look great in a shop-built plane, but they are very thick and made from laminated steel, just like the Japanese ones.

Just out of curiousity Tom are those Ohio Tool blades.

[Tom LaRussa]

Just out of curiousity Tom are those Ohio Tool blades.

Only three of them. Two are shorties, with just over an inch of usable blade left. One of those has no breaker. The third is not designed to take a breaker -- no hole, no slot, no threading, no nothing.

BTW, I also have:

6 or 7 W. Butcher
5 Auburn
4 Sandusky
4 or 5 unidentifiable
1 branded but name escapes me

These tend to have much more useable blade left than the Ohios.

Why do I have so many old blades?

Well, several months back a fellow 'Creeker, (I think Steve Wargo), mentioned that he really likes W. Butcher chisels. I found one in a lot I had purchased from that place we need not mention and discovered that they really are fantastic chisels; not the hardest steel on the planet, but man, it takes an edge that is truly frighteningly sharp.

Anyhow, after falling in love with Butcher's chisels I discovered that they had also made planes, and so I decided to build myself a set of woodies using only Butcher cutters. (The reason I have so many others is that in order to get the Butchers I bought two large mixed lots on Ix-nay.)

And who knows, maybe I'll actually get around to making those planes before I go to that great wood lot in the sky.

[Steve Wargo]

If you don't get around to building those planes... You can always get rid of them at my house. And yes Tom, I am fonde of the Butcher's. I also like my old Tyzak Wooden coffin smoother.

[Dick Latshaw]

Does anyone have a good source for the iron and chipbreaker combo?

David Finck sells them. (You may want to pick up a copy of his book, too.)

http://www.davidfinck.com/irons.htm

[Tim Sproul]

IMO, one of the possible benefits of a wooden plane is the ability to use a thick iron. I'd purchase an iron from Steve or buy a blank of O1 steel and cut/grind my own. Then you'll have no need for a chipbreaker.

[David Turner]

Just returned home from the local Woodcraft store. They have a piece of 8/4 thick quarter sawn bubinga. The piece is about 10" wide X 7'-0'' long. It is priced at $9.50 board foot. If enough were interested, I would buy it and cut it up in plane size pieces and ship it. Advise in interested at davidgturner@comcast.net

[Andy Howard]

IMO, one of the possible benefits of a wooden plane is the ability to use a thick iron. I'd purchase an iron from Steve or buy a blank of O1 steel and cut/grind my own. Then you'll have no need for a chipbreaker.

Tim,

Now this is an interesting idea. How thick do you think the blade would have to be to not need a chipbreaker?

I really dont get excited about spending approx 50 bucks for each handplane I make. I can buy a used stanley, or double that and have a nice new cast iron plane. I looked at a tool supply place close to where I live, and I can get Starrett 01 tool steel in all thicknesses, and it will be around $30-50 for a 2" wide by 36" long piece. I figure that could make a lot of plane irons?

I was thinking that around 10 bucks would be a nice price to be able to make a handplane for. That way I wouldnt feel bad or wastefull if I made a half dozen or so.

What exactly is 01 oil hardening steel? Do I have to harden it with oil?

Thanks,
Andy

[Tim Sproul]

How thick do you think the blade would have to be to not need a chipbreaker?

I've never tested but can tell you that Steve uses 1/4 inch thick O1 and it works well. That is also the approximate thickness of most Japanese laminated plane irons.

I really dont get excited about spending approx 50 bucks for each handplane I make. I can buy a used stanley, or double that and have a nice new cast iron plane.

Yeah, at $50 bucks, I'd just get a new Knight plane for another few $. Heck....I did that and didn't even have a $50 limit in mind. Many times....

I looked at a tool supply place close to where I live, and I can get Starrett 01 tool steel in all thicknesses, and it will be around $30-50 for a 2" wide by 36" long piece. I figure that could make a lot of plane irons?

That would. Around 6 inches per iron. More or less depending on the height of the plane body you make.

What exactly is 01 oil hardening steel? Do I have to harden it with oil?

My dad could tell you. I'm sure others on this forum could tell you. I cannot. To harden, you heat it up good and hot....a couple propane torches will do or a really hot oven.....and then quench it in a bucket of oil. I've not done so but I hear the trick is to make sure you swirl it around in the oil for a couple to several MINUTES before removing. Removing too early can lead to a fire so have a good fire extinguisher handy. After hardening, put into a 350 to 400 F oven for an hour or two to anneal a bit.

For a large piece of steel like a plane iron, I'd want a goodly amount of oil to quench in....a quart is probably too little. Like I said, I've not delved into smithing quite yet so all the above is just me passing on what I've read/heard.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Plane irons bedded on wood as in an 18th or early 19th century plane do not really need to have a chipbreaker, particularly if they are tapered from cuttiing edge to the top like in one of the Clark & Williams planes. Being fitted between the bed and the wedge really most if not all of the vibration is absorbed. It is not really necessary to have the iron as thick as 1/4", though it is nice and my Steve Knight 50 degree smoother performs flawless with the 1/4" iron. Sometimes I think we go a bit overboard in how we design things.

O-1 tool steel is a high carbon steel and the standard for it is an ANSI/SAE (Ameerican National Standards Institute/ Society of Automotive Engineers) standard which calls out the minimum amounts of the various elements in the alloy. It contains mostly steel with between .8 to 1.06% carbon and trace amounts of silicone and other elements. A short version of the hardening and tempering proceddure is listed below. But note that there is more involved in doing this and a whole series of precautions are needed if you are to do this safely.

1. Heat the steel to the critical temperature- The easiest way is to apply your heat source and in the other hand hold a screwdriver with a rare earth magnet on the end. As the steel approaches a bright orange color test the magnet against the steel for attraction, but don't touch the steel or the magnet might stick and be hard to remove.

2. At the critical temperature, the steel will no longer have any magnetic attraction for the magnet. Continue heating for 15-30 seconds to make sure the steel is truly hot enough.

3. Quench (dip the steel in oil) in old motor oil, peanut oil, walnut oil, or any other vegetable oil immediately. To keep your spouse happy, I recommend not using motor oil inside the house, the smell is awful and disturbs domestic peace. DAMHIKT

4. To minimize or prevent warping of the steel dip the piece vertically taking care not to insert the steel at an angle which causes the warp. Stir for about 30 seconds to break up the bubbling of the oil and help carry away the heat. This bubbling insulates the steel from cooling evenly and quickly and prevents a full quench. Remember that the air bubbles are an insulator.

5. Your O-1 steel is now hardened to about a Rockwell C 67-68 (Rc67-68) and while quite hard is very brittle and not suitable for use as any kind of blade. It is as, or more brittle than a file at this point.

6. As soon as possible take the steel and temper it to reduce the level of hardness to anywhere from Rc56-63 depending on your needs or use. Go to the website of McMaster-Carr, MSC Industrial Supply, or any of a number of other sources for a table telling you what temperature and how long to temper depending on the cross sectional size of the steel. For a Rc62-63, I use the kitchen oven set to 350F for 20 minutes to half an hour for the small cross section of my marking knife blades. Larger items such as chisels and plane irons require different temperring schedules.

Note that no mention has been made of safety proceedures. You are on your own here, but suffice to say that gloves, safety glasses, a fire extinguisher, and a non burnable place to put your still hot steel are necessary for your safety. It is NOT a wimpy thing to go overboard on safety. In fact, you can't.

[Tom LaRussa]

It is NOT a wimpy thing to go overboard on safety. In fact, you can't.

You can say that again Dave!


*********************

Andy:

Another thing to keep in mind is that the oil is likely to catch fire when you put the steel into it, so having some sort of non-flammable lid for your container handy is a very good thing.

Some more stuff for your consideration:

A nice tutorial with pictures -- http://www.threeplanes.net/toolsteel.html

Heat treating and tempering guide for O-1 steel by Starrett -- http://catalog.starrett.com/catalog/...ure&GroupID=25

Ron Hock on DIY heat treatment -- http://www.hocktools.com/diyht.htm

Here's a more technical article on hardening steel -- http://www.key-to-steel.com/ViewArticle.asp?ID=12

Finally, here's an article on how engineers choose a particular type of tool steel for a particular application. It's not really relevant to what you're doing here, but it provides some nice background info. http://archive.metalformingmagazine....ee/997tool.htm

HTH,

Tom

[Jim Hinze]

Dave et. al.

I've found a local supplier of steel stock, both O1 and A2. The stock is already annealed. Would I have to do anything other than cut and grind the initial bevel???

Thanks in advance!

Plane irons bedded on wood as in an 18th or early 19th century plane do not really need to have a chipbreaker, particularly if they are tapered from cuttiing edge to the top like in one of the

[Tom LaRussa]

Dave et. al.

I've found a local supplier of steel stock, both O1 and A2. The stock is already annealed. Would I have to do anything other than cut and grind the initial bevel???

Not until after you cut and grind the initial bevel. The steps from here are:

1. harden
2. temper
3. clean off scale (if any) and polish
4. sharpen
5. use
6. post gloat!