Help with tapered plane iron

[Pedro Reyes]

First off, test it with the bevel down...

Yup, twisted on either side.

I've straightened plenty of twisted blades like this. My approach is similar to Steven's, but I prefer to grab the bottom 2" in the vise and twist the top. The bottom is hardened steel, while the top 5" or 6" is soft steel or wrought iron. I would rather twist the soft stuff. If you don't have a large wrench, you can just put a C or F clamp on the top and twist with that.

Thanks, good advice about the softer side.

Though this may work, it isn't to my liking. It may be less stress on a clamp to use two to hold strips of wood on the blade and then use the wood for leverage while applying torsional correction to the blade.

jtk

that was my initial thought.

Thanks all for your views.

I will talk to the seller and ask him if I should attempt to repair it, see what he thinks. I don't mind having to fix it assuming I can, but if he thinks I will mess it up more and wants to arrange something, I am OK with that too.

Thanks again

Regards

Pedro

[george wilson]

Just take the advice to twist the blade straight. As said,only the thin veneer of tool steel on the cutting end of the blade is hardened. And,it doesn't matter there either. A veneer of thin tool steel on a soft backing will also twist anyway quite a bit before it thinks about cracking. The top of the blade sticking up out of the plane really don't matter anyway. Are the 4" at the cutting end pretty flat? And,not that much is important anyway.

Notice that on these antique plane irons,only a few inches are even ground flat in the first place. this is the only part of the blade that matters on a non chip breaker iron.