I've been stuck on a plateau on neanderthal woodworking the last couple years; using methods that worked for me (see: cricket table build), but, I feel are rather lacking.
This weekend, I managed a little time to think about cambers on fore planes. Most of my readings discussed a camber with an 8-10" radius.
I went for the 10" radius; taking an old laminated 2" plane iron, I hand-ground the curve with a diamond plate and created the secondary bevel with an oil stone.
Setting the depth for 1" wide shaving worked well for soft pine, but was a little aggressive with ash. But ... why am I only using 1" of cut with a 2" blade?
is this efficient?
I then chose what seems like a better use of the iron; 75% of blade width-in-the-cut for soft-woods, (1.5" with this two inch iron) and 2/3 blade width with hardwoods.
This would result in a .028" thick shaving , at center of iron in softwoods. Is this reasonable or should the camber radius be greater, say 15-20".
Are there advantages to narrow, but deeper shavings vs. wider, but more shallow shavings at fore plane stage of prepping boards?
A few pics of the plane iron; the darker areas on the secondary bevel are reflections of the camera.
Attachment 359398 Attachment 359399 Attachment 359400