desirable scrub plane radius?

[Scott Winners]

I think I am done buying planes, at least for a while.

Left to right, I have a #4 Bailey with a new Veritas blade in it, I had to open the mouth a tiny tiny bit on that for the thicker blade.

Next to that is a #4 BORG (blue team). I put a three inch radius on that one, opened the mouth up quite a bit and it makes a dandy very aggressive scrub without much other work to it.

In the middle is a #5 Stanley, but in the handyman series. In front of it are the two blades I want to grind for scrub, but less aggressive, greater radius than 3 inches.

Next to that is a 4 1/2 Bailey I am almost ready to put back together with the original iron, the spot on the back of the iron is from my camera, not on the blade.

Far right is a #6 I haven't started on, but the sole is flat and the iron is very likely salvageable. Believe it or not the tempered part of the iron was pretty well oiled when the plane was put up on a shelf in the 1950s.

My plan is to put some crown on the 2 pitted OE blades so I can run the #5 handyman as a scrub, but less aggressive than the BORG4 with the 3" radius.

I got the three inch radius idea from Leonard Lee's _Guide to Sharpening_, he describes a three inch radius scrub as about the most aggressive crown that is useful. I used it to flatten my bench top slab, a 2x4 glueup. The plane was aggressive and useful.

So what about these other two blades? 5 and 7 inch radius crowns seem to be most common. I heard 8" from Chris Schwarz in a youtube last night, I hear 6 inch radius every once in a while. I read 11" radius once, don't remember who said it.

What radiuses have you used and what were they good for?

Thanks

[Tom M King]

I've never measured the radius. You can make it what you want. This is a Scrub plane, but this much radius probably won't work for a metal plane, unless you Really open up the mouth. This is one I bought new. Finish wear is from sweat, and mouth wear is from use.

[Steven Mikes]

That looks just like my scrub plane! Yours looks more used than mine though (but not as used as one I saw at Roy Underhill's school last weekend that had finger-shaped dimples worn into it).
Just curious though Tom, why would the blade on a metal scrub plane be any different than a wooden one?

[Tom M King]

If the mouth was wide enough to clear thick shavings, it should work fine. I like the light weight one though. It'll throw shavings three feet in the air.

[steven c newman]

scrub-jack.jpg
8" radius, sitting in a Corsair C-5 jack plane
IMG_7112 (640x480).jpg
Taking on a less than flat tabletop of Ash
too low.jpgrough.jpgscrubbed.jpg
Goal was to get this flat and almost smooth.
flat.jpg
I did get the top flat...had to switch to other planes for smooth.

A cheap scrub plane can be bought at Harbor Freight...the Windsor No.33 is about $15 right now.....regrind the iron to a 3" radius....no need to open the mouth up. Plane is about the same size as a #3....
YMMV