Joinery and plane floats tooth angle

[Matt Evans]

Just curious if anyone can tell me what angle their floats teeth are filed/cut.

I've got a variety of floats, but most of them are shop made, either by me or came with other tools I was buying. All of them are different tooth geometry.

I'm setting up to make a few more floats for some projects, and while I don't mind playing around with the angles to find what works best for me, other folks may have a different preferred angle.

[Steve Voigt]

Hi Matt,
I make my floats with 10° positive rake. Just to clarify, that's 10° more aggressive than zero, whereas something like a sash saw would typically be sharpened at 10° negative rake.
I think most planemakers do the same. There's a video of Larry Williams sharpening a float on the Intertubes, should be easy to find.

[Bruce Haugen]

Steve, do you mill your floats or file them?

[Stewie Simpson]

My personal preference is a 5* positive rake angle on my planemakers floats.

[Steve Voigt]

Steve, do you mill your floats or file them?

Hi Bruce,
I made most of my edge floats with a file and a hacksaw. Then I acquired an old metal shaper and have used that on my more recent floats. Making a side or "bed" float with a file is pretty daunting, but an edge float is easy.

[Matt Evans]

Thanks Steve, Stewie. . .

I looked at the floats I have a little more closely last night. Seems that I have floats ranging from 5 degrees negative to about 15 degrees positive, with the majority being 0-7ish degrees positive. And a good number of them have progressive tooth size and angle.

I think I'll do one each at 5 and 10 positive to see which applications the different angles might suit best. (filing a plane bed will likely work best with a slightly different angle than filing a tenon cheek, or so I would imagine.)

[Mike Cornwall]

Has anyone tried annealing a rasp? Just a thought

[Vincent Tai]

Has anyone tried annealing a rasp? Just a thought

This was detailed in another thread; but with files. Rasps are harder to dull and achieve smooth faces with all the pointy teeth; files are easily dulled with a bit of sand paper on a flat surface. Annealing is unnecessary and a waste of time. Draw the temper of the file to that of a handsaw, and it is now suitable to be made into and function as a float.

[Mike Cornwall]

Sorry, I thought the process of drawing the temper to that of a handsaw was called annealing. I’m gonna see how it goes

[Stewie Simpson]

Matt; below are a couple of photos of my planemakers Side Float and Edge Float being sharpened.

The 3rd photo shows the Left and Right Skew Edge Floats.

(Not shown in detail is the planemakers Bed Float.)

cheers Stewie;

Side Float;


Edge Float;


Left and Right Skew Edge Floats;

[Stewie Simpson]

The planemakers Bed Float after being resharpened.





I only joint the teeth on Edge Floats.