Hey wooden plane makers....

[Casey Gooding]

Joel,
That combination should work fine. Traditionally, wooden planes were made out of Beech. So, for a sole, it should work fine.

[Joel Goodman]

Thanks for the info about the wood. One other question -- Has anyone tried a Krenov style plane with the HNT Gordon single iron ? It's sold by Highland Hardware for 33 dollars. I believe it's a massive 1/4 inch iron without chipbreaker. I guess my question is whether the Krenov style works well without a chipbreaker. For me another thought would be to use an extra iron from my LN 62.

[Tristan Raymond]

Ah ha, I see. I was unawares of such an iron. Where did you get that from if my ask? I look foward to seeing your plane too.

Directly from the man himself: http://www.davidfinck.com/gallery_html/irons_plane/

[Johnny Kleso]

Joel,
Steve Knight makes planes with a 1/4" blade and no CB
Check out his website

knight-toolworks.com

[Ron Brese]

Clark and Williams sells a complete line of single iron wooden bodied planes that work quite well with no cap iron. I also use 1/4" thick single irons in my planes with great success. You will do better to limit tear out by making your plane with a tighter mouth which in my opinion will always do more to control tear out than a cap iron set .032 from the edge of the iron. By the time the shaving reaches the cap iron the tear out will have already occurred. All the research that I have read concerning cap irons and tear out have indicated that to be useful for anything other than stiffening a thin iron the cap iron would have to be set .008 or less from the edge of the iron. This is not practical given the fact that with this setting the area of escapement for the shaving would be severely limited and would cause the plane to clog quite easily.

I have conversed with several plane makers that have done their own experiments concerning single iron and double iron planes and they have all confided in me that they find that cap irons are unnecessary when an iron of appropriate thickness is used and the mouth setting is appropriate for the work being performed.


Ron Brese

[josh bjork]

I have an idea that without a breaker, you might use a standard angle of 50 or 55 instead of 45. I'm not sure if not having a breaker is why but some woody makers seem to do that. Try some of the replacement blades for the wood bodied planes at lee valley. They are very cheap and seem a lot better than old stanley blades. I don't know much about the physics of carbon steel but they make nice shavings.

[Steve knight]

using a chipbreaker with a wooden wedge makes it harder to fit too. a 3/16" or thicker iron there is no need for a chipbreaker. I have never had anyone say they needed one and I am 3500 or so planes. when I first started I used Ron hock irons and I tested them with and without and never noticed a difference.

[Wilbur Pan]

Another point of comparison:

I find that on my Japanese planes, I tend to leave out the chipbreaker for the most part, unless I'm not getting the results that I want. Then I check to see if my blade is still sharp. If so, that's when I try it with the chipbreaker.

Japanese planes were used for the most part without chipbreakers until modern times. They still work well without them.

[Zahid Naqvi]

So do you make anything beside planes these days? Do you actually use the planes you make? Do you use the planes you make to, uh, make more planes??

Chris, yes to all questions

The shop made smooth and jointer are my first choice planes, although I still go for the stanley 60-1/2 for the block even though I have a wooden one.