OK I’m going to make a jump. No I am not going straight to Maine for the whole enchilada. I am trying to decide on fitting my bedrock and bailey with updated blades.
I use my #3 and 4 all the time to finish surfaces prior to a little scraping and a touch up with paper. I do not snub any of the steps so don’t jump me if I want to get to the finished surface .. pronto. Oh, I hate sanding I admit it up front. I don’t like cutting the grass either.
Choices: Hock stuff. I think I’ll do the 2″ blade first and see if the A2 is all I have read?? I have talked with others that use the cheaper high carbon hock blade and they love it. Help Mr Wizard.
So… give me some feedback. A2 or high carbon.
Some notes: I don’t make my living with the stuff coming out of the shop but I usually complete 15-20 projects for the market each year. Planing on most things but chairs and rifles don’t move the plane from the shelf.
Love to hear from the field
Dan
Replies
I put an A2 iron and improved chip breaker from L-N in a Stanley #4C and it is like a new plane, that chip breaker is worth every dime too. I have A2 in all my L-N’s and I like it. It is harder to sharpen, but it sure holds an edge. So, in a nutshell I like the A2 a lot.
I haven't done anything remotely resembling a controlled, objective test, but my experience is that A2 plane blades seem to stay sharp for a long, long time.
-Steve
Dan,
I purchased a Hock high carbon blade after I had heard of the vast improvement they made. The Hock blade I got may not have been a representative of all of them, but it was in no way better than the Stanley blades that came with my tools ( some pre war and the others late 70's early 80's vintage). This led me to have some irons made from A-2 before they were readily available commercially. The difference was night and day. The A-2 while being no more difficult to sharpen, stayed sharper far longer. I did not notice the A-2 being any sharper, which I thought might be the case with its supposed finer grain structure. I did notice that the cyro treatment now offered on commercial blades did not result in any noticeable improvement; in fact on a couple of LN tools so treated, I had to grind about 1/16" off the factory edge before I got back to "good" steel. Whether this was from the cyro treatment or some other factor, I do not know.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
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