I recently bought a #7 Stanley thru e-bay. The plane needs tuned up but otherwise is in really good shape IMO, with the exception of the blade. Hence, I started flattening the back of the blade and found that is has a fair amount of pitting fairly close to the end. After a couple hours of sanding with little progress, I am beginning to wonder if I am better off buying a new blade. The only reason why I think it might still be worth the effort is that if I utilize the ruler trick, I think it will still give me a good edge.
Any thoughts?
“100 Years” — scribbled on the wall by a woodworker to remind him to do his best and as a warranty on his work — “If anything I make fails in the first hundred years, bring it back, and I’ll take care of it. After that, there will be a small charge. (Original purchaser only)”
Edited 2/9/2007 10:40 am by zombeerose
Replies
zombeerose,
If there is sufficient pitting, it is impossible to bring the face of the iron into a condition where honing the bevel results in a razor-sharp edge. There will be pits or other irregularities in the honed cutting edge.
If a reasonable amount of lapping the face does not get down to the bottom of the deepest pits, it's time for a new iron.
Rich
zombeerose,
All you care about is that the two facets of the cutting edge are free of pits. So, take a close look. However, replacement blades are reasonably priced, made of good steel, and are a little thicker. The thickness is a big advantage because it will reduce chatter, all other things being equal. (bending stiffness is proportional to the cube of the thickness, so a .093" blade is 70% stiffer than a .078" blade)
Good luck, Tom.
If the pitting is more than 1/8" from the end, don't worry about it. The shavings won't be in contact with that area for a long time unless you need to remove a lot of metal from the end due to really bad sharpening.
Thanks for all the feedback! I will check the blade closer and if any of the pitting is really close to the end, I'll be making a purchase soon. :)
"100 Years" -- scribbled on the wall by a woodworker to remind him to do his best and as a warranty on his work -- "If anything I make fails in the first hundred years, bring it back, and I'll take care of it. After that, there will be a small charge. (Original purchaser only)"
Simply use David Charlesworth's "ruler trick."
That is, place a thin 6" ruler on one side of your fine stone and with the back of the blade down and the edge on the far side of the stone, hone the back. This will create a small micro bevel on the back.
Each time you home, do the same thing. It will create about a 2 degree micr bevel. Once created, just do this a couple strokes to remove the wire edge.
If ever a time comes in your life that the pitting is gone, resume not using the ruler trick.
Take care, Mike
Mike,
That would work! Good tip.
Rich
You are welcome--but we should both thank DC for popularizing it and making it easy with a steel rule.
I have used it on plane blades for some time, but by hand without the aid of something static in thickness like the ruler.
Take care, Mike
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