You need to make sure that your heat treater to going to process your irons in a controlled atmosphere furnace, otherwise the scaling and decarbing will result in you having to do a lot of work after you get them back to improve their appearance. Even in a controlled atmosphere furnace you will get a slight bit of distortion no matter what tool steel you use, so unless you have a surfacer grinder and are set up to do some flattening in an expeditious manner you’d be better off staying with the 0-1 steel. You’ll stand a much better chance of getting the backs flat a lot quicker and besides 0-1 is hard to beat for plane irons especially in the thicker steels.
Grind the bevel before you send them off for treatment but do not bring it all the way to sharp, the thin edge can take quite a bit of abuse from the heat, hence sometimes you don’t really get into the good metal of the irons till about the third or fourth honing.
Any corner rounding and other processing needs to be done before heat treating while the metal is in the annealed state. It will be quite hard afterwards and anything you do after the fact will take much longer and be much harder on your tools.
The typical hardness factor for plane irons is R60-R62 this is found to be the best compromise between hardness and toughness. Unless the heat treater knows a lot about planes don’t let him dictate the harness factor.
Ron Brese
If you’re too open minded your brains will fall out.
Edited 4/27/2007 2:02 pm ET by Ronaway
Replies
Metod,
0-1 is a much better choice in my opinion for 1/4" thick irons. You'll find as I have that a 1/4" thick iron held fast with a good heavy well matched lever cap feels more solid than a thinner blade and cap iron. The trick especially for planes designed at higher bed angles is to make sure the plane has enough mass to drive this combination. This has everything to do with how easy the plane is to use.
As far as peening goes it depends on how far you're trying to move the metal. The 360 alloy as a reputation for work hardening and becoming brittle, as far as the 260 goes I don't have any first hand experience.
I like simpler designs, I don't believe tools need gadgets to be good tools. In the case of infills I think the less excavation of the bed the better.
Based on what you described the heat treater seems to have the necessary equipment to do a proper job.
Ron Brese
I would use A2 at R/C 61-63.
Hi Metod,
I'd aim to HRC62, O1 is fine.
I paid USD7- per iron a month ago, a lot more cost efficient. Maybe ask the heat treater if they have a similarly sized job and you'd be prepared to wait a fortnight or so to have your irons treated with another small batch, can you split the costs?
Cheers,
eddie
Hello Metod, when you have finalised your anti lateral shift design let me have it so I can churn out a proto-type quickly....
Re your queries on those two brass alloys:
Alloy 360 is rated at 100perecent for machinability, and "good" as opposed to "excellent" for peening, riveting, threading and bending.
Alloy 260: as far as I know there is no such alloy, but there is alloy 270 which is rated " excellent" for peening , riveting, bending and 85 percent for machining.
If you are referring to Alloy C26000 this is rated "excellent" for peening etc and 30percent for machining (because it is soft and "picks up")Does not band saw nicely....
The above info comes from my brass catalogue from the supplier, plus my own findings. You are well advised to know what type of brass you are working with, in order to avoid grief later.
Who are the better US sources for tool steel and gauge plate steel?
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Metod,
I don't know how many plane irons you intend to make, but by the time it is all said and done you may find it more economical to write Ron a check for the size you need and be done with it. The iron isn't the only important part of a hand plane but it is the most important. You can build the best plane possible but if that iron isn't right, you have a bad plane.
When you consider acquiring the tool steel, the pre-heat treating shaping work, the cost of HT, and the after HT work, you have make a lot of irons to justify it all. And even then, are you sure of the content of the steel - that's to say is the steel certified or are you buying run-of-the-mill? There is a reason why Ron, Phillip, Steve, and others charge what they do. They've done all the leg work and research, and acquired the right materials.
I have 1/4 x 1-3/4 irons from Ron Brese and Steve Knight and they are a joy to use. Ron goes the extra mile with his irons and includes a nice brass button at the top of the iron which isn't just garnish, it's an important safety feature for a single iron plane. It keeps the iron from dropping through the mouth of the plane. But it also looks great.
Speaking of the 1/4 inch thick irons, one nice feature that is seldom mentioned is how easy they are to resharpen. The wide bevel makes it very easy for a novice like me to index the iron on the stone and keep it flat. With a thinner iron you have more tendency to round off the bevel when doing it by hand.
I'm sure I haven't told you anything you don't already know; just trying to muddy you water a little :-)
Don't forget to post pics of that new plane when finished.
Regards,
-Chuck
Thanks- I had seen McMaster-Carr in other threads but couldn't remember the name.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled