Blades for a couple of old No4 hand planes?

[blackbulldog]

Hi,
Just been given a couple of No4 planes. Both are complete except for blades.

Where is the best place to buy decent blades from?

Cheers.

 

[Fitzroy]

You may be missing the most valuable part! I replaced a worn out iron on my No4 a few years back. I could get a new stanley from amazon or a secondhand from ebay for the same price, about £10. I decided to treat the plane and bought a quasheng (spelling) from Workshop heaven for I think £25ish and it's lovely, thicker than the original stanley by about a 1mm and seems to hold and edge better and cut smoother.

 

[thetyreman]

ashley isles make good replacement blades and they're not expensive either, I like hock blades a lot but they aren't cheap.

 

[Doug B]

Ray Iles sells replacement plane irons Replacement Plane Irons

or as has been mentioned there’s Hock which I also prefer Hock Replacement Blades & Chipbreakers - Shop by Brand - Classic Hand Tools Limited

 

[ps.harris80]

I use the ones Axminster sell, 3mm thick and about £8 a blade.

 

[BarbaraT]

Has anyone tried JAPANESE LAMINATED PLANE BLADES

I bought a cheap Faithfull No.7 Jointer Plane, It's driving me slightly loopy as the blade keeps chipping. Takes ages to resharpen and get the blade straight again.

I'm cutting elm, a few knots but I'm not hitting nails.

 

[worn thumbs]

Has anyone tried JAPANESE LAMINATED PLANE BLADES

I bought a cheap Faithfull No.7 Jointer Plane, It's driving me slightly loopy as the blade keeps chipping. Takes ages to resharpen and get the blade straight again.

I'm cutting elm, a few knots but I'm not hitting nails.

I'm fairly sure you would be better off with a standard Stanley replacement.

 

[niall Y]

I swapped to laminated blades well over 20 years ago. Axminster used to sell them under what I believe was the 'Samurai' label. I have been well pleased with their performance over the years. But, as with anything, would they be the same quality , or even from the same manufacturer now.

 

[Orraloon]

Has anyone tried JAPANESE LAMINATED PLANE BLADES

I bought a cheap Faithfull No.7 Jointer Plane, It's driving me slightly loopy as the blade keeps chipping. Takes ages to resharpen and get the blade straight again.

I'm cutting elm, a few knots but I'm not hitting nails.

 

[Orraloon]

I dont know the blades you are using but sometimes new blades are a bit too hard and brittle near the edge. Some Narex chisels suffered from this. Grind off the first mil or so then see how it goes. A steeper angle also makes the edge less likely to chip. Usual is 25* primary bevel then 30* secondary to get an edge but a couple degrees more is OK if thats what it takes.
Regards
John

 

[Max Power]

I use the ones Axminster sell, 3mm thick and about £8 a blade.

They look to be around a fiver at the moment.

 

[Max Power]

Has anyone tried JAPANESE LAMINATED PLANE BLADES

I bought a cheap Faithfull No.7 Jointer Plane, It's driving me slightly loopy as the blade keeps chipping. Takes ages to resharpen and get the blade straight again.

I'm cutting elm, a few knots but I'm not hitting nails.

There’s only 2” ones available though Barbara, they’re too narrow for a number 7

 

[RobNichols]

Has anyone tried JAPANESE LAMINATED PLANE BLADES

I bought a cheap Faithfull No.7 Jointer Plane, It's driving me slightly loopy as the blade keeps chipping. Takes ages to resharpen and get the blade straight again.

I'm cutting elm, a few knots but I'm not hitting nails.

I think you have a faulty blade. I have a Faithful No.7 that was my main jointer for about a year and worked a treat working on all sorts of hard woods. I think quality control is the issue with cheap planes. You often get good ones, but occassionaly get ones that shouldn't have got through quality control.

I'd suggest a Ray Iles 2 3/8 replacement blade or similar for the No. 7.

If it is a new plane, I'd suggest contacting the supplier and explaining the situation. You maybe able to return the plane as faulty.

 

[Adam W.]

Has anyone tried JAPANESE LAMINATED PLANE BLADES

I bought a cheap Faithfull No.7 Jointer Plane, It's driving me slightly loopy as the blade keeps chipping. Takes ages to resharpen and get the blade straight again.

I'm cutting elm, a few knots but I'm not hitting nails.

Interesting, elm should plane beautifully and not damage the iron, as it's quite soft.

 

[BarbaraT]

I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong when sharpening.. This is after about an hour of planning..

I checked the angle at 27 degrees so not a million miles away.. I bought the plane a while ago on amazon, I can see if they will return it, but it seems like a waste as I know a lot of the returns get binned.
And then what do I order, I could go out and buy something like a Lie-Nielsen but there £600, which seems like alot of money for a plane.

There is an interesting video on youtube comparing plane blades..

These erie blade seem to do remarkably well, I'm guessing it's the L238 - 2-3/8" wide blade that i need.. not sure though how this relates to a blade that 60mm wide..

I'm reluctant to buy a cheap blade from axminster and have the same issues again, or the oposite and have one that's too soft. I wondered about trying to anneal it, but I can't see how I can cool it down slowly and plunging it in oil or water might make it even harder..

 

[pgrbff]

I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong when sharpening.. This is after about an hour of planning..

I checked the angle at 27 degrees so not a million miles away.. I bought the plane a while ago on amazon, I can see if they will return it, but it seems like a waste as I know a lot of the returns get binned.
And then what do I order, I could go out and buy something like a Lie-Nielsen but there £600, which seems like alot of money for a plane.

There is an interesting video on youtube comparing plane blades..

These erie blade seem to do remarkably well, I'm guessing it's the L238 - 2-3/8" wide blade that i need.. not sure though how this relates to a blade that 60mm wide..

I'm reluctant to buy a cheap blade from axminster and have the same issues again, or the oposite and have one that's too soft. I wondered about trying to anneal it, but I can't see how I can cool it down slowly and plunging it in oil or water might make it even harder..


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Maybe you need to give that chipbreaker a rub on a stone to close up that gap as well. I like pmv11 blades but they are very expensive. I'm constantly reading that the older Stanley blades were much better, pre war and American sweetheart maybe.

 

[pgrbff]

Maybe you need to give that chipbreaker a rub on a stone to close up that gap as well. I like pmv11 blades but they are very expensive. I'm constantly reading that the older Stanley blades were much better, pre war and American sweetheart maybe.

I could have phrased that better. I am lucky to have some very nice planes going back to the 80's but I have never really used them that much until recently. Last week whilst using a no4 with the same style chipbreaker and a very tight mouth I found that the very small shavings were getting stuck in the tiny gap between the chipbreaker and the blade. I had to back the chipbreaker off, further from the tip of the blade to stop it from happening.
May I ask how you took the images?

 

[okeydokey]

I would go with the Ray Isles as suggested above it will be good and reliable - their other tools are

 

[BarbaraT]

I dont know the blades you are using but sometimes new blades are a bit too hard and brittle near the edge. Some Narex chisels suffered from this. Grind off the first mil or so then see how it goes. A steeper angle also makes the edge less likely to chip. Usual is 25* primary bevel then 30* secondary to get an edge but a couple degrees more is OK if thats what it takes.
Regards
John

I've cleaned up the chip breaker, but I'm not convinced that's the problem..

Just ground off the first 5mm.. I'll see if it gets any better..

If it chips again I'll either try a second cutting angle of 30 degrees Or more likely throw it through the windows as I'm sick of sharpening it..

I like pmv11 blades but they are very expensive. I'm constantly reading that the older Stanley blades were much better, pre war and American sweetheart maybe.

The rays isles do reasonably well in the big plane iron test.. Spreadsheet is here

I emailed lake erie and they have some blades that will fit that will be ready soon.. The pain is that they have a minimum order for UK customers of 130USD.. some rubbish about the import duty.

 

[worn thumbs]

Those excellent photographs are quite revealing.Am I the only one to be seeing what looks like an inserted piece of steel to form a cutting edge?There is plenty of room for improvement on the chipbreaker front,as has been mentioned and it will lead to a better plane.What it won't do is solve the chipping problem.Has any of the grinding led to a burning of the edge that was followed by a rapid quenching in water?
Were it mine and I had doubts about the nature of the steel,I could see two ways forward and neither would involve trans-Atlantic commerce.The basic architecture of the plane isn't too far off the mark-chipbreaker excepted-and it seems to be a case of overcoming the chipping issue.I would be quite prepared to normalise the iron and re-harden and temper as I don't think there is much to lose.It may help that I learned to do such things in the distant days when such stuff was part of the metalworking curriculum at school and I have found it useful since.Unlike the comedians on Forged in Fire I don't wear a kilt to work with hot metal and I temper when hardening has been done.
If that all seems a bit much then the sensible option might be to go to this page and use the personal plastic to get a reliable replacement : https://www.oldtoolstore.co.uk/benc...2-5-12-6-7-record-04-12-15-12-06-07-204-p.asp . Just sharpen carefully and see how it goes;I feel it will be the most practical way forward.