I bought a new (old) plane, and found some strange damage.

[MikeG.]

I bought myself a 5 1/2, in need of a little TLC. As an aside, it had just about the worst possible blade sharpening I have ever seen, being just a little out of square:

.......and having a huge back bevel. This was 3 or 4 mm wide at the widest part, and was approx the same angle on the back (or front) of the blade as the proper bevel was on the front (or back ):

But never mind that. I sorted that out OK. But when it came to cleaning up the sole, I found these lines. They're not from planing, so I can only imagine that they come from someone's clumsy attempt to flatten the sole, or something like that. Does anyone have any ideas as to the cause? (This is the "after" photo, BTW!!)

 

[D_W]

they could just be an etch or from a past corrosion issue, now long since removed with cleanup. It would be easier to etch something like that (for example, if something dripped down the sole when the plane was held vertically) than it would be to create such an exact wear pattern.)

I had that very thing happen last year - a container stored above my infill planes let go and dribbled down three. Thankfully, I spotted it quickly and the damage was minimal, but if it had been unnoticed, it wouldn't have been so minimal.

 

[Bodgers]

I bought myself a 5 1/2, in need of a little TLC. As an aside, it had just about the worst possible blade sharpening I have ever seen, being just a little out of square:

.......and having a huge back bevel. This was 3 or 4 mm wide at the widest part, and was approx the same angle on the back (or front) of the blade as the proper bevel was on the front (or back ):

But never mind that. I sorted that out OK. But when it came to cleaning up the sole, I found these lines. They're not from planing, so I can only imagine that they come from someone's clumsy attempt to flatten the sole, or something like that. Does anyone have any ideas as to the cause? (This is the "after" photo, BTW!!)

I have bought two old planes now and both had badly out of square blades with terrible attempts at sharpening.

It always makes me laugh when you see pros saying to free hand sharpen as out there in the real world it seems people need to use jigs.




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[MikeG.]

Getting slowly out of square was why I swapped away from freehand sharpening in the first place. But the back bevel! Oh boy. Not for a second can I even begin to imagine why anyone should put almost as big a bevel on the back as they have on the front.

 

[MikeG.]

they could just be an etch or from a past corrosion issue, now long since removed with cleanup........

Yes, you're probably right, D_W. I've got some kitchen roll soaked in vinegar lying over the sole at the moment, and I'll top it up through the day. That should get rid of the marks.

Weirdly, and you'll like this, despite the horrendous sharpening of the iron, the cap iron had been well prepared, with the underside "sharpened" (undercut), and the top rounded over nicely. With the blade so far out of square there is no way anyone could have got the cap iron tight to the cutting edge, so that may have been just a hang-over from an earlier owner.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It always makes me laugh when you see pros saying to free hand sharpen as out there in the real world it seems people need to use jigs.

How would a jig have stopped someone grinding both sides and grinding out of square? :?

 

[MikeG.]

It's not been ground out of square, it's been sharpened that way on a stone. There was a convex "bevel", with quite coarse marks, showing it was sharpened freehand on a stone. The out-of-squareness was likely just an accumulation of doing it slightly wrong time after time.

 

[Tasky]

How would a jig have stopped someone grinding both sides and grinding out of square? :?

Assuming a decent jig and the sharpener not leaning heavily to one side, it would dramatically lessen the chance of being out of square. I had to use one to square up my No 5 blade when I got it - It was very nicely sharpened, just not square, which makes me think there was perhaps some reason why it was purposely skewed...

 

[Ttrees]

Those lines don't look clumsy, it looks like someone seen that the plane casting was a little on the light side, and
not lapped it on a wider abrasive than the plane is....
which would have been clumsy, as that would have introduced convexity.
If this occurrence happens badly on a wide plane, it could prevent you from taking a fine shaving/interferes with a cap iron set for influence with a fine shaving, as in... that is how little of a camber you need for it to work.

In other words you could take a really fine shaving with a larger camber that can't have the cap iron set, but if the iron is nearly straight
with a barely noticeable hint of camber for the cap iron to work,
on a light setting... it would appear to have a concave honed iron in the plane, so you would be only cutting on each edge.

I doubt the iron is parallel enough to put a square against it, as all the planes I've seen have tapered width to them DAMHIK
I don't mean tapered in thickness.

Tom

 

[MikeG.]

........it would appear to have a concave honed iron in the plane...........

......... There was a convex "bevel", with quite coarse marks, showing it was sharpened freehand on a stone. ..........

 

[MikeG.]

.............I doubt the iron is parallel enough to put a square against it, as all the planes I've seen have tapered width to them........

 

[MikeG.]

Those lines don't look clumsy, it looks like someone seen that the plane casting was a little on the light side

No, the casting is great. Way thicker than my number 4. Not light in the least.

not lapped it on a wider abrasive than the plane is....which would have been clumsy, as that would have introduced convexity.

No it wouldn't.

 

[Ttrees]

Guessing this was done to your iron afterwards, is there any evidence?
I done the same when I used a honing guide, as getting the iron near square was difficult.
Tom

 

[t8hants]

I have a plane with not dissimilar marks in the sole which were caused by it sitting on wet corrugated cardboard for a awhile.

 

[MikeG.]

Guessing this was done to your iron afterwards, is there any evidence?
I done the same when I used a honing guide, as getting the iron near square was difficult.
Tom

I'm sorry, I don't know what you're asking. Could you re-phrase the question, please.

 

[MikeG.]

I have a plane with not dissimilar marks in the sole which were caused by it sitting on wet corrugated cardboard for a awhile.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a variation on this theme.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

........it would appear to have a concave honed iron in the plane...........

......... There was a convex "bevel", with quite coarse marks, showing it was sharpened freehand on a stone. ..........

Concave meaning side to side? or hollow ground?

 

[MikeG.]

........it would appear to have a concave honed iron in the plane...........

......... There was a convex "bevel", with quite coarse marks, showing it was sharpened freehand on a stone. ..........

Concave meaning side to side? or hollow ground?

Goodness knows, but it couldn't have been more cambered (plan view) and convex (section through the bevel). The sole of the plane was flat, too. It din't need lapping for flatness, but did to remove some pitting.

 

[Ttrees]

No probs,
On a lot of the irons that I have come across, (not checked since I've stopped using the honing guide) they have been tapered in width.
I didn't notice this, until I was having problems trying to get a near square hone.
You can see evidence of the foundry marks, a bit of roughness/not clean edge on the edges on most irons I have, maybe not some as I use them for scrapers very very seldom,
for bandsaw tires I need a rigid scraper for instance, so I gave an edge a rough honing.

Tom

 

[Ttrees]

Guessing this was done to your iron afterwards, is there any evidence?
I done the same when I used a honing guide, as getting the iron near square was difficult.
Tom

I'm sorry, I don't know what you're asking. Could you re-phrase the question, please.

No probs,
On a lot of the irons that I have come across, (not checked since I've stopped using the honing guide) they have been tapered in width.
I didn't notice this, until I was having problems trying to get a near square hone.
You can see evidence of the foundry marks, a bit of roughness/not clean edge on the edges on most irons I have, maybe not some as I use them for scrapers very very seldom,
for bandsaw tires I need a rigid scraper for instance, so I gave an edge a rough honing.

Tom