Old plane steel

[Karl]

Hi all

How does the steel on older plane irons (ie pre WW2 stanley irons, rather than the thicker infill irons seen from Mathieson etc.) compare with that of newer irons?

I've been toying with the idea of buying a few old planes to use for rougher work, but don't like the idea of having to upgrade the blades on them all.

I missed out (due to my somewhat erratic broadband connection :evil: ) on a nice looking old Stanley 5 1/2 last night on e-bay - went for the princely sum of £2.70.

Cheers

Karl

 

[MIGNAL]

Some of it is very good. You'd be unlucky to get any poor iron unless it had been overheated.
I have a very good Acorn iron and a Stanley rule & level iron - both are as good as my Veritas or Ray Iles steel. Then again my Stanley blades that date from the 1970's and 80's aren't exactly poor steel. The edge may not last quite as long but it's fairly marginal IMO. At least I don't find it's the night and day issue some people seem to think it is.

 

[bugbear]

Some of it is very good. You'd be unlucky to get any poor iron unless it had been overheated.
I have a very good Acorn iron and a Stanley rule & level iron - both are as good as my Veritas or Ray Iles steel. Then again my Stanley blades that date from the 1970's and 80's aren't exactly poor steel. The edge may not last quite as long but it's fairly marginal IMO. At least I don't find it's the night and day issue some people seem to think it is.

I think you've been lucky - all the irons I've owned (which I maliciously sharpened, used, decided against and gave to willing recipients *) were distinctly cheese like.

On the plus side, they were easy to flatten, and ever-so quick to sharpen

BugBear

(*) power tool users!

 

[Ironballs]

I have a Record 5 1/2 that dates from some time around 1960, the blade on that is excellent

 

[Anonymous]

The older, laminated irons are very good. These are the older "Sweetheart" logo, V-logo, etc. blades. A very thin, very hard piece of steel is laminated to softer steel making sharpening very easy.
They will not hold an edge as long as modern A2 irons but are very adequate for most North American hardwoods.