Replacement plane iron

[nellist]

I have a 4 1\2 Stnley smooth plane,which is the best replacement blade,the one that will fit without too much adjustment to the plane body.clifton,Hock,nielson or the Japanese lminated blades.

 

[GCR]

I use a Japanese laminated in my Record plane and I must say it works very well. Keeps a sharp edge mush longer than the original alloy steel blade and it fitted without modifications because it is the same thickness as the original.

Bob

 

[jonbikebod]

Lie-Nielson make replacement blades in Cyro A2 which are 95 thou thick – thicker than the original but will usually fit without modification to the yoke. Hock make a similar product and also do it in O1 high carbon steel. The Clifton is thicker again and tends to need some modifications. I suggest you shop around on price; the Japanese laminated blades can be expensive and do require a lot of work on the back to flatten. They are also the thinnest of those considered here and therefore slightly more chatter prone.
Jon.

 

[woodbloke]

I'd suggest you be a bit careful with the LN blades as some are only designed to fit LN planes as the rectangular slot is in the wrong place for a Stanley or Record plane, as I found to my cost There are LN blades available for Records etc but they may be tricky to find. I would either fit a Hock blade or one of the excellent Clifton blades from CHT. The problem then is that the 'Y' lever or yoke will not then engage fully on the leading edge of the rectangular slot as some of these replacement blades are much thicker than the originals - Rob

 

[Smudger]

How about Ray Iles?

 

[jonbikebod]

Woodbloke, I think the slot you are referring to is in the cap iron/chip breaker. If the existing cap iron is used the only issue is the reach of the top peg of the yoke due to the increased thickness of the iron.
I find the Hock chipbreaker to fit well and is the the most solid of the lot.
Jon.

 

[bugbear]

I suggest you shop around on price; the Japanese laminated blades can be expensive and do require a lot of work on the back to flatten.

I think the APTC Japanese blade is towards the low end of the scale, at 26.79 inc vat.

APTC have Clifton @ 34.49

I was going to check the price of the "other" laminated blades at Craftman's Choice (DC's favourite place).

But the website is gone! A little googling and messing with the wayback machine revealed that they were part of the "Thanet tool supplies" group, but this now appears to be just a Toolbank outlet.

Anyone know more? Anyway, moving on

Classic Hand Tools offer Ron Hock CS @ 32.50, A2 @ 37.50 and a Ray Isles D2 blade @ 26.50

Rutland appear to have the Lie Nielsen blade @ 25.95, but it's unclear if this is the Lie-Nielsen "fit" or the Record/Stanley "fit".

BugBear

 

[woodbloke]

Woodbloke, I think the slot you are referring to is in the cap iron/chip breaker. If the existing cap iron is used the only issue is the reach of the top peg of the yoke due to the increased thickness of the iron.
I find the Hock chipbreaker to fit well and is the the most solid of the lot.
Jon.

Jon - yes, of course you are quite correct, the slot is in the chipbreaker not the iron However there's a definite problem with the top of the 'Y' lever engaging on the slot with a thicker blade. I got round this by silver soldering a peice of gauge plate onto the top of the 'Y' lever. This can only be done if the 'Y' lever metal is cast iron (as in the old Records and Stanleys) if it's not then there are other strategies that can be done to get round it. Just don't try silver soldering on Clifton 'Y' levers that's all...they're made of cheese - Rob

 

[lurker]

I've thus far only used the orginal stanley blades ( and 60s 70s ones at that ), but want to try summat better.

The SWMBO is going to USA in September so I have a "mule".
As I can take advantage of the dollar thing, do you all agree a Hock would be bestest /cheapest ?

 

[woodbloke]

I used MrC's No. 5 at Yandles in April and that was fitted with a Hock iron...much impressed. Will be getting hold of one shortly to complete a plane project, 10% off in July if ordered from CHT - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

I got round this by silver soldering a peice of gauge plate onto the top of the 'Y' lever. This can only be done if the 'Y' lever metal is cast iron (as in the old Records and Stanleys) if it's not then there are other strategies that can be done to get round it. Just don't try silver soldering on Clifton 'Y' levers that's all...they're made of cheese

Here's Rob silver soldering my Record #05 'Y' lever

And the finished result

And the other method on a Clifton 'Y' lever

All done with metal rod and industrial superglue. Fits perfick

Of course, if you want to be posh you can do what Newt did and machine one from brass :shock:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[bugbear]

As I can take advantage of the dollar thing, do you all agree a Hock would be bestest /cheapest ?

You know, I've seen many people report great happiness with virtually whatever after market blade they're bought.

I've seen comparatively few side by side reviews of the after market blades.

I've come to a tentative conclusion that they're all MUCH better than the basic blades, but pretty much similar to each other.

So the logical conclusion is: buy the cheapest of them. My earlier post for has some googled current day UK pricing.

On the face of my searching today, a Ray Iles D2 blade is as cheap as anything, and at least as good, if Joel is to be believed

We first came across D2 as an alloy for plane irons in Ray Iles' infill plane. Ray has really pioneered D2 as an alloy in edge tools. We found that the edge retention exceeded A2 by a welcome measure, and of course way out-performed the standard carbon steel irons that we were used to. We also think we got a "sweeter" edge but that could be our imagination. D2 as an alloy is tougher than A2, and slightly more difficult to sharpen. However, we typically hollow grind everything and use Norton water stones for final sharpening with no real worries. We have found that D2 seems to not sharpen well on Shapton ceramic stones, but on regular Norton, Naniwa, Ice Bear, and King stones they hone up fine. We suggest a bevel angle of about 30 degrees.

Apols to the OP; all the prices I've quoted are for a 2" blade; you'll need a 2 3/8".

BugBear

 

[jonbikebod]

Just don't try silver soldering on Clifton 'Y' levers that's all...they're made of cheese - Rob

My solution to Clifton and late model Stanley etc was to file the top of inverted ‘Y’ off square and then drill down the centre with a M2.5 tapping drill. A stainless cap head screw is the inserted and loctited. This then needs the faces filing so it fits the slot in the chip breaker with minimum backlash (at that point anyway).
Jon.

 

[nellist]

I think the replacement blade is out then as I have no metalworking experience,if the Y lever wont reach.

 

[Karl]

Nellist - it will reach, just not with a Clifton iron.

The Hock, Samurai and Lie Nielsen (NOT their standard irons for their planes, but their replacement irons for Stanley/Record planes - see their website) irons will work fine. Been there.

Cheers

Karl

 

[nellist]

cheers Karl I think it will be a Hock.

 

[Joe]

I have two No. 6's - one with an A2 iron and one with a D2. I haven't done any kind of objective test but my feeling is that the edge on the D2 is the longer lasting.

Joel

 

[Harbo]

I have Ray Isles irons in my Norris A5 and Spiers Coffin planes - they are fine - hold a good edge.

Rod

 

[nellist]

Hock HC blade arrived this morning,featherlight shavings from my non fettled Stanley 4 1\2.Nearly as good as a cabinet scraper.

 

[bugbear]

Hock HC blade arrived this morning,featherlight shavings from my non fettled Stanley 4 1\2.Nearly as good as a cabinet scraper.

Good to know - thanks for posting.

BugBear