Source for moulding plane blanks

[Oskar Sedell]

Hi all,

I´m trying to find a european source for tapered moulding plane blanks. I only know about the Lie-Nielsen ones, maybe there are others? Googling reveals nothing but the Lie Nielsen Homepage, and I´m trying to avoid shipping from the US. The other sources I have found are hyvlar.se in Sweden (out of stock, not answering), and Dictum in Germany (can order for me, but will take 4 months).

Maybe some of you fine woodworkers and tool makers know where I can find some?

I don´t have any grinding or sanding machines, so starting from O1 stock would be a lot of work.

Best regards,

Oskar

 

[D_W]

Oskar, if you have no other option, you can cut blanks from rectangular stock and draw file the taper onto them. It would probably take about 15 minutes to cut and file one (with a good hacksaw) and 15 or 20 minutes to draw file.

You only need a little bit of taper on a single iron to get the benefit.

Another option is to buy one of the inexpensive belt/disc sanders from a home store, stand the belt straight up and use the drum on the end for heavy removal when tapering, and then clean up your work with a draw file. That would be low effort. I taper mine on the platen, but am starting to realize how strong-cutting the point of contact is on the drum on those cheap sanders and will do it that way next time. to hold the irons, all you have to do is mortise a shallow channel in a piece of scrap wood (in the shape of a moulding blank) and tack the iron in temporarily with CA glue (and pop it out when you're done with a chisel or screwdriver).

Even though I can easily get the LN blanks here, I never have. I think buying them is cheating ourselves out of learning something basic in toolmaking, something that's useful later.

 

[matthewwh]

Hi Oscar,

You could try asking Phil Edwards (a founding member of this fine parish no less).

http://www.phillyplanes.co.uk/irons.html

 

[Oskar Sedell]

Hi Matthew,

thanks for the suggestion! I have bought Irons from Phil before, to great satisfaction. I haven´t asked him about tapered irons, mostly because he does not use them himself in his planes. Of course there might be other reasons for this. If I can´t get/make the irons I will ask him.

best,

Oskar

 

[Oskar Sedell]

David, thanks for your answer. Especially for gently kicking my butt to go all the way and make the irons I want. I should stop googling around and order som steel and files instead.

How much of a taper would you file, on say an iron from 1/8 stock? And also, do you have an opinion on a good tpi count for hacksaw blades for this purpose? I have to buy new blades for my hacksaw as well.

Best,

Oskar