stanley no4 successful tuning?

[ali27]

I have been trying to tune my stanley no4. I could not
get decent shavings from maple. I just started toying with wood
a half year ago and have been getting all the info from internet.

I learned that for harder woods a higher cutting angle is better. So
I gave my blade a backbevel of 15 degrees. Tried it again and the results
were better, but I could not get long, wide shavings.

Tried to tune the frog. Flattened the sole, still not perfect, but much better
than before.

Tried tuning the chipbreaker. I noticed the chips would get stuck between the blade and the chipbreaker. Now there is no gap between the two. I also polished the upper side of the chip breaker.

The result is now much better. I can get very thin(fragile?) shaving and thicker(stronger) shavings.

I don't have much space, so therefore I am using this little work bench that won't sit still(it will lift) when I am planing. That makes planing very difficult.

I am glad with the result.

Ali

 

[jimi43]

Hi Ali

I thought I had my No.4 all tuned in ok until yesterday when I received in the post another consignment of 3M Micromesh from fleabay.

I had some older sheets before and an older Stanley honing jig but the Veritas II honing jig I bought at Axminster over the weekend needed a bit of a test drive so I hit the No.4 with that and Micromesh up to the full 12000 grit.

WOW is the only word. This is now a different animal! It just goes WHISH...that beautiful sound you get when you know the blade is just right...

I haven't got any maple in stock at the moment (unusually for me) but will try the No.4 out on some when I do....

Jim

 

[ali27]

Hi Ali

I thought I had my No.4 all tuned in ok until yesterday when I received in the post another consignment of 3M Micromesh from fleabay.

I had some older sheets before and an older Stanley honing jig but the Veritas II honing jig I bought at Axminster over the weekend needed a bit of a test drive so I hit the No.4 with that and Micromesh up to the full 12000 grit.

WOW is the only word. This is now a different animal! It just goes WHISH...that beautiful sound you get when you know the blade is just right...

I haven't got any maple in stock at the moment (unusually for me) but will try the No.4 out on some when I do....

Jim

COOL!

You have been able to make your blade very very sharp I guess.

Ali

 

[bugbear]

COOL!

You have been able to make your blade very very sharp I guess.

Ali

A sufficiently sharp blade and fine cut will overcome (almost) any other limitations in a plane... (should any be present)

BugBear

 

[dunbarhamlin]

Not something I'd have thought of using it for, since micromesh is (by design) slightly cushioned. I just use it for finishes, together with bare bone/ebony/metal.

 

[matthewwh]

Hi Ali,

I'm not sure if I can help much with the with the plane except to reiterate what others have said about the difference between nearly sharp and really sharp. I hone mine on 5 micron lapping film which I find acceptable for the vast majority of my work. In the case of a smoother I might go down to 1 or 0.3 micron just to queeze that last bit of performance out of the iron for the finishing cuts.

The bench is much easier, most of the small workbenches have a shelf underneath which can be loaded with sandbags or similar to keep it steady. A better option (although not always practical) is to scrw a foot to either end and then screw them to the floor.

 

[ali27]

COOL!

You have been able to make your blade very very sharp I guess.

Ali

A sufficiently sharp blade and fine cut will overcome (almost) any other limitations in a plane... (should any be present)

BugBear

I guess you are right. I am sharpening up to 8000 grit on my
NANIWA waterstones. I will probably buy another higher grit
stone for final polishing.

The 8000 gives a mirror finish, but I can see very very fine scratches.

Oh another thing is that, I don't feel a wire edge on the back bevel when I am sharpening the blade. Could this be because I gave the blade a 15 degree backbevel?

I checked the blade and the two edges meet perfectly(zero radius?), so that can't be it.

Ali