Re: ? from non-metalhead
ThomD
>The main reason not to harden the float is that there is a high probability it will warp when quenched. And the other main reason would be how hard it is to sharpen when hard.
Some seem to want to use floats as special purpose rasps, I think hardening would be usefull there, since if you are laying out 50 bucks to get a tool to make up for shortcomings of dovetails, then why would you want to have to maintain it by equally tricky filling?.
In my case I want to use them to precision mill awkward to reach wooden plane beds etc... where a bent float would not be useful. If I am not getting easy precision, I can just carry on as I have for 25+ years, using chisels.
Mild steel CAN be hardened just about to an ideal hardeness of 50 points on the RC scale. google "super quench" to read all about it.