planemaker's floats

3/6/07, 3:49 PM #1

John H. in Baltimore
Guest

planemaker's floats

John H. in Baltimore

>Hi all.

I'm making a planemaker's bed float with 1/8" thick tool steel. In all the examples I've seen, the rake angle (front-of-tooth angle) is zero degrees. However, I'm not too sure I should follow my saw filing practice. This is because a 60 degrees back-of-tooth angle seems too steep for 1/8" thick material.

Does anyone know what back-of-tooth angle LN uses for their 1/8" floats? I recall seeing an antique that used a back-of-tooth angles that seemed to be on the order of 20 degrees (however, my eyes may have been mistaken).

Since filing shallower back-of-tooth angles is a departure from 60 degree gullets, I'm not sure my saw sharpening skills will help me much here. Any suggestions for doing this would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Re: planemaker's floats

3/6/07, 8:10 PM #2

dave brown
Guest

Re: planemaker's floats

dave brown

>Look at their site. They list their specs.

Re: planemaker's floats

3/6/07, 9:36 PM #3

John H. in Baltimore
Guest

Re: planemaker's floats

John H. in Baltimore

>I hear you . . . but the specs only confuse me.

The LN website states 80� rake angles. The sharpening instructions state "80� to the face of the float." (what is the face of the float?) Also, the instructions state the 80� angle "allows the first tooth to be used as a scraper."

I'm used to rake being used to describe how much the cutting edge of a saw tooth is sloped backwards from perpendicular. For example, an agressive rip saw or dovetail saw may have a 0� rake angle, while many other saws have a 15� rake angle.

This high number seems odd to me. Am I losing it?

Re: planemaker's floats

3/6/07, 9:41 PM #4

Paul Kierstead
Guest

As a guess ...

Paul Kierstead

>I'd say that 80 degrees is 10 degrees of rake. Just a guess, though.

planemaker's floats

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