Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Lee Valley vs. Hock irons
Bill Houghton, sunny Sebastopol, CA
>So...thinking about trying a replacement iron on my planes, starting with my No. 65. Lee Valley's irons are $8 cheaper than the Hock irons they carry, plus they're lapped flat. Are the Hock irons $8 better, and worth what I understand to be some time flattening them?
Flattening iron backs is hard work
Jim in Burlington On
>I have bought up quite a few LV irons since the lapped flat option came along. It usually takes me less than a 1/2 hour to get them into the plane. Why can't everyone flatten thier backs the same way?
Re: Flattening iron backs is hard work
ThomD
>I've had better luck with Hock blades, but things are changing. LV is doing that continuos improvement thing. Hock has a good product but hasn't changed much. Still prefer blue steel blades with convincing names like "Samurai" in my iron planes.
I guess if I was scared of hard work from flatening, I wouldn't be in the hand plane business (he says standing squarely in front of his 2x72 belt grinder).
Late repply...
Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA
>If the LV are flattened using their new equipment, I'd get the LV over the Hock. I have both irons and the new LV flatten/polish up super quick compaired to the time it takes to flatten/polish a Hock iron.