Rebitting plane irons?

Re: I have your disease, too...

ken ca

LOL, after I acquired maybe 20 infills, I collected all the stuff, steel plate, large chunks of aluminum for a form, a huge chunk of Lignum Vitae with the idea of making a dovetailed infill plane with adjuster. As it turned out my poor focus got directed to another project shortly after and that never happened - although it still could I doubt it will. My latest developing interest is metal casting and I can see a new rabbit hole developing.........

You're right as to the best way to make a user blade (I don't like the term "iron" I must admit, it's a damn blade), but I typically use my Keen Kutter "bedrocks" as users, the Norris planes are generally just for decoration although I do occasionally use an A2 or A6 just for fun. Their original full length blades may not be up to today's standard but they are good enough.

Cheers!

obsession with accommodation..

David Weaver

I like the old blades, too. I like pretty much anything except a blade that's overhard and chippy (easy enough to fix if the overhardness is causing the chipping).

I have this obsession with figuring out how to accommodate a tool (because Norris, Stanley, everyone else could've easily made hard irons if that was just a better thing - the alloy that they were using was probably just as clean as most commodity O1 made now, and the fineness of the original cast blades in terms of how they wear is finer).

when I first started, I didn't understand this - I thought if you put an iron in a guide and use a set of stones, whatever you get with that method is proof of one being better than another. It's not, however. It's just proof of differences attached to a given method.

Once I started learning to accommodate each type, I found that most of what I thought was kind of mediocre was spectacular when used properly. Now, I like the "mediocre" irons better than the spectacular and consider them to be a time savings for practical working (vs. contests of taking a million thin shavings).

Would still like to make another 20 infills at some point in the future, but it's like jones #4 behind several others. Chisels, guitars and wooden planes in the immediate future.

Re: obsession with accommodation..

ken ca

That's the problem when we get older......we have more money than time.