For the past eight or so years, the only low angle block plane I have owned is the LV low angle apron plane. Very sweet plane, but I decided I needed a standard low angle block plane for heavier work.
Today I received my new LV low angle block plane. With the plane was an info sheet that said LV now laps the back to +- 0.0002 inches and a roughness of 0.000005 inches. No typos, I checked.
So I took the back of the blade directly to my 8000 grit King waterstone. In thirty seconds of honing, the back developed a uniform shininess that enabled me to see the reflection of the fluorescent lights in my shop in daylight.
Another two minutes and I could see the light bulb and light fixture clearly in the blade. Not perfectly mirror clear, but darn close and very uniform.
Ten seconds with the “ruler trick” and I had a 1/64″ or so of back bevel that was perfectly mirror clear and uniform across the back.
Put the blade in my LV Mk I honing jig, set the blade at 25 degrees, and added 1 degree with the elliptical micro adjuster and in five or six stroked on the same 8k grit stone had a perfect mirror micro bevel of 1/128 or so across the blade.
Total time, including wiping the black swath off the water stone, flattening the stone twice on 600 grit wet sandpaper, charging the nagura, wiping the blade to inspect it, jig setup etc., etc, less than twenty minutes. When I honed the apron plane it took almost two hours if memory serves me right, and that blade is half the size of the this one.
I’m impressed.
Chris
Replies
Why do the ruler trick if the back was flat? I recently got a LV replacement iron for a Stanley 9 1/2 and was impressed with how flat the back was too.
You have gone completely overboard, dear chap. As already stated , no need for the back bevel: you could have merely taken a few passes over your finest stone to confirm that the back was flat (enough) and that would account for about 10 seconds.
Absolutely no need to "shine up" the bevel at 25 degrees, so allow another 30 seconds to locate jig, install blade in honing jig at say 30 degrees and a further 90 seconds to produce and remove a burr a couple of times , round off the corners a bit, and wipe off. (Don't forget a quick stropping on left palm).
Say 3 minutes , to be generous, 5 minutes if a hint of camber is required.
The again, if one enjoys the process, why not make it 2 hours?
Seriously, I have received and prepared something like 35 virginal L/N blades which have been ground using their new equipment and confirm that only minimal further attention is required to get them ultra sharp.
Followers of the Taliban would ofcourse perform a few stroppings using the back of the neck and "have at" it without further poncing about, but I refer to those followers who are of a relatively flexible mind set and have recently acknowledged the existence of bevel up planes.
Chris-enjoy working with that plane.
Philip Marcou
Edited 8/20/2008 6:12 am by philip
I'm assuming that your post is a parody. I definitely laughed, so I hope you meant it as a joke and a jab at all the frustrated machinists who have taken up woodworking for some reason.
There was, and actually continues to be, a whole lot of superb woodworking that takes place with wooden planes that would move more than the tolerances you mentioned if you happened to exhale on them. Hell, I'm not so sure a metal plane wouldn't either. Two ten-thousandths of an inch? Jeez Louise.
Edited 8/20/2008 9:57 am ET by BossCrunk
Charles,
Parody or not, you have failed to grasp a couple of points: 1)the specs quoted relate to the degree of flatness and the surface quality of the item ground (blade)- things that need to be controlled when manufacturing . Neither of them are a big deal in engineering terms but
2)they mean that the end user is able to prepare that blade very easily with minimal work in a very short time.For those who attach much importance to a tool that works "right out of the box" that is about as close as it gets.
But I thought you thought that F&S was joking-so what is the connection between wood , planes and 2 microns?Philip Marcou
True.
Edited 8/21/2008 6:15 am ET by BossCrunk
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