Good day, and thanks in advance for you time.
I will shortly be making myself a run of bench planes. I have a question concerning chipbreakers, and your opinion on the differences I have read about.
As Iv’e read, the chipbreakers duty is to decrease the rake angle and give a good surface for the chips to curl out at. Also, it helps be “beefing up” the blade for chatter control.
My question: Would I need a chip breaker if the blades were bedded at a 60 degree angle and I used the thickest irons I could find? I would like to make my planes without the cross bar and instead with a wedge cutout with space for chip clearance such as seen about on older planes. Have you any opinion on this design and this plane angle? ( does it only work on very hard woods -ext)
I own only one bench plane, a bailey 4. Thank you. adam
Replies
Hi Adam,
All the old coffin style smoothers made of wood that I own are bedded with the blade around 50 degrees. And in each, without exception, they use a chipbreaker to go with the massive tapered irons they used back then. No wedge pin, but a cutout like you mention and always a cap iron. I do think it serves a useful purpose holding the blade flat at that or even a standard 45 degree angle. Best of luck. Gary
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