Thread: Australian timbers and tool steels

Many moons later, I got three irons in the mail yesterday. I have a disorganized mind today, so we'll go with bullet points:

The irons are two types:
* one painted green iron that's about a tenth of an inch thick (that's the claim, I think it's actually less, but that's OK with me) with the HSS bit brazed on. $12 US with shipping on aliexpress
*two 3mm thick, one solid piece (not paint on them). Same seller on aliexpress, the iron is actually cheaper than the brazed iron. $10 or $11 or something of that sort.

Both types of irons are 51mm.

I prepared one of the solid irons and also the painted iron that's brazed (10 minutes combined for both - my process is probably less laborious than most):

The painted-green brazed iron:

• had lacquer on the blade, but prepared relatively easily otherwise. Maybe wouldn't to a beginner as it's not optically flat. I only work the back of an iron enough to get a clear eighth or so so that the cap iron is bedded well.
• Sandpaper lap removed the lacquer and the feel after the lacquer is gone suggests it's HSS (which it claims to be) and relatively hard (claim is 61-63).
• Finished prepping the iron and honed an initial edge on it with a 1k diamond hone and a japanese suita - total time of five minutes (the finish stone isn't important. I prefer natural stones, but it's HSS - I'm sure it'll get along with any kind of finish stone that will polish it).
• Iron works well. Durability and quality of the edge in use during the dullness cycle to be determined this weekend, but it takes a fine edge quickly. I didn't try, but I'm sure it would grind by hand quickly on a norton crystolon stone, and at the same time, be a real pain with the medium and slightly coarser waterstones that some of the retailers suggest people use to work the primary bevel (this is bad advce).

The iron that wasn't painted (3mm thick):

• flatter than the green one, prepared relatively easily. The milling marks on them show that the whole iron was flattened on some kind of power machine, and the marks look prominent, but they're not that deep. No lacquer (good!).
• the slot is a tiny amount too narrow for the stanley adjuster, so I will try it later on an LN bronze 4 (suspect the same will be true there, and i will need to perform the relatively arduous task of widening the slot of a hardened HSS iron with a diamond card. Yuck)
• The iron is too thick for a stanley cap iron screw. You can only just get the screw to grab the cap, but it's a task - not practical. Again, points to the LN 4 as a landing point.
• Durability also to be determined, but the stones suggest the iron is also HSS as claimed and relatively hard

I don't love the A2 iron in the LN smoother i have. It's a good iron, but it doesn't tolerate the washita whereas HSS generally does. I really have no need for any of the irons above, but perhaps the ability to ditch the LN iron for one that doesn't have the same sharpening peculiarities on a washita stone is a blessing in disguise.

I think the non-painted iron is thick enough that it could actually be used in an infill build (there are some cosmetic hurdles there, but they could be overcome).

I doubt i'll have the time to do this any time soon, but perhaps at some point in the future, I'll be able to stroke test the HSS iron vs. LN's A2 and see if it adds any durability.