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  1. #1
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    Default bullnose plane iron

    I picked up a cheap 1" bullnose plane at a garage sale. Cheap because no iron. I've got a couple of well worn 2 1/2" irons that have been replaced on other planes, are they potential material for the bullnose iron? Anybody done it before?

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  3. #2
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    Perhaps not for your particular plane (make, type?), BB, but have made plenty of rebate plane blades, a couple from old plane blades & others from HSS blanks. You are limited as to how wide a blade you can coax out of an old iron because of the screw-slot, but you should be able to get what you need out of a 2 1/2" blade. Be aware that the hardening on old blades usually only extends to about the bottom of the screw slot, so make sure there's enough hardened remaining to serve the purpose. If you are a dab-hand at metal-treatment, that won't be a problem, of course. One advantage of using an old blade with softer metal at the non-cutting end is you can drill holes or make slots for adjustment mechanisms easily enough, but if your plane is a simple wedged type, that won't be an issue, either.

    I cut out the tangs with a 1mm cutoff wheel, & tidy up with the grinder & diamond files (for HSS, regular files if the metal is soft enough). It's pretty straightforward; cutting HSS presents few challenges as you are unlikely to get it hot enough to alter the temper unless you get very brutal with cutoff wheel or grinder. Cutting shapes out of typical old plane blades (HCS) requires more care, but if you clamp the old blade between two bits of straight 3/16' or 1/4" steel, it will serve both as a heat-sink & guide for the cutting wheel.

    This Dovetail plane I made a couple if years ago has a blade cut out of a piece of 1/8 x 1" x 8" HSS from McJings : D_T plane a.jpg

    It has a simple, hammer-adjusted blade, but for this bullnose job, I wanted a screw-adjuster, so I cut the blade out of an old worn-down 2 1/2" blade. Bullnose rebate plane Ring Gidgee infill.jpg

    Only about 3/4" of the business-end is properly hard, the rest of the blade is soft enough to file, which made filing the slots for the adjuster wheel a lot easier!

    So go at it...
    Cheers,
    IW

  4. #3
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    Thanks Ian, hardness testing by filing?

  5. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by burraboy View Post
    Thanks Ian, hardness testing by filing?
    Yep, if an ordinary file will cut it, the metal's too soft for a plane blade. I run an old file (that's still got some life in it) along the side of the blade to see how much hard steel is left. If the file skates over the bottom 10-15mm, you've got plenty to work with. The point at which it changes from the hardened section to non-hardened steel is usually very obvious.

    Given that rebate blades should last for generations with typical levels of use, it's always a source of wonder to me how many are missing in old planes. In my sporadic rust-hunts, I have seen at least a half dozen of the more common rebates like 78s with missing cutters. I guess their smaller size makes them easier to lose in the general clutter, but normally, a blade would only be removed to sharpen it, then returned to its plane immediately, so how come so many end up AWOL??

    Cheers,
    IW

  6. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by burraboy View Post
    I picked up a cheap 1" bullnose plane at a garage sale. Cheap because no iron. I've got a couple of well worn 2 1/2" irons that have been replaced on other planes, are they potential material for the bullnose iron? Anybody done it before?
    What is your ability to get flat stock to just file a blade out? The first iron I ever made was out of O1 for a slater bullnose (because someone gave me the plane and wedge for free). It is small enough that you can harden the iron with a single torch and no device to retain heat (like a can forge, etc).

    It took less than an hour to file a blade out of steel and it's been working wonderfully ever since. Life is easier with a small can forge (which can harden any iron you'll put in any plane with the use of a single mapp torch - the biggest I've done is a 1/4 thickness 2 5/8ths wide slab of O1 last year).

    It's just so much easier to take a piece of annealed tool steel and do this than it is to work with an unknown source.

  7. #6
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    Nah, I'm not set up for that sort of stuff. Trusty bench and angle grinders are about as far as I can go with metal shaping and I do have an old plane iron to use.

  8. #7
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    Working with annealed steel does make the shaping easier, as D.W. sez, and hardening a small object is pretty straightforward, but getting the right temper is what I struggle with. Using the oven is probably the most reliable, but it's hard to convince spouses that the kitchen is just another workshop.

    If you do want to start from scratch, I've bought gauge plate from these folks. It's oil-hardening steel and comes annealed, so it's easy to work with, and a 500 x 75mm sheet of 1/8" doesn't cost a fortune, but it's not dirt cheap, either, so unless you have a use for the other 90% after you've made your rebate blade, not a very economical solution. However, it is accurately ground and takes a good temper if you manage to get it right. I used up a couple of sheets making my infills, because it's much easier to start with accurately-sized stock than cleaning-up rolled mild steel. It's as easy to work with as mild steel, maybe even a bit better, it seemed to file a little bit better than mild steel.

    If you've got an old blade and it's still got enough hard stuff left at the business end, you may as well get some use out of it; waste not, want not. The angle-grinder & a 1mm wheel can have you a blade in no time. I always end up with a daggy bit in the corners of rebate blades, where the tang meets the back of the blade, courtesy of the circular wheel, but it's no big deal to tidy that up with a diamond file. The old A.G. is almost a precision tool in the right hands - I knew a bloke who used to cut keyways on shafting with his (freehand!), much to the disgust of his fitter brother. I think the brother was even more annoyed that Frank's keyways were amazingly neat & accurate!

    Cheers,
    IW

  9. #8
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    Sometimes this place can be where it's at. I have used it a few times in the past.
    https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/m.html?_...+iron&_sacat=0
    Regards
    John

  10. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanW View Post
    Working with annealed steel does make the shaping easier, as D.W. sez, and hardening a small object is pretty straightforward, but getting the right temper is what I struggle with. Using the oven is probably the most reliable, but it's hard to convince spouses that the kitchen is just another workshop.
    Since the OP doesn't want to delve into it, I'm not going to push. On the oven issue, there are two ways around it (apologies if this is sort of common knowledge). Use a vegetable oil that has little or no scent for your quench - I use peanut or soy, whatever you have in aus should be fine. then, it sort of smells like someone was cooking.

    A toolmaker on the american forums (george wilson), maybe the most prolific and precise maker I know, suggested using something other than a full size oven because of their inability to have accurate temperature control (and then as I found out from measuring mine, even if the oven is accurate, positions in it differ). George's suggestion was a toaster oven (something easily picked up at a yard sale) and one of those dial oven thermometers to confirm accuracy.

    I find it so much easier to work an annealed iron, and so much easier to do it neatly on top of that - that I rarely force the use of hardened anything at this point. I have been making marking knifes and shop utility knives out of junk (worn out files) now after buying a coffee can forge (actually, I used a single mapp torch and the coffee can forge and hardened a gigantic infill plane iron).

    I've found that premium stock for irons (like domestically made O1 rather than something that could just be from anywhere) has made finer and better irons than most of what I've purchased, even as premium irons. E.g., the hock O1 irons are not as good as shop made irons made from Precision's premium domestic stock. That is a US supplier, but I am sure there's something equivalent there.

    I think this is a good rabbit hole to explore for anyone who will want to do more than one iron (or who might be interested in making other things, too, like hollow ground utility knives that you can keep sharp on a buffer, etc). No metal work tools are needed other than a hacksaw and a file and a vise.

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