Hi Folks

I thought a new thread for pics, thoughts and reviews as they come to hand might be in order.

I received my box today (Cheers DJ) all tightly packed with some foam beans for good measure, though I'd say all they did was protect the Postie from the blades rather than the blades from the postie.
Initial reaction is the grind is much nicer than I expected.. very, very nice!
as far as I can tell they are all spot on 3mm and flat.

Really.. the grinding is good I think Thumbsucker did well not to hold the man to a low quote and keep him on side.

My blades came without bevel as requested so I have done nothing but take stock of the planes that are going to receivce blades and install them to check compatibility. All I can really share at the moment is a little plane porn and a few comments on depth adjusters and mouths.

The line up is as follows..
Stanley 8
Stanly 7
Stanly 6
Union 5A (5 1/2)
V&B 5
Stanley 4 1/2C
V&B 4 1/2
2 x No4's




All planes are US models, SW era or earlier. a few are my regular users and a few are still awaiting a clean up and will replace some english planes that I offloaded a while ago.

the Union is the only plane that will NOT require the mouth to be opened a little. I'm not sure I want to file open the V&B's so I might put them back on the shelf... I did expect this though, when 3mm was decided apon I had a look at a few of my planes and thought we might be pushing it a little. But hey, they are users and the amount I'm going to have to open the mouths is very minimal.. I may have to go a bit nuts to get something akin to a scrub but I'll hack up a junker if I want to play that game with these blades.

All the depth adjusters make it through the blade and work fine with cap irons.. I think for round 2 we could stand to tighten that slot a little as every plane on the line up has plenty of slop.. I think that's simply down to the caps making contact with only the very top of the adjusters and they are tapered. But again.. small price to pay and if you use Stanley planes you are used to sloppy depth adjustment anyway so it wont ruin your day.
I pulled out some planes from the website and did a few test fits.
I tried.. a Carter 5, a Turner 4 1/2, a Sargent 242 (horseshoe), a Falcon 6, and a Record 3.
All will need their mouths opened just a tad.
All adjustments worked fine bar the record.. it's a late model and the depth adjustment didn't make it through the blade (but then it's not great with the original blade either) Earlier Records with solid adjustment yolks may be fine.
Only other note was that for a couple of planes the cap irons will need to be shortened.. but that's a good thing!! easy to take steel away but hard to put it back on!

Laterals worked well on every plane I tried.




It will be a while before I get the chance to grind them all, add screws, tap the holes etc.. but then I'm hardly getting a lot of woodwork done atm anyway what with work, kids and a sub zero workshop.

I'm hoping to at least grind a 4 tomorrow (I hope) and try it out, I'll just have to forgo the depth adjustment and tap the plane bacause the cap screw will be awol.

These things are Big, Thick, Hard and HEAVY! first impressions are great

I look forward to hearing what others think.. I expect those who ordered theirs with a bevel will already be aimlesly planing away perfectly good wood just for the fun of it

__________________
Best regards, Luban

Slow, with all humility they look great.

Dj will post out your cap screws asap.

Can you be more exact. How much would you tighten then up, 1, 2, or 3 mm. We can edit the CAD files, before we start the second run.

The second batch is going the bigger then Ben Hur now that we have proven that we could do it and that we could deliver a working product.

They look great. but Yes, I do recall saying that the slot would need to be narrower.

Call me odd, but I won't be opening any of the mouths on my planes, so mine may be up for grabs if they dont work in my planes ok.

It is not the end of the world, it will still work fine, it was always going to be some uncertainty on the first run. We can tighten up some the specifications and it can only get better.

No Humility needed Helmut!.. they are Stunning!
All of a sudden my rag tag fleet of planes looks like a set.
I'm going to save jumping up and down abou how good they are too much until I get them in and running.. but I have no doubt that they will blow anything in my shop out of the water.

umm.. nope but I'll get back to you with a better idea when I have them fitted.
Once I have one of each size ground and ready to go I'll put one in every plane in the shed.. should cover about every base.
Perhaps I should fill a slot with solder and open it up until it works on most planes.



I don't doubt it.. Bang for buck they'll be hard to beat.

__________________
Best regards, Luban

On a Visual note.. Don't those Tombstone tops look great.
Looking at the photos I'm thinking the caps look good darker than the blades.. I dropped onto a gun store last year and picked up a bottle of gun blue.. starting to think I might blue the caps when I have them shaped.. been looking for an excuse to try it out.

__________________
Best regards, Luban

Looking at the photos I can see what you mean, we could make them almost 1/3 narrower. Solder will work fine.

Ditto.

Nice line up there Luban

For future orders, may I suggest that in regards to cap irons, they all have the bevel either ground or milled and thread tapped. The cost of getting this service done is pretty small compared to the total of the order and it only adds to the logistics of getting things done if you opt out.

As we have already discovered, Slow6 and thumbsucker do not have their cap screws as I was under the impression they weren't included as they had opted out of getting threads tapped and cap irons ground even thought it wasn't actually an option to have them done or not. Nevertheless they will get their cap screws as I will post them in the morning

I agree in future orders we will have fewer options.

But we will make blades and cap irons for No. 2, to No 11, and some block plane blades.

Hi Folks.

I nicked out to a very messy workshop today and with grinder awol put a bevel on a number 3 blade using a linisher and honed it on a stone.. just a stone! a fine stone.. I dunno.. it's a just a stone

The blade is Hard!. but not too bad to grind, a little slow but it's not bad.. takes an edge fine.. I didn't use a guide or a jig and I don't know what grit I went to and my arm hair is far too pretty to leave on the workshop floor.. so really I can't say anything other than I sharpened it.. but I'm sure it could be sharpererer!

I found a 5 1/4 with a hairline crack in the mouth and chip in the heel.. beauty! I can hack away at that with a file without offending anyone
Just so we all are clear here.. the mouth is cracked but fine.. nothing that will effect performance.. I ran the plane over some 240 to check for flatness.. it's not!!.. and I was in a rush and don't really fancy lapping a junker for an hour and a half.. so.... yep... it's a banana
Oh.. and it's got lots of nasty pitting too



As I suspected The blade made contact with the mouth JUST as it started to cut, no problem. plane in the vice a few passes with one of those panel beaters rasp/float jobbies and not only was it about right it got rid of the rough edge on the Stanley casting. With the blade in the lateral is as good as any Stanley blade and the depth is fine.. lots of play but nothing that I would even notice if I wasn't thinking about it.. maybe there's two turns on a Stanley blade and three on these.. for me, it won't ever be an issue.

My caps aren't tapped yet so.. on with the old Stanley cap, find some handles for the plane and away we go.



Random scrap from under the bench.. as follows

First Up.. Blackwood..



Then a bit of Rosewood..



A bit of figured Myrtle..



Some knotty Walnut..



Last up some "SplittyBox".. actually my name for this stuff is far ruder, hellish stuff to work without tearing.



No dramas at all.. the SplittyBox was close to tear free but I have no doubt once I have these blades in a 7 and a good heavy 4 1/2 we'll get that sorted. a junior Jack is not really the weapon of choice here.
All the other timbers I'd be happy to put a finish on with no further smoothing, scraping, sanding.

Looks good to me.. Can't wait to get them in some decent planes, even with the junker and old cap iron there were no problems.. like a hot knife through butter.

Helmut.. you should be very proud! for a lot of people these blades are going to make a HUGE difference.. esp to those who have only ever used stock Stanley blades.. these things are not even in the same league.

For those with concerns about opening the mouths of your planes.. Believe me I KNOW!! it's going to take some deep breaths and a steady hand but the amount you need to open them if any is minimal.. really minimal.
I also suspect that with a bevel on the blade you may be able to sneak the frog back on the earlier stanleys without the rib under the frog and avoid the file altogether.

That said.. the sheer heft of these blades are pretty awsome.. even without the cap iron, I think we could consider going back to a 3mm sheet as our starting point now that we have seen first hand how little is lost to warping.

__________________
Best regards, Luban

Good write up dude

Your Cap Screws were posted this morning so hopefully they'll be there tomorrow if AP send them in the same time frame as the blades

I am getting very itchy to get my two blades. I am actually getting a excited, can assume that I am not the only one.

I got a Type 13 No. 6 from Slow6, minus, tote, knob, blade and cap iron. I spent some time today, making a new tote today out of Elm and will turn knob tomorrow. Hopeful the blades will turn up in the morning.

I will post photos by the days end.

Thanks DJ I hope my last pm made sense. didn't offend etc etc

Can't thank you ebough for all the work you have put into this order.. I hope everyone is aware that you are not even a plane nut!.. I think I had to talk you into buying a second blade!

The effort is greatly appreciated at this end.

__________________
Best regards, Luban

Nup didn't offend, still yet to work out details and coffee is fine by me too

Talk me into it I thought it was more like twist my arm wasn't it

Mine turned up last night, thanks to DJ and Helmut.

I think they look great and I will start the testing process tonight!

In the meantime, I blogged some thoughts on this whole process of consumers deciding to take the unsatisfactory cost/supply situatin into their own hands (and how it takes a virtual community like the Forums to achieve this)

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Cheers

Jeremy
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly