Thread: Blade - what to do thoughts?

Thinner or shorter,... that is the question.

I would go thinner, but I would ask Peter first!

Originally Posted by Pac man

In rehabbing this Norris plane blade i have come to an impass. Is the only way forward with this one to grind back past the pitting? Feels a bit sacriligious. Its a user.

As the custodian of quite a few...my thoughts....grind it and use it.
Using the thing couldn't be any where near as bad as leaving it like it is !
I like to think about what an original (careful) owner would say to if you were able to ask him. (not the one that let it get to that state)
Pretty certain you would get a story about how much it cost, and how good it was to use, and more.
As Claw Hama said recently by in another post...wish these old planes could tell their own story.

I've some quite rare and beautiful planes in my collection, but only the very fragile, the brand new/unused ones, or those that just didn't work well, could all be sharpened up and used.

Regards,
Peter

edit: was typing whilst Toby was posting....I would probably just grind past the pitting, but thinner might be worth a try. Didn't think of that (I have a few spare Norris blades somewhere in a box of blades)

Thanks Gents. I wonder what a careful owner would have said to the previous owner?

I was thinking shorter. But will ponder going thinner.

I vote for neither. I put an ever so slight back bevel on a rotten blade a while ago, I was impressed with how much it improved the performance.....

Originally Posted by seanz

I vote for neither. I put an ever so slight back bevel on a rotten blade a while ago, I was impressed with how much it improved the performance.....

Life's too short... I am a ruler trick user as well for blades like this (and even a couple of chisels - which worked fine for general chopping, but I do have others)

I had a Sigma 220 stone tucked away that i thought i would experiment with. In the end it made light work of it. I also gave the blade a tickle with the dremel to assist in removing some of the steel. I went up through the grits on the waterstones and the surface looks pretty good.

I need to do a bit of work on the cap iron as it is nasty. I did flatten the edge so it mated with the blade well. I dropped the blade back in but am having difficulty setting the blade to protrude equally and getting a nice shaving. Any tips would be greatfully received.

That "rust" was not significant, as it turned out. For future, if one has a plane iron that looks like that but where the rust is an issue, this is a situation tailor-made for using the Ruler Trick - that very fine back bevel as described by David Charlesworth. It will not alter the cutting angle.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Many years ago I found a Mathieson badger plane with a heavy tapered skew blade, it had rusted behind the back-iron. The plane was beyond redemption, but the blade was so thick I ground it down to square with the sides to use in an unmarked brass infill smoother I was restoring. It was before I started to find parallel blades to suit, so used what I could. There was still a line of pitting following the original line of the cutting edge. I got to it with the belt sander and stones and thought I had it gone.
What I found was, although the pitting was gone, there was a spot on the blade corresponding with the rust line that sort of crumbled as I used the plane. Nothing was visible, as I had a nice polish on the back of the blade, but the rust had altered the structure of the steel deeper than I thought.
The ruler trick might have worked on that blade, but I tossed it and found another to use.
Pac man,
let us know if the blade had a good edge retention when it gets up to where the rust was??
Regards,
Peter

Originally Posted by Pac man

I dropped the blade back in but am having difficulty setting the blade to protrude equally and getting a nice shaving. Any tips would be greatfully received.

This might be the blind leading the [supply your own adjective] ... for side to side adjustment you can use a small hammer and tap-tap instead of using the adjuster for left & right ... and for projection I came up with this ...
Loosen the cap-bolt [a little] ... adjust with the adjuster screw until it is a bit shy of what you want ... then use the cap-bolt as a fine adjuster for getting a final depth. The more you tighten it (within reason), the deeper the blade. I found it makes quite a bit of difference ... several thou or more I'm guessing.
Cheers,
Paul

Originally Posted by Pac man

.............. I dropped the blade back in but am having difficulty setting the blade to protrude equally and getting a nice shaving. Any tips would be greatfully received.

Pac man
I'm assuming the plane has the famous Norris adjuster??

Loosen the lever screw slightly, set the depth and tighten it down....find it's too deep, loosen the lever... adjust the blade, tighten the lever again...still not right, its not square, loosen the lever, adjust the blade.... tighten the lever...still not right...go to the keyboard and type a description for eBay, praising the versatility of the Norris adjuster on your plane.

Plane-maker Wayne Anderson once said that if Norris had fitted headlights to planes, customers would ask him to put headlights on his planes.
Like him, I've never been a fan of the Norris adjuster...unless it is one like this.

Regards,
Peter

Originally Posted by lightwood

....Loosen the lever screw slightly, set the depth and tighten it down....find it's too deep, loosen the lever... adjust the blade, tighten the lever again...still not right, its not square, loosen the lever, adjust the blade.... tighten the lever...still not right...go to the keyboard and type a description for eBay, praising the versatility of the Norris adjuster on your plane.

Yep, been there! Having read the many glowing reports on the precision of Norris's patent adjuster, I wasted many minutes at a time & many expletives trying to get very fine adjustments with the 'proper' gadget. I was convinced it must be my clumsiness or bone-headedness that was the problem everyone else seemed to have no trouble at all. Eventually, I discovered the trick PMcGee mentioned, of setting the depth with the screw to just shy of cutting, then twitching the cap screw a bit until it cuts. We're not alone, I've since seen a couple of other people mentioning it.

Originally Posted by lightwood

.... I've never been a fan of the Norris adjuster...unless it is one like this.

Yeah, glad you didn't take out a patent, Peter, 'cos this is the adjuster I made for the infill I built...

Brass hammer ed.jpg


Cheers,

Thank you for all your replies and previous experiences on this learning curve.

I need to go back and grind the edge again as it was not square and not helping things.

Looks like i need to procure or manufacture a non patented norris adjuster adjuster to help with the setting.