Thread: Homemade Plane Blades from M2 HSS for Wooden Planes

Thats all folks as the famous rabbit said

Derek and Pop take the last two blades. Derek I will try to get your blade ground to 25º before it is hardened. BobL will be doing the pickup for the Derek and Pop in January.

I really dislike finding these threads just after the fat lady sings

I am now short of blades with more people asking for one or more. I am willing to take a few more orders up until Sunday morning when I will confirm the exact prices. All I will have to do is to buy a little more D2 steel, the cost of the hardening and grinding may increase slightly because their is now more steel. It just means I have to put a little bit more of my own money upfront. However the cost per blade should remain reasonable stable.

Toolin, kman-oz, martrix, Groggy, Clinton and BobL have already committed to paying upfront which will is a great help.

I expect to have the blades ready by the end of this month November, and I will confirm all details and prices by Monday afternoon.

The tally in total stands at 20 blades:

Toolin x 2, kman-oz x 1, m2c1Iw x 1, BobL x 1 @ 30º + 1 @ 25º, Derek x 1 @ 25º, Pop x 1 @ 25º, Thumbsucker x 4, Groggy x 2 @ 30º + 2 @ 25º, Matrix x 2, Clinton x 2.

*Updated x 9 times *

Hi TS,

Could I have my blade ground at 25 degrees as well, if it is not too late to make the request of the supplier.

Am happy to pay up front as soon as you have the prices. Thanks in advance, appreciate your efforts. Just drop me a PM with your details when you're ready.

Oh yes, just out of interest TS, if you proceed with the 70mm D2 blades I would also be keen. Am thinking of a Japanese style woodie perhaps.

Hey there Bob. Thanks for the pickup mate. See you in 2008, owe you a cold one.

Cheers
Pops

Pop - no problem on either count.

Cheers mate, excellent, you're a gentleman. Pops

TS, I found this info very useful while researching knifes. Most of this applies well to plane irons too I suppose.

TS, put me down for another one (2 all up). PM me with your account details and I will pay up front as well.

If possible can I have one bevel at 30 and one at 25?

** WA Members ** I'm heading to Melbourne on Jan 1 2008 and am coming back Jan 13 and am happy to bring back a reasonable number of blades for any in WA.

I like these shared deals - gives ya a warm fuzzy feeling - oh hang on, that's the dog wanting its dinner

Cheers

BobL I have added another plane blade to your name, no problems on the angles. This brings the tally to 18 plane blades in total.

I will take an order for two more blades as this will bring the total amount of D2 to 2000 mm anything more then this would become a little much to manage at this point.

I have to draw the line somewhere.

So if someone want to put their name on the last two blades then it will be all cool.

can you put me down for the last two?

Originally Posted by Clinton1

can you put me down for the last two?

Done.

Plane blade orders are now closed.

The tally in total stands at 20 blades:

Toolin x 2, kman-oz x 1, m2c1Iw x 1, BobL x 1 @ 30º + 1 @ 25º, Derek x 1 @ 25º, Pop x 1 @ 25º, Thumbsucker x 4, Groggy x 2 @ 30º + 2 @ 25º, Matrix x 2, Clinton x 2.

Originally Posted by Pops

Hey there Bob. Thanks for the pickup mate. See you in 2008, owe you a cold one.

Cheers
Pops

No worries, Cheers.

*ATTENTION* This post has been edited to reflect updated information on prices and exactly what is happening.

I decided to call up Bohler Uddeholm *again* to see if they could get me more suitable sized D2 steel. The 50 x 15 x 2000 mm D2 would have required to mill of 8 mm (half of the steel) . and cost $250 inc. GST. Which would just be a waste. So I asked to speak to someone from Technical to see if they could recommend something less wasteful. I ended up speaking to Warren, who was helpful enough to find a better and cheaper solution.

Basically he is going to take a 50 x 50 x 2000 mm bar and bandsaw it into 50 x 10 x 2000 mm strips and then cut it into 20 pieces of 50 x 10 x 100 mm. This works out cheaper, because we have to buy less D2 in the first place and it will cost less to mill down a major cost saving. Instead of 15 mm down to 8 mm it will only need milling from 10 mm down to 8 mm.

This brings the price for 20 pieces @ 100 x 50 x 10 mm to 194.70 inc. GST a saving of $55.3. This will also give us a saving in milling fee's which was going to be up in the $300 mark. Now with less steel to mil we should make some savings and at least not have a cost overrun. Regrettable the milling cost is not a fixed price, it is an estimate based on the hourly rate. Regardless it should cost less then before.

Pure Edge Saw & Knife Pty Ltd in Bayswater ph: (03) 9739 8444 talked to Wayne will still do the 20 plane blades for an estimated MAX of $300 inc GST, however it should be less. The individual blade cost for milling and grinding is $15 each. I hope the milling fees will go down to possible $10 - $12 a blade.

For the $10 - $15 Pure Edge Saw & Knife will mill the D2 down from 10 mm to 8.5 mm. Then they will grind a 30º or 25º on the cutting edge. After the blades come back from Hills Heat Treatment, Pure Edge Saw & Knife will then 4 square grind all faces on the blade so that it is mill spec flat and shine at 100 mm x 50 mm x 8 mm.

The only catch is that Pure Edge Saw & Knife cannot do the milling and grinding until the end of the month as they are flat out. However I do expect to have the blades completed all in one day as the grinding and the heat treatment will only take a few hours each and each mob is around the corner from each other. Therefore we should have the blades finished by the end of the month, as I had originally promised.

I have then arranged with Hills Heat Treatment Australia Pty Ltd in Bayswater to have the heat treatment done. Hills will heat treat 20 pieces of D2 @ 100 mm x 50 mm x 8 mm for $40, Garry is the man I am talking to at Hills.

I have been advised that heat treatment should be 58 Rc no more as this will give the best edge retention without chipping.

The cost breakdown is as follows:

194.70 steel and re-cutting by Bohler Uddeholm
300.00 milling and grinding by Pure Edge Saw & Knife
040.00 Heat treatment by Hills Heat Treatment
------------
534.70 TOTAL
-----------

This breaks down to $26.74 per blade. This is a decrease of $2.77 on the last estimated price of $29.50. It could even be cheaper depending if the grinding goes faster which it now should.

Regrettable this is our first batch and some of the milling cost's can only be estimated.

In other good news now that we are getting the 50 x 50 bar resawn so we will be getting Bohler Uddeholm D2 K110 steel which is from their mill in Austria and come with a better assurance of quality. Bohler Uddeholm also stock a generic D2 supplied by other mill's. No second rate steel for us thank you.

Warren has said that he could get it to us even cheaper because he could get the mill in Austria to send us D2 K110 steel at 30 Rc machined, polished and 4 squared for us at 50 x 8.5 x 100. Then we could spend no money on the milling and only get it heat treated and then ground flat down to 50 x 8 x 100. This would save us a few more dollars a blade. The only catch is that it would take 10 weeks for the D2 K110 to get to us from Austria.

However when we have the second lot of plane blades I think this is way we should go. We may have to wait 2 months before we get the blades however our prices would be lower which is always a good thing.

I have placed the order with Warren and the D2 will be cut up for me and ready by Friday were I will pick it up and get the ball rolling. I will take my camera and will take photos.

In my research I called up Blakeley W H Industrial Knives Pty Ltd in Clayton asking what they would charge to make these blades the best price they could do is $33 a blade if we order 20 blades which is at least $6.30 more expensive then what our current price will be. It look like all around that we got a good deal going.

I also researched cryogenic treatment of the blades, not much going on in that department in Australia. I will keep poking around maybe I will turn something up.

I hope all this is OK with everyone.

Cheers TS. Feel free to let me know if you need more foldy stuff, I'm still getting a bargain at any rate.