Quality aftermarket replacement hand plane blades. Originals are too thin

**D.W.** · 2nd June 2023, 10:37 AM

As far as the stanley type vs. the old flat then round sprung part like the two I showed (one just more refined than the other), i think both are an even match in efficiency and effectiveness.

what's not obvious is that the rounding on the flatter single spring cap irons is very similar for the first fraction of a millimeter, at least.

In a stanley plane with a thin iron, the extra room on the best of the ward planes should be less of an issue. it's of value in a wooden plane and on a very tightly made infill.

there is one thing that's less than ideal in stanley cap irons, though, and that is by the time we get them, they can be sort of all over the board in how much steepness follows the initial rounded edge. I rarely do much to condition a stanley cap iron, but if much has been honed off of the front of one or one is bent very steep, they will offer no real benefit in planing, but they will offer a lot of extra resistance. Fortunately, that's as easy to tell as swapping cap irons and noticing not just effort, but how one feels vs. the other.

A good stock stanley cap iron that's got a nice gradual continuous curve from end to end with the hump offers the options wanted. Sometimes, you get a plane and the cap iron is blunter or has had a lot honed off, and you just kind of roll with it until or unless you find one better.

the long flat design of the single spring type originated with wedged planes, so, of course that long flat run is important to match the flat bottom of a plane wedge. For the most part, wedge fingers should end by the top of the hump on a wooden plane - it's of no concern anywhere else.

if you're wondering how I would've gone so far down the rabbit hole on this, it's much like anything else I tout - I know for a lot of people it won't make a difference. However, I have an in house wooden plane with a bed around 43 degrees and a purchased try plane (can't remember the name, might be greaves, but it came with a ward cap and iron) - it's bedded at 47 or 48 degrees. It planed much more easily. I was embarrassed to find that out, and I'm not a wonk for my own stuff. I found myself preferring to use the "store bought" plane. It really bothered me that somehow I'd missed something that made such a big difference in effort that a higher pitch plane planed the same work more easily.

And then at some point, I took a look at the two cap irons and installed the thin one on my plane and the relationship flip flopped. the proportions are close enough that the wedges may be in different depths by a little bit, but no big refit was needed just for the trial. I would make a new wedge to take advantage of the better of the two cap irons in a second if I had to.

the reason I say it's not that important is either is pretty efficient. if you're try planing cherry or beech or rosewood or ash, the difference in effort will be felt pretty quickly and you just migrate to what works better because laying on the floor from exhaustion just to use your own tools isn't really a thing.

Interestingly (to me), I mentioned when you have trash wood or very hard wood with poor grain or just stubborn planing, you can't take too much advantage of something like a wooden try plane, and I'll go to metal for that. Persimmon is a good example. It's not that hard, but it planes like it's twice as hard as it is. A nice 0.9 specific gravity indian rosewood planes wonderfully, even though at that density, it'll be approaching 3k on the dent test.

**D.W.** · 2nd June 2023, 10:39 AM

by the way, this fits into the aftermarket study only because I guess I made an "aftermarket" 80crv2 iron and forced dealing with the feeding.

it's definitely true that correct use of the cap iron will extend the iron's life in volume of wood worked by quite a large amount. It's protective of the iron by controlling how the iron is fed. interrupted cuts and runout or tearout hammering an iron is faster damaging to an edge due to impact. It's bizarre that it's that big of a deal, but it makes a pretty big difference.

I don't want to lead beginners who don't have a handle on much down the road of believing that means they'll just like a stock iron better than a whiz bang super hard iron, but once you get a handle on this stuff, both the iron and cap are doing their thing and there's less reliance on a harder or thicker iron or one with more wear resistance.

**truckjohn** · 2nd June 2023, 01:11 PM

My own experience is that a high quality chip breaker mated to a cheaper iron far outperforms an expensive iron mated to a junk chipbreaker.

As a result, my Stanley planes wear Stanley irons and Hock chip breakers.

Best of luck on your search.

**Fergiz01** · 2nd June 2023, 03:13 PM

What's the difference in performance between a wide open mouth and a tight mouth, if both have a well set cap iron?

EDIT: I have ignored the mouth and made sure the cap iron is positioned nicely and had no real issues with performance. Am I missing out on something?

**IanW** · 2nd June 2023, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by Fergiz01

What's the difference in performance between a wide open mouth and a tight mouth, if both have a well set cap iron?

EDIT: I have ignored the mouth and made sure the cap iron is positioned nicely and had no real issues with performance. Am I missing out on something?

Zac, mileages are going to vary, but my opinion is, depending on what you're planing, you'd be hard-put to demonstrate much difference between a tight & a more generous mouth on a double-iron plane most of the time (but quite easily done with a low angle-bevel-up job!). In fact with many of our woods, if the cap iron is working at maximum efficiency, I reckon I'm better off with a wider mouth than a really tight one. Some woods are just too prone to choking in tight mouths. But there are occasions for me when the cap-iron needs all the help it can get, and my tight-mouthed infills do a noticeably better job with the same cap-iron setback. I'm assuming it's the tight mouth that's making the difference, but it could be some other variable I haven't considered.

I like my old Baileys for general-purpose work - they have pretty fat gobs which makes them more versatile for daily use on a range of tasks than my pinched-mouth infills, yet if their blades are sharp & cap-irons well-set they can match the best of my planes 95% of the time.

As I say, mileages will vary, so it'll be interesting to hear what others think.....

Cheers,

**raffo** · 2nd June 2023, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by Fergiz01

What's the difference in performance between a wide open mouth and a tight mouth, if both have a well set cap iron?

EDIT: I have ignored the mouth and made sure the cap iron is positioned nicely and had no real issues with performance. Am I missing out on something?

If you set the cap iron close to the edge and then start moving the frog forward to close the mouth, there will be a point where the shavings will hit the front of the mouth and the plane will choke. Move the cap iron up and the choking will cease but the cap iron effect may be gone and tear out will begin.

Tight mouths work in conjuction with BU or single iron planes to mitigate tear out. They constrain the plane to thin shavings. On a double iron plane, the range of shaving thickness is wide and is determined by the cap iron distance from the edge. A more flexible design.

**D.W.** · 2nd June 2023, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by Fergiz01

Am I missing out on something?

No. the only point where a mouth becomes a problem on a cap iron equipped plane is when it gets so large that stuff can go through it and you can do things like catch ends and accidentally split things off when you're tired. This doesn't occur on any reasonable sized mouth. More that you'll encounter it if you try to have a go at things with a very worn out wooden plane with a huge mouth.

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