Thread: Reverse Blade in a Stanley #4

Anyone ever tried that?

No, but I'll give it a whirl tonight

Cheers

No burr?

Just sharpened the ordinary way. 30 deg. primary bevel 1 deg. micro.

yep......did it once .....thats about a 75 degree effective pitch......How long did the blade edge last though ?.....be interesting to know that......when I did it , it didn't last very long........and how much control did you have ....any chatter ?

.I imagine you could also have attacked it with a back bevel.... thats what I usually do....I start with 5 degrees back bevel , thats 50 degrees effective pitch and increase in jumps of 5 degrees till I get no tearout.......but the problem is that the overall bevel gets larger and larger ...and the larger it gets the harder it is to sharpen. so ....

I'd say you've found the best way for that situation.......

Darren

I've done it with a HNT Gordon smoother on a piece of very gnarly jarrah and had the same good results. It worked really well but the blade needed a fair bit of attention to bring it back to proper fettle afterwards. (I guess it wouldn't require a huge investment to buy a second blade).

The benefit I observed using this method instead of a conventional card-type scraper (apart from not barbecuing your thumbs!) is that you have very good control over the depth of cut and therefore flatness of the finish. In my limited experience, a card scraper used on sections a large flat area - say a table top - may have a tendency to form shallow depressions. This is less obvious when using a scraping plane.

Col

In my limited experience, a card scraper used on sections a large flat area - say a table top - may have a tendency to form shallow depressions.

Ahh, Col - that's why I was adament - at the sharpening workshop - that the card scraper had to be pulled towards oneself, and not pushed away. When you pull it, the blade is kept flat. When you push it away, you are inclined to camber it, which increases the depth of cut in the centre of the blade.

Cheers

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Ahh, Col - that's why I was adament - at the sharpening workshop - that the card scraper had to be pulled towards oneself, and not pushed away. When you pull it, the blade is kept flat. When you push it away, you are inclined to camber it, which increases the depth of cut in the centre of the blade.

Cheers

Derek

As soon as any bend is made in the scraper you'll get the camber thing happening, I thought this was part of the "Grand Plan" with them. Not bending too much because they aren't scraping is the tricky bit. That's the beauty of the holder from LV.

Silent C, if I tried that with the blade in my 4 1/2, I'd reckon I'd need to weld a piece of railway track to it to stop the chatter. No it's not a good blade is it? I've done it with the HNT, it does stuff the blde a bit though, it would be better with a hss blade, but thems the breaks.

You Bastard !

If only you had come up with this about four months ago. At the time I was /am building a coffee table from a recyled redgum retaining wall. I couldn't believe anybody could let the fiddleback pattered slabs just rot in the gound.

Anywho when I tried to smooth it I had some shocking tear out because the grain went every which way but straight. I gave in and used the beltsander.

your tip has definetly gone into the memory banks,

muchos gracias,

BTW you will have to wait for the greenie, as I have to "spread the love" first.

Himzo

I reakon card scrapers are brilliant....... and shallow depressions are fine.......as long as they are not near any joint work of course........Theres something more appealing to a piece that has subtle curves in it yet is jointed neatly over something that looks machine made.......shallow depressions are just fine in my book, especially if these depressions mirror or create somekind of balance in your piece......anyhow the alternative to ironing out tear etc ...to get it totally flat is not something to look forward to.....that is having to plane out or scrape out not only the defect but all the area around it........no, I'd prefer to plan the joints so their away from the defects if possible, and then card scrap out the defect.......

And burning your fingers with cards shouldn't be a problem if you use them in pairs....I have 2 that I sharpen at the same time (thats 4 edges to wear out)... and alternate in use.....so that I can keep going while the other cools.........

I don't think it's really the same as a scraper plane. The HNT Gordon is a different case because it already cuts at 60 degrees in bevel down mode. When you change it to 90 degrees then it is a true scraper.

What I did was change the pitch from 45 degrees to 77 degrees, so it's still cutting, not scraping. On the redgum I got no chatter, except on the first pass when I had the blade set too deep. The shavings come off full width and intact. I didn't do any scientific testing on how long the edge lasted but I wouldn't care if it only lasted half as long because I'd rather have to sharpen it twice and have no tearout than the alternative.

Control wise, it was no harder to control than bevel down. The only two problems I can see are that the mouth is way too wide and the chipbreaker is sitting on the bevel. I don't think the chipbreaker is doing much in this orientation anyway. It might not work very well on timbers with long straight grain, but then I wouldn't need to use it this way on them anyway.

The problem with back bevels is that if you only have one blade, you're either stuck with them, or you have to grind them off when you don't want them any more.

Yes I think your right about having to have 2 blades with backbeveling.......for me thats ok......but with just flipping the blade you have to go straight to 70 odd degrees....often thats not necessary I think.....50, 55, probably works too with less wear.....but you know......if it works why change it eh..?

I've got a HNT Gordon smoother on the wish list and obviously that would be the best solution because it's set up with a high angle and the blade is about 5 times thicker than the Stanley. This idea got me out of trouble though.

Agree with you on blade thickness......it makes all the difference........I like to be thrifty, so to get thick blades I've resorted to old matherson blades...the blades that come in old wooden planes...5mm thick....saves me forking out hundreds.....they hold up pretty well........you can rig them to work in normal stanleys, adjustable with the regular levers......but you gota butcher a stanley a bit.......and as much as I like using wooden planes,, personally I think its easier to make fine adjustments with the levers you get in metal planes.......much easier than fiddling with hammer taps and wedges.........and you can adjust the mouth fine or not......