Thread: Stanley #29 Transitional Plane

Interesting concept; but I don’t see how you adjust the depth…

…of flavour?

Originally Posted by Cgcc

Hi Ian

I think I can say the edge retention is worse. That is no criticism of the planes. That is the outcome of them being put to work in the worst woods and at a tougher angle.

It's also not really a big deal. In reality, the final smoothing of a piece or finished product does not involve a lot of shavings.

both of these statements are correct - the second one in my opinion.

the first one, a higher angle of attack does lead to a lower number of feet planed between sharpening intervals. It's not that significant up to 55 degrees, but you'll notice it creeping in if you do much planing. As you get to 60 and above, it starts to become more drastic, so the really high pitched planes are sort of one trick and sharpen often.

But your second statement is also correct in my opinion - most people are not doing a whole lot of planing in the first place, and especially not in really hard materials. if that's the case, then edge life isn't really that important.

Most of the bits that I drill further into and post about - adjusting geometry rather than alloy or hardness, because the former is likely to have a much greater effect - the latter will make a crappy situation a little less stinky ....

....most of those bits are reserved for more experienced users or heavier hand tool users who will start to get annoyed by overly frequent sharpening in the middle of doing a higher volume of work to stock.

the crux of this is - if not enough work is being done for it to matter, then it doesn't matter.

but if someone is starting from that point and assuming that they can get a good feel for what's more important in working entirely by hand, they'll be off the mark and conclude perhaps too early that going all hand tools by choice is unattainable for various reasons. I think it's easier, but how little problems or barriers are addressed, and the window on efficiency applies - is different.

(If I work metal on youtube with a die grinder, files and a drill press, I get the same thing from people who do metalwork in a paying context. "OH MY GODDDDD!!!! You could do that so much more efficiently and safely!!". It would take too much time and space for me to address that with what little metal work that I do - the rational result is that I don't do how-tos for metalworkers).

Your perception of what your observing is correct though, and accurate perception in a shop is kind of a valuable thing.