Thread: Stanley Bailey #4 Blades

Thank you to Derek! I had a wonderfully informative session last Saturday. Starting with a look at some of the amazing furniture Derek has made and trying to wrap my head around how accurate the joints can be, especially when working with curved and splayed surfaces in three dimensions.

It was interesting to work through the sharpening process with the hollow grind at 30 degrees and then finishing on a 1000, 6000, and 13000 stone (I think that was right?), it was a different approach than what I have tried and certainly appeared to get a sharper finish. We then had a look at how this would perform, which turned out pretty well; however it appears I have some work to do with another go flattening the sole.

Following this we got out the Jarrah slab and worked through re-flattening and finishing again. It was an eye-opener to try out the process using a No.7 instead of the No.4 and also proved to be much faster, especially since we never sharpened a blade more than once...the new PMV11 blade is sounding quite appealing!

Overall it was a great experience and has given me a lot to work on.

To reply to Mountain Ash, I think there is a lot of everything mixed up to get a good result, It was really nice to be able to experiment with Derek on the weekend to get a feel for what a well set up plane could do. Certainly for me there has been a LOT of learning how the plane is meant to work, and then working out to get it to work like that...each time I have another go at it and get something else resolved it feels better and achieves a better finish.

I have just come in from working on the sole of the plane and removed what appeared to be a very persistent hollow toward the back of the plane. With the blade still fresh from Derek's sharpening I was able to remove some extremely fine shavings with the plane gliding through the Jarrah with almost no effort at all. The result was a very nice finish.

Just for the fun of the challenge, I took a piece of Sheoak out of the firewood pile and made a new tote and knob...this was quite the exercise I found to work out the geometries and drilling through the tote at the right angle for the bolts. Also making the knob without a lath took a few tries to work out how to finish it. In the end I put a screw in the top, cut off the head and mounted it in the drill press. All worked out well and makes a much nicer feel that the original plastic!

WP_20220826_20_17_34_Pro.jpg

Hi Daniel. Sounds like you are not only learning a lot but enjoying everything at the same time. Love the modifications to your plane. If you look up Lie Nielsen tote templates online and print them out it can make re handling a lot easier.

Daniel’s handle and knob look terrific …. and the knob especially so since he made this without a lathe! I was amazed.

Regards from Perth

Derek