I think in the early stages of this challenge we commented that it is best to build the plane around the blade. I had a long 50mm wide blade that I had intended for the low angle plane and a wider 60mm blade intended for the high angle plane. however, and without giving too much away ( read that as committing myself) I needed the low angle plane to have a 60mm blade. This required a major rethink and it became glaringly obvious that I would have to obtain or make a suitable blade.
One of my criteria was that the plane should be low cost making the most use of available materials as well as using tools that were commonly available to anyone. I checked my stash of dismantled leaf springs and they were all only 50mm wide. So I delved into the emergency supply, which was a set off a land cruiser that was given to me for this exact purpose by a friend several years ago.
The longer leaves are a little over 7mm thick and the thicker leaves a bit better than 11mm thick.
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With the drop saw I cut the ends off the leaves as they had already a shape that i thought would suit the plane blades. This is what remained of the three leaves. The blades are shown further down the page.
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In the depths of winter I would use the slow combustion heater as my improvised furnace to anneal the steel, but up here Spring has already firmly established itself ( 27 to 28 degree days) and the heat in the house would be intolerable. Consequently, as we had a couple of friends staying with us, I fired up the chimenea for a BBQ and stoked up the fire to cook the six blades I had cut. I intend to use three blades in the low angle plane (not all at the same time :rolleyes: ) to provide alternate sharpening angles. The low angle planes normally require an adjustable mouth, which I consider is a little beyond my skill and facility levels, but I think the use of different thickness blades will partially get around this issue coupled with another little closely guarded secret which will be revealed at a later date. So two thick blades will be sharpened with different secondary bevels, which effectively provide different blade angles and the third blade will be thinner and developed to be able to produce thick rough shavings with increased clearance at the mouth. Of course if this all goes pear shaped all three blades may give a rough shaving! :(
It was a little difficult to see if the blades were heating to the required colour. I fully expected the chimenea to glow red, but surprisingly this didn't happen.
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When removed from the fire for a quick check they were red (but not the pink they appear in these pix). One is the thick blade and the other one of the thinner blades, but don't ask me which is which from the pix. In other words they were heat soaked:
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I continued cooking jacket potatoes, and then took off the top half of the chimenea to grill some meat. The blades were moved to the inside edge of the chimenea during the food cooking and were left in the fire overnight to cool slowly. This is them in the morning looking a bit like me (fairly rugged and ratty)
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and just cleaned up with a wire brush. They will need to be flattened either with a hammer or a hydraulic press and then cleaned up further to at least achieve a flat surface on the underside of the bevel. Blade length is 200mm
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These are the two blades to be used in conjunction with the high angle plane. A leaf spring on the left and the HSS, from a Group Buy many moons ago, on the right. I hope to be able to evaluate performance between the two. The leaf springs will all have to be cut down to 60mm wide as they are currently 70mm. Blade length is just over 100mm.
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Regards
Paul