Wooden plane irons

[MarkE]

I have a couple of old wooden hand planes that I haven't used much. I took them out today to see what I could do with them. The irons in both were pretty dull, so I figured I'd give the Worksharp a workout.

I was a little surprised when I took the irons out and saw how thick they are. Both of these irons are about 3/16" thick at the business end.

So I got them all sharpened up and did my best to get them set properly in the planes. I haven't quite got the knack of it yet. I either get nothing, or take a big thick shaving.

Bottom line is, I don't think I am going to spend the time trying to figure out how to set up and use these planes. I'm just wondering if the irons can be used in any of my Stanley Bailey planes. I've never seen a plane iron that thick before, so I guess throat clearance would be an issue.

Anyone got any thoughts?

Pictures:

The small one is a coffin smoother that I have had for about 15 years. Don't know where it came from. The 16" was bought by my SIL at a flea market.

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Here are some close ups of the irons:

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Best I could do on the Sargent Iron. You can kinda, sorta see the name.

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[CarvedTones]

I was in your shoes not long ago. I traded wood for steel. My trade was with another NCWW'er, but if you don't find someone here try one of the national ww'er boards. Good old wood planes with thick irons intact are harder to come by than their more recent steel siblings, so if you are willing to trade straight up for functionality it should not be to hard to find someone.

 

[eyekode]

I don't think these could be used in a metal plane without more effort than it is worth. If you cannot take a fine shaving then chances are your soles are not flat. The good news is wooden planes are really easy to flatten: put the blade in under proper tension but make sure the cutting edge is retracted. Take some sandpaper and glue it to MDF. Clamp the MDF to your jointer bed. Take careful even strokes and check your progress often.

If you want a thick iron for your Stanley's try a hock or one of the new Veritas irons. They have gotten great reviews and are relatively cheap.

Good luck!
Salem

 

[MarkE]

I was in your shoes not long ago. I traded wood for steel. My trade was with another NCWW'er, but if you don't find someone here try one of the national ww'er boards. Good old wood planes with thick irons intact are harder to come by than their more recent steel siblings, so if you are willing to trade straight up for functionality it should not be to hard to find someone.

Hadn't thought about trading. I'll have to check that out.

 

[MarkE]

I don't think these could be used in a metal plane without more effort than it is worth. If you cannot take a fine shaving then chances are your soles are not flat. The good news is wooden planes are really easy to flatten: put the blade in under proper tension but make sure the cutting edge is retracted. Take some sandpaper and glue it to MDF. Clamp the MDF to your jointer bed. Take careful even strokes and check your progress often.

If you want a thick iron for your Stanley's try a hock or one of the new Veritas irons. They have gotten great reviews and are relatively cheap.

Good luck!
Salem

I kind of thought that using the irons in a metal plane would not work easily.

The plane soles appear to be flat. I just can't seem to get the irons set properly, consistently. I've gotten there a couple of times. I guess I just prefer the easier adjustability of the bailey planes.

 

[eyekode]

It does take some practice. It helps to have a proper weight/size plane adjusting hammer. I made this one recently out of a brass punch:

View image in gallery​

Just today I looked at one of my wooden planes and thought it was flat but it was misbehaving. I took a straight edge to it and realized it was not flat where it counts: right around the mouth. A couple minutes on sandpaper cleared it up.

Good luck!
Salem