Tool Steel Help

[John Powers]

I have a nice Ward Master 45. No cutters. I made two out of some steel I had and they work fine but are not the thickness of the original cutters. Can someone tell me what is the thickness of the original cutters (1/8 ?)and would I be correct that making a 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 and a 5/8 straight cutter would get me started. Looking at McMaster and Carr stock now. thanks

[Robert Rozaieski]

John,

The cutters on my old Sargent model were 1/8" thick. If you don't plan to use the plane for cutting rabbets or wide dados, the wider cutters will see very little use. My most used iron is the 1/4". If you plan to use it for dados, 1/2", 3/4" and 7/8" might be good to have. The 3/8" and 5/8" might also be good but I'd do the other sizes first. Don't underestimate the 1/8" cutter either. It comes in very handy for making wide deep rabbets. Rather than planing a lot of material with a really wide cutter, you use the 1/8" to plough down from two adjacent edges and meet the two 1/8" plough cuts at the corner, releasing another smaller board from the resulting rabbet. The rabbet can then be cleaned up with the wider blade. Much less work to plough 2 1/8" wide grooves than a real wide & deep rabbet. This is very useful when making moldings.

[Jim Koepke]

John,
Don't underestimate the 1/8" cutter either. It comes in very handy for making wide deep rabbets. Rather than planing a lot of material with a really wide cutter, you use the 1/8" to plough down from two adjacent edges and meet the two 1/8" plough cuts at the corner, releasing another smaller board from the resulting rabbet. The rabbet can then be cleaned up with the wider blade. Much less work to plough 2 1/8" wide grooves than a real wide & deep rabbet. This is very useful when making moldings.

Kind of like a neander table saw. :)

The sides of blades for the combination planes are slightly angled with the cutter wider at the front and narrower at the back side. This helps to keep them from jamming in the cut. If one wants to make beading blades, remember to make the side quirks wide enough to cut a path for the skates. Also remember on shaping blades that at the edges where the skates sit have to cut to the same depth on a 45 type plane and to leave a path wide enough for the skate. The 55 allows the movable skate to move up and down independent of the fixed skate. This allows for non-symmetrical cutters. A 45 can cut non-symmetrical shapes as long as there is a way the skates can be set behind parts of the blade that cut to the same depth. It would also be difficult to cut any parts deeper than the skates without easing into the cut by adjusting the blade as the cut is being made.

jim