Plane blades

[Lloyd Robins]

Just a note to those who have been posting about building their own wooden planes. Steve Knight has been selling blades on Ebay. They are good blades, and might be something to consider as you build your plane. Or you might want to contact Steve directly.

The usual note. I don't work for Steve, I am not part of Knight Toolworks, and I am not being paid for this note (darn.) I am the owner of some of his planes, and I do like them and the blades. I might even try one of his Japanese blades. Would that make it a Japanese-American plane?

[Pam Niedermayer]

The geometry of a Japanese plane is not straightforward, it's more than just a block of wood. For example, the sole is not flat on smoothers. Similarly, the blades when mounted in the dai (Japanese for wood body) are sprung; and to support this, the backs of blades are not exactly flat. The bed has to be almost carved to match the blade carefully. Unless things are different now, which they may well be, Steve has ordered all his Japanese blades be ground flat.

Therefore, unless you really get into making a Japanese plane with a Japanese blade, you're probably better off building one of the Krenov style planes, which are in all important aspects western planes.

Pam

[Lloyd Robins]

Pam, I did mean for a Krenov style plane, which is what I thought that the discussion was about, although it looks as if the plane that started the discussion had a metal chipbreaker. I brought up the Japanese made blade as Steve Knight says that they are great irons. I didn't really mean to compare the two types of planes. Sorry if it seemed that I did.

[Pam Niedermayer]

No problem, Lloyd, you started this new topic and I wasn't sure what the topic was, aside from "plane blades." I got burned a couple of years ago when I showed up at the Inomoto-san dai making class with new Knight blade in hand, wanted to save you from a similar expensive lesson.

Pam

[Brad Olson]

Any idea as to sizes and pricing of these blades? Just don't want to flood Steve with emails from a lot of people with the same question, if you don't know I'll shoot him an email.

Brad

[Don Kugelberg]

I just bought a couple off Ebay. They are type O-1 steel and are ¼” thick 2” wide and approx 5” long. The bulk of the flattening on the back is done but Steve says the blades need to be sharpened prior to use. I like Lloyd am a satisfied Steve Knight customer. BTW, the blades are about $30 a piece.


http://www.knight-toolworks.com/ebayads/irons.jpg