Question about my new/old #7 jointer

[Bill White]

Just got my #7 from Josh Clark yesterday. Spent most of the early afternoon slickin' it up. I haven't lapped the sole yet (that'll be a fun day), but I noticed that the iron has a distinct radius like you would find on a scrub plane. Is that normal for a jointer? I "clip" the corners on my #4 to prevent dig in.
Bill

[Chris Griggs]

Depending on how big of a radius it's not necessarily abnormal. It's more typical if one makes the distinction between a try plane and jointer plane - My understanding is, that the try with a cambered iron was traditionally used for flattening and squaring and the jointer with a straight iron was used for final straightening on edges.

My impression is that it's not all that typical these days, but if your prepping all your stock by hand, being able to take a medium thick shaving can really speed things up. Since my scale of work is relatively small I use a No.6 for my trying/jointing and keep a pretty moderate camber on it - far less than my jack - but more than I think I see on most folks jointers. Works well for me.

Here's a good article Bob Rozaieski wrote on the subject: http://logancabinetshoppe.com/blog/2009/08/camber-on-plane-irons/

[Terry Beadle]

It shouldn't have as distinct a radius as a scrub blade would have but it should have a little less than 1/32 relief at the corners IMO.

Of course different users will set the radius depending on how they use the plane. A furniture maker would have a different radius than say a boat maker would. This is due to the type of woods, dimensions, and dimension changes required.

I'd use it and see how it did for your type of work. If it seems inefficient, just adjust the radius a little more flat during each resharpening.

[David Weaver]

Just got my #7 from Josh Clark yesterday. Spent most of the early afternoon slickin' it up. I haven't lapped the sole yet (that'll be a fun day), but I noticed that the iron has a distinct radius like you would find on a scrub plane. Is that normal for a jointer? I "clip" the corners on my #4 to prevent dig in.
Bill

You'll have to decide where the camber amount fits in your work regime. If you use power tools for wasting off wood, you'll never need a large radius on anything. Whoever used it may have been using it for coarse work, but if it's been well used and the iron shows a lot of use, you can sort of toss laying "new rules" or whatever bloggers or podcasters say over the condition of the iron and deducing anything about what the prior user knew. If it was used a lot, it was probably the way it is for a reason, and it's unlikely they didn't know what they were doing.

But, now it's your plane, so you make the iron like you'd like it to be.

As far as "normal", in the dozen or so jointers i've gotten, the irons have been all over the board, depending on what the prior user was doing with them.

[Tom McMahon]

I use a jointer plane with a cambered iron. Moving the plane laterally on the edge of the board you are jointing, you can take a tappered shaving to correct a non square edge. You can control which side of the shaving is thicker and how thick with the lateral change.

[Jim Koepke]

There are many ways to plane a board.

Tom McMahon mentioned one style of edge joining that makes use of a cambered blade.

My method is to tilt the plane to the high side and take a few passes. This is done with a squared blade. This is so during the edge joining the full width can be used and the blade does not need honing as often, in theory.

Terry Beadle mentioned the variety of uses different woodworkers have. There are so many different ways people work and the different things they work on that tools are often custom tuned for the occupation of the worker.

His suggestion to hone it a way a little at a time may be the way to go.

Either that or buy a spare blade and then have two different blades to make shavings.

Almost all my planes have spare blades. Most have more than one spare blade.

How about some pictures of your new star?

jtk

[Trevor Walsh]

Still differently, I use a cambered jack to square an edge and use a jointer with a straight blade to flatten it. I haven't had an issue with plane tracks, but were that something I'd knock the corners off the iron to reduce it.

[Bill White]

Uh??? How did we go from radius to camber? Am I missing something?
Bill

[Chris Griggs]

I use the two words interchangeably. As in "That scrub plane has a really heavily cambered blade, I think it's got like 4" radius on it".

Did we misunderstand what you meant by radius and/or what on the plane has a radius?

[Curt Putnam]

Bill, unless you have the experience and tooling to a lap a jointer's sole, I would think long & hard about even trying as most folks cannot and make a real mess of a good tool.

[Jim Koepke]

Curt has a good point, but it isn't rocket science.

In my Opinion, if the sole is not rusted and plane is making good shavings, the lapping can wait.

I read a lot of posts about how the new plane owner is eager to lap the sole. They seldom mention why.

I seldom lap the sole on a plane unless there is an obvious reason to take on the task. Then only after a bit of use to find any subtleties that I could be missing.

I think one of my planes was previously owned by a person who lapped the sole almost as often as they sharpened the blade. It is a good plane, but the sole is a bit on the thin side.

jtk

[Bill White]

Lapping is not a problem as I am experienced with metal working too. Matter of fact, I've just about got it done to a good working level (no pun intended). Just didn't know that camber and radius is being used as a common interchangeable term.
Bill

[Jim Koepke]

Just didn't know that camber and radius is being used as a common interchangeable term.

They really are different things, but are often discussed as if they are the same.

Technically the camber would only be at the corners of the blade. The edge between the end of the cambers would hopefully lie on a single line.

A true radius on a blade, in theory, would have no more than two points on the edge being on the same line.

jtk

[Rob Fisher]

They really are different things, but are often discussed as if they are the same.Technically the camber would only be at the corners of the blade. The edge between the end of the cambers would hopefully lie on a single line.A true radius on a blade, in theory, would have no more than two points on the edge being on the same line.jtkInteresting, so what some would call "clipping or rounding the corners", you call camber? I had not heard that before. I had always assumed camber=radiused. My assumption was based on the use of the word camber in building technology. It typically refers to a beam or other member that is curved (or radiused) over it's length or width.

[Jim Koepke]

Interesting, so what some would call "clipping or rounding the corners", you call camber? I had not heard that before. I had always assumed camber=radiused. My assumption was based on the use of the word camber in building technology. It typically refers to a beam or other member that is curved (or radiused) over it's length or width.

My understanding of the word comes from a different direction, the inclination of the front wheels of a vehicle is called camber.

What some would call the camber of the road bed I think of as the crown of the road.

So I guess a curved blade does fall in to the realm of cambered, but I think of a cambered corners as different than a radiused blade.

It could just be me.

jtk