Experiences with Veritas O1 cutters

[James Taglienti]

Anyone else? I have an O1 cutter in my low angle block. It sharpens up nicely but doesnt last. I mean, 3 passes on end grain and it's jagged.

I have tried it at 25 27.5 and 30 degrees. I have ground back about 1/8 to get to the "good stuff" no deal.

Ive got their shoulder plane with O1 and it seems to work fine. It doesnt get as much endgrain excercise though

[Chris Griggs]

The one in my LABP was a little chippy when it was new, but that went away after a few honings. I use it to shoot end grain all the time and it lasts quite well. Since you ground back the edge it does make me wonder if you got a bum piece of steel.

[george wilson]

In my experience,opinion,and from what I have read in books about tool steels,60 R.C. is at the upper limit of durability of 01 or A2 blades. They become too brittle to hold an edge,and the edge breaks off. Yet,some makers insist on making their plane irons 60 RC. When I worked in the musical instrument shop,I used many antique planes. I found that those that would barely file a little bit with a new,fine cut file,held their edges better. They had the right balance of hardness and toughness. They were about 55 RC. It is possible to draw the temper in a too hard blade by VERY SLOWLY and carefully heating it until it turns a medium brown color. It is VERY easy to go beyond that heat and have the blade turn purple,and on to blue,which is about 52 RC. It is best to carefully heat the blade slowly so that you do not have to quench it,because the beveled side has more surface area than the flat side,and the blade will likely warp hollow,which you don't want at all.

Generally,I do this by playing a torch over a blade back away from the cutting edge,letting the colors creep towards the edge. When you have a yellow,or light brown color at the cutting edge,the heat will continue to darken the blade though,and this is the danger. This is why you need patience,and PRACTICE before trying it for real. If you get your blade TOO soft,you are stuck with it,and it will have to be re hardened from scratch.

I have a set of pre WWII English carving tools that were so hard that I could not get them to sharpen. In the museum shop,the only heat source I had was the guitar side bending iron. I laid one of them across the top of the iron,and nicely got the blade to heat to a medium brown color. Then it sharpened normally,and was good. I also drew over hardened jeweler's saw blades the same way,after some had snapped off in use.

Re tempering takes skill and practice. As a first measure, try making the bevel blunter so the edge isn't so thin and weak. That will likely work as it has for others who have had the same problem.

As said,several re grinds may also help the problem,because you begin to get away from the extremely hard edge.

I'd rather have you send me the iron with return postage than have you try re tempering it your self,if you want the blade less brittle. No charge,just postage.

Or,you could just return the iron to LV for replacement. Personally,I think it is unusual for a LV iron to act like that. It is possible your iron is a fluke that just got way over hardened. It can happen.

[Sam Takeuchi]

I think your first course of action should be contacting LV rather than posting here. Not saying you can't post stuff like that, but you know for any decent and better quality O1 blade shouldn't behave like that, LV or not. I'm sure they will be very helpful if you call or email them.

[David Weaver]

Exchange it. Veritas is one of the few places that makes original and replacement irons in a softer hardness like george is talking about (like high 50s, but not 60-62+ as far as I know).

Their O1 irons last about half as long as their A2 irons, as far as I can tell, and should wear evenly.

[Brian Kent]

I had a similar issue a few years ago with my LV Bevel Up Smoother. When I called, they asked me to send it back when I received the free replacement so that they could test it themselves and check their own systems. They paid for postage of course. The replacement blade was just right.

[Charlie Stanford]

Aren't you curious about running the shoulder plane on the same boards that are jacking up your block plane iron to see what happens to the cutter in it?

You might need to return both irons. I'd take care of it all at the same time.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Funny, that you post that right now. I was tempted to post how pleased I am with a new LV skew rabbet block plane that I own for about one week now. It was really in heavy use the past week, every day it had to struggle with end grain of truly hard woods as Ebony, Wenge, Oak, Olive and Bubinga to mention some. Every day I've worked with the tool for about one hour and was surprised how well it still cuts. After the initial honing that was done before the first use(a quick thing, BTW!), I left alone the blade so far. It still cuts great. However it hasn't the O1 blade, I've ordered it with the A2 blade for the rason that the plane will be used on end grain often. Reading your post I'm rather happy about the choice...

Klaus

[James Taglienti]

I think your first course of action should be contacting LV rather than posting here. Not saying you can't post stuff like that, but you know for any decent and better quality O1 blade shouldn't behave like that, LV or not. I'm sure they will be very helpful if you call or email them.

I know i just thought there might be something obvious that was going right over my head... Just like every other day

George, the offer is very kind. Im going to go give the cutter a final chance to behave and then it goes back to the manufacturer... But i would like to brag to folks "you know, George Wilson tempered this cutter, yes, that George Wilson, he did it free of charge, etc etc

[george wilson]

Thank you,James. I often try to help out others.

[Rob Lee]

James -

Don't wait - shoot me your address by email, and I'll have one on it's way tomorrow...

Cheers -

Rob

[Andrew Gibson]

I have one in my 60-1/2. I have not had any trouble with it holding an edge... works great for me.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I've got a few LV irons, I really like them - such a joy to set up after years of fixing really abused vintage irons.

Must just be my plane then, (since it sounds like it works well for Andrew), but my old #60 is the only plane I'm not happy with an LV blade in - only because the notches, being cut through the blade, rather than machined partly, seemed to get snagged up on the part of the lever locking cam that presses down on the blade. Messes up the depth adjustment a little bit if I'm not careful getting everything in there right. I haven't really looked into it though to see if I need to fettle something on the lever cap. The original Sweetheart blade was in good shape but just chips out terribly all the time; probably why it had so little use.

[Chris Vandiver]

James -

Don't wait - shoot me your address by email, and I'll have one on it's way tomorrow...

Cheers -

Rob


Really now, could customer service get any better than that??!!

[James Taglienti]

Really now, could customer service get any better than that??!!

Thats about as good as it could possibly get.

[James Taglienti]

I've got a few LV irons, I really like them - such a joy to set up after years of fixing really abused vintage irons.

Must just be my plane then, (since it sounds like it works well for Andrew), but my old #60 is the only plane I'm not happy with an LV blade in - only because the notches, being cut through the blade, rather than machined partly, seemed to get snagged up on the part of the lever locking cam that presses down on the blade. Messes up the depth adjustment a little bit if I'm not careful getting everything in there right. I haven't really looked into it though to see if I need to fettle something on the lever cap. The original Sweetheart blade was in good shape but just chips out terribly all the time; probably why it had so little use.

I bet a little piece of brass shim stock between the cap and cutter would stop the catching.?

[Sam Takeuchi]

I've got a few LV irons, I really like them - such a joy to set up after years of fixing really abused vintage irons.

Must just be my plane then, (since it sounds like it works well for Andrew), but my old #60 is the only plane I'm not happy with an LV blade in - only because the notches, being cut through the blade, rather than machined partly, seemed to get snagged up on the part of the lever locking cam that presses down on the blade. Messes up the depth adjustment a little bit if I'm not careful getting everything in there right. I haven't really looked into it though to see if I need to fettle something on the lever cap. The original Sweetheart blade was in good shape but just chips out terribly all the time; probably why it had so little use.

That shouldn't happen though. It does have a round 'foot' that press down on the blade, right? If it gets snagged or get caught on the notched slots, probably the shaft is not dressed properly (the part that sticks through the 'foot'). Hock block plane blade as well as most other modern replacement blade manufacturers notch through the blades, so if you have a problem with LV blade, you'll have problem with other replacement blades, too. I think you should take a look it at it. I think a few swipes with a metal file will take care of the problem you are having.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Yeah, I should take a look at it - It's one of those things that's just an annoyance enough that it bothers me, but never enough to stop me from working and do something like fix it. I'll have to take a better look at it this afternoon. A little dressing probably would help, or a piece of shim stock as James suggests. Once I get my block set, I monkey with it so rarely, that it's not too much of an issue.

It actually looks like Lie Nielsen, the Ray Iles blades at TFWW, and the ones Stu carries at Tools From Japan all are milled, not "through" notches.

[Brian Sullivan]

I use one in my Stanley #3 smoother and it holds an edge well. So far I've only used it in white pine, ash and birch. I think I ordered the O1 by accident, instead of the A2 iron, but it works so well I decided to keep it.