James Taglienti
09-07-2012, 5:01 PM
I have fought with all of the common contemporary steels when it came to planing end grain. I want the most acute bevel possible yet still be able to make more than a few passes without obliterating my cutter. This is because I am usually too lazy or in the zone to set up backers or sacrificial support pieces. With an angle 25* or lower, it seems usually there isnt enough resistance to splinter the workpiece.
I ordered a PMV11 cutter with a big grain of salt, hopefully dreaming about 22* bevels in my LA block. It delivered!I did a quick trial with an A2 cryo cutter, a Veritas O1, and the new steel. I grabbed a piece of red oak, which seems to have some of the toughest endgrain in my shop. The O1 cutter at 26* began breaking down after the first pass, leaving more and more tracks in the endgrain. The A2 at 28* started tracking after about 20 passes, but the resistance was serious; i had this cutter set up for long grain.The PM at 22* was awesome! It was almost as easy as planing long grain, not even a hint of blowout on the exit, and I basically got bored and quit after 50 passes. The end of the board was still smooth and shiny with no detail whatsoever. The cutter still had more life in it, and it still had that smooth sharpness that will bite you if you're not careful. Outstanding!
Downside: this was already revealed but it is a little slower to sharpen. I thought just a little slower than the A2 on waterstones. It got very keen, it felt like even more than O1. On oilstones the PM is not much fun though I did get it keen on some India, washita, and arkansas. The bad part of oilstones is the grit isnt very consistent so I wound up with some deeper scratches that I had no hope of cleaning off with a translucent. It would have taken days. Not a big deal with O1 though. A2 seems much faster on the oilstones.Just a quick tryout as I was pretty excited to get it so soon. Its awesome steel and in my shop it has the potential to replace every other contemporary steel.
I ordered a PMV11 cutter with a big grain of salt, hopefully dreaming about 22* bevels in my LA block. It delivered!I did a quick trial with an A2 cryo cutter, a Veritas O1, and the new steel. I grabbed a piece of red oak, which seems to have some of the toughest endgrain in my shop. The O1 cutter at 26* began breaking down after the first pass, leaving more and more tracks in the endgrain. The A2 at 28* started tracking after about 20 passes, but the resistance was serious; i had this cutter set up for long grain.The PM at 22* was awesome! It was almost as easy as planing long grain, not even a hint of blowout on the exit, and I basically got bored and quit after 50 passes. The end of the board was still smooth and shiny with no detail whatsoever. The cutter still had more life in it, and it still had that smooth sharpness that will bite you if you're not careful. Outstanding!
Downside: this was already revealed but it is a little slower to sharpen. I thought just a little slower than the A2 on waterstones. It got very keen, it felt like even more than O1. On oilstones the PM is not much fun though I did get it keen on some India, washita, and arkansas. The bad part of oilstones is the grit isnt very consistent so I wound up with some deeper scratches that I had no hope of cleaning off with a translucent. It would have taken days. Not a big deal with O1 though. A2 seems much faster on the oilstones.Just a quick tryout as I was pretty excited to get it so soon. Its awesome steel and in my shop it has the potential to replace every other contemporary steel.