Siegley plane blade, laminated ??

[Dennis Burton]

Plane Blade Question
I recently acquired a cobbled together Stanley No. 4 plane which had a Siegley blade on it .
It is marked , SsS with Siegley beneath . It was in pretty good shape so I gave it a sharpening and in the process it appears that this blade is two pieces of metal bonded /layered ? together . The new edge I created with a honing guide shows a definite difference in the texture of the steel across the newly sharpened area.
You can see a definite demarcation line across the face of the new edge. I'm green as a gourd with my knowledge of wood planes , anyone shed some light on these blades ? It is 6.75" x 2" x 3/32 as I measure.
I've only taken the edge through 500 grit wet or dry paper.


Last edited by Dennis Burton (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/posthistory.php?p=2209859); Today at 1:57 PM.
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[David Weaver]

No clue about the markings, as all of the siegley planes I've come across are pre-stanley bench planes. Stanley bought bits of siegley and other bits went elsewhere (if you ever see an edwin hahn plane, it's probably not coincidence that it looks a lot like sigley).

It's definitely a laminated iron. Whether siegley, union or stanley made it (or someone else) no clue.

Laminated irons aren't necessarily always better, but they are definitely more interesting to look at and easier to grind with a coarse stone (since a fair bit of the thickness is soft).

Forge welded is the term for how older blades are smashed together. Some modern blades are forge welded, and some are effectively glued if the soft and hard metals don't like to stick together.

[Greg Wease]

The "SSS" indicates it was made by Stanley with their normal blade thickness. Blades with the original Siegley thickness are labeled "STS."

[Dennis Burton]

Thanks Greg And David for your info, it's all fascinating to me and I'm finding myself becoming infatuated with wood planes . I've rescued several,
a Sargent 14 incher,don't know the model, another Stanley #4 , a Dunlap, a Wards Master, and a Stanley 9 1/4 .
Most recently completed building the Hock 11" kit. Think I may be hooked :D

[Bill Houghton]

If it was made by Stanley, the information here may apply: http://www.tooltrip.com/tooltrip9/stanley/stan-bpl/bladeflyer.pdf

Also look here, and scroll down some, for other information: http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/nov2002.html

Be careful about that infatuation. It doesn't take long before it turns into obsessive love.

[harry strasil]

FWIW Dept. Dennis.
At one time the Laid On or Laminated blade was the King of the Hill compared to what came before. Wrought Iron is a very soft metal with almost NO carbon content, it is very flexible but will not hold an edge. Steel was in its infant stages of development at the time. The Best Steel of the day was Blister Steel, which was Wrought Iron flat bars enclosed in an air tight container and heated to a very high degree with Carbon in the form of powdered Charcoal, bits of bone and leather. It was kept at this very high heat for many hours. This resulted in Wrought Iron that looked as if it had BLISTERS of Carbon ON IT, as Wrought Iron will get to a white heat without melting thus the name Blister steel. To amalgamate the Carbon Blisters into the Wrought iron, it was hand hammered flat by Smiths. This in effect made the Blister Steel more or less akin to what we now call Case Hardenening, which is a very thin layer of hard material on the very surface of the Wrought Iron. The next improvement was taking this Case Hardened material and bending it back on itself and forge welding it together many times to get a more uniform mixture of Wrought and Carbon. This is the same process that many knife makers use to make the beautiful Damascus knife blades. The next improvement was to take the Blister Steel cut it up into small pieces and smelt it (melt it all together) thus making a more uniform amalgamation of the Wrought Iron and the Carbon and then running it throught a rolling mill into bars to be forged into blades (you will see some old chisels and plane blades that have CAST STEEL stamped on them) this is the forerunner of the modern steel industry, but the quality was really unpredictable and if you did get a good batch it was very hard to duplicate. And you have to remember that crucibles (the vessels used to melt the Cast Steel) were very small in size.
The Whole Reason for the Laid on blades was, so that you could attach a very hard metal that was very brittle, to one side of a very soft metal so as to end up with a cutting edge that would hold its edge for a long time and not break from hard use.
Henry Disston started experimenting with his own formula for Saw Steel, but did not tell anyone about it till it was proven that his Saws were superior to the foreign steel that the other makers were using as the American Steel industry was still in its infancy and true to form of that time, they would not change their methods, so the European steel industries advanced while Americas Stagnated till they came to their senses.

I hope this long winded explaination helps you understand instead of confusing you Dennis. I am a third generation Agricultural Blacksmith and until I hurt my back badly, I smithed for 56 years.

[Mark Engel]

Very cool Harry.

[steven c newman]

Seems I have a iron from an Ohio Tool Co. ( of Auburn NY) 05c that is also two layers of metal279972Yep, two layers.

[Dave Beauchesne]

Thanks Harry for the explanation; I have a pair of your holdfasts and smile every time I use them.

I read somewhere Stanley made laminated blades till 1941; I have had a couple in the past few years and they were decent quality. Sharpen it up and take it for a test drive.

[Dennis Burton]

Hello Harry,

Thanks for your post and enlightenment on the laminated metals and how they developed. Having dabbled in both antique shotguns and , having built folding knives and hunting knives I am a little familiar with case hardening and heat treating. In my knife making days I worked exclusively with 440 stainless because it was easy to heat treat in an old ceramic kiln I had. I ran up on a piece of the 440 that I had heat treated and wouldn't you know it was just the right size to make a plane blade out of . I 'm working on the wood now , maybe I can post some shots when I finish.

Dennis