Replacement plane Iron suggestions??

[Paul Erickson]

I am in the process of building my plane collection, and for a few of them am considering getting one of the replacement iron's available. I can buy Lee Valley and Hock locally, but am wondering if the slightly thicker LN irons are worth the extra cost and bother to get them.

Thanks in advance..

cheers, Paul

[Roy Wall]

Paul,

Just FYI,

You may have to file the throat with irons thicker than 0.095......that is the suggested limit for replacement Stanley irons from the LN website.

[Brad Schmid]

Paul,

I have a Bailey 4 1/2 with Stanley replacement LN iron and chipbreaker (i think it's .095), and a Bailey #4 with a Hock iron and Clifton 2 piece chipbreaker. Both are a big improvement over standard Stanley irons/chipbreakers. In use, I sense the LN is slightly better. I cannot really say why at this point, other than it just feels better. This might be a result of the chipbreaker design, or the added weight of the 4 1/2, i'm not sure yet.

To answer your question more to the point, all things equal, I doubt you'll notice much difference in irons between makers. I've never tried the thicker LN irons on a Bailey, so i don't know first hand if they'll fit, but I seem to recall someone on SMC trying it (maybe it was on a Bedrock) and reporting that they did fit.

Any way you go, i'm confident you'll be happy with the upgrade.

[Tyler Howell]

Hock and LV do a real nice job. Like Brad I'm not shure you can tell the difference till you get real familiar whith your planes.

Try an A2 blade and see how you like it.

[Dan Forman]

To see the results of testing on various plane blades, check out this site.

http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/bladetest.html

To see the rest of his site, try this. http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/overview.html

Dan

[Paul Erickson]

To see the results of testing on various plane blades, check out this site.

http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/bladetest.html

To see the rest of his site, try this. http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/overview.html

Dan

Thanks Dan,

Hmmm, looks like we need to find someone in North America to start making HSS blades. Know any sources???

[Brad Schmid]

To see the results of testing on various plane blades, check out this site.

http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/bladetest.html

To see the rest of his site, try this. http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/overview.html

Dan

Interesting data Dan, thanks for posting the link. Seems to be proof positive that all the different manufacturers A2 irons wear about the same.

Brad

[Dan Forman]

Actually, to me it looks like the edge goes to Hock, with 200 passes compared to LN and LV with 150 passes needed before resharpening. That would be 25% better milage for the Hock A2 cryo.

By the way, I checked out the Australian maker of the M2 HSS baldes, they can be had for the paltry sum of $80.00 American, plus $13 shipping, through the HNT Gordon website. Here is a link if you are feeling particularly wealthy. I will be settling for the Hock's for the immediate future.

http://www.hntgordon.com.au/paulwilliams.htm

Dan

[Brad Schmid]

Actually, to me it looks like the edge goes to Hock, with 200 passes compared to LN and LV with 150 passes needed before resharpening. That would be 25% better milage for the Hock A2 cryo.

By the way, I checked out the Australian maker of the M2 HSS baldes, they can be had for the paltry sum of $80.00 American, plus $13 shipping, through the HNT Gordon website. Here is a link if you are feeling particularly wealthy. I will be settling for the Hock's for the immediate future.

http://www.hntgordon.com.au/paulwilliams.htm

Dan

I agree that the calculation looks better for the Hock at 200/7 as opposed to 150/6 for the LN, but they're so close that based on the measureent margin of error stated - "Some caution in using the rating is required -- sometimes the wear bevels are hard to measure exactly and a single pixel change in the wear bevel width could affect the rating quite a lot." i'm not sure it's worth differentiating. I wonder why the tester chose not to go to 200 passes on some of the irons? Seems like it would have been more of an "apples to apples" comparison :confused: Based on the data, I too will probably go for Hock's first since my local supplier also stocks a good variety. I had to wait a month for manufacture when I ordered the LN...

At $88.55 US + $13.03 US shipping for a 4 1/2, I think I'll pass on M2 for now :eek: :D
Cheers,
Brad