Patrick Chase
11-01-2017, 4:41 PM
I have found the holy grail: A handplane with an iron that's sufficiently sharp (by my standards) to use out of the box.
This unexpected pleasure came as part of a Tsunesaburo chamfer plane. The iron had obviously been hand-honed on very fine abrasives, and while not optimally sharp it's the best I've ever seen with a new tool from any maker.
Of course the plane body required a small amount of adjustment with chisel and float, to remove a small amount of tilt. There's no free lunch.
BTW the Tsunesaburo chamfer plane is a great tool. The cap iron makes a world of difference in difficult wood. I've been running around chamfering every difficult-looking scrap I can find against the grain and marveling at the results.
This unexpected pleasure came as part of a Tsunesaburo chamfer plane. The iron had obviously been hand-honed on very fine abrasives, and while not optimally sharp it's the best I've ever seen with a new tool from any maker.
Of course the plane body required a small amount of adjustment with chisel and float, to remove a small amount of tilt. There's no free lunch.
BTW the Tsunesaburo chamfer plane is a great tool. The cap iron makes a world of difference in difficult wood. I've been running around chamfering every difficult-looking scrap I can find against the grain and marveling at the results.