Hand planes

[Jacob s white]

Should a jack plane have a camber/radius on the blade ?

[Curt Putnam]

It depends but mostly yes

[Tim Best]

Hi Jacob,

I don’t know if they should, but mine do. It is a slight camber.

Tim

[Rob Luter]

Yes. It speeds up the process of trueing a board by allowing heavier initial cuts with less effort. Chris Schwarz did a piece called Coarse, Medium, and Fine where he discusses the process of moving from Jack to Joiner to Smoother when flattening a board. It’s a good read.

Edit. Link to article: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/wp-content/uploads/CoarseMediumFine.pdf

[Jacob s white]

How would you put a camber on if a plane doesn’t have one ?

[Rob Luter]

With a grinder or a stone. You don’t need much. Search YouTube. There are several high quality instructional videos.

link to good vid here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx7e2jEUWv0

[Jim Koepke]

Should a jack plane have a camber/radius on the blade ?


How would you put a camber on if a plane doesn’t have one ?

If you consider a #5-1/4 or a #5-1/2 jack planes then two of my jack planes have cambers and one of them has a blade set aside with a camber. There are four other jack planes in the shop with blades that are not cambered.

Cambered blades are often used for scrub work:

448651

This is usually done when preparing rough sawn lumber by hand.

The image was uploaded before realizing you won't be able to see them without becoming a contributor ($6 is worth it).

The camber is often spoken as being an 8-12" radius for this.

Some put a very slight camber at the edge to avoid tracks from the edge of the plane. This old post might help with this > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?158373

If one is taking very light shavings the plane will not be as likely to leave tracks. A stroke or two on a finishing stone at the edge of the blade can be more than enough camber to avoid tracks when taking thicker shavings.

jtk

[Tim Best]

If you freehand sharpen, check out David Weaver’s (David W) YT videos. For what it’s is worth, I didn’t understand how to put camber on an iron until I watched him do it. His approach clicked for me.

[William Fretwell]

Three jack planes, two have relieved corners, the low angle jack plane does not. Keeping sharpening simple is important to me or you may find you just don’t use the tool as much.

[Bob Jones 5443]

A gradual camber on a jack-plane iron enables you to flatten a board with speed and precision. PM me if you want to see why this is so.

[Jim Koepke]

Three jack planes, two have relieved corners, the low angle jack plane does not. Keeping sharpening simple is important to me or you may find you just don’t use the tool as much.

Oops, for got my low angle jack plane. It was mostly used for shooting until a Veritas Shooting Board Plane was purchased. It is about the size of a jack plane.

jtk

[ken hatch]

Some of my "Jack" planes have a good camber, some less. All more than just a corner "relief" but less than a scrub plane. The camber does a couple of things. It helps make quick work of removing material but leaves a surface that is easy to finish and makes it easy to square an edge that is off square.

BTW, the new Tormek 77 jig makes putting a controlled camber on a cutter very easy.

ken