Homemade Plane Iron....anyone try this?

[Drew Bru]

Hello all, and happy Thanksgiving! I'm new to this forum, but a moderately accomplished hobby woodworker. I got to thinking the other day about making a Krenov style smoothing plane. I've never tried making a plane before, but I think I have the skills to do it. My question was about the plane iron though. I thought that instead of buying a Hock iron or something, I thought perhaps I'd get some A2 tool steel and make my own! I'm thrifty that way. Has anyone tried this? And, if so, any suggestions?
thanks,
Drew

[Mike Henderson]

First, welcome to the Creek.

I'm not a smith type person so take this with a grain of salt.

I think the problem is that you would have to heat treat the steel after shaping. While this can be done with some basic tools and equipment, heat treatment is a specialized skill that takes time to develop. You would probably get off a lot cheaper (and get a better iron) to just buy a well done iron from someone who has the knowledge and equipment to do the job right.

But I'd certainly bow to the opinion of the more knowledgable smiths here.

Mike

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Drew and welcome to the quiet side of SMC.

Working with A2 is not difficult since it is purchased fully annealed (soft) when you buy it from almost all of the suppliers you could think of. This allows you to rough shape it with files, abrasive papers, drill bits, or almost all of the standard machine tools such as surface grinders and milling machines. The difficulty comes in the heat treating. As an air hardening steel, you heat to harden and then quench in temperature controlled air to "set" the hardness unlike O-1 which is oil hardening (where you heat and then quench in 140F oil to set the hardness). While it is possible for the home craftsman to do their own heat treating and quench with A2, it is difficult and requires careful control of the heating and cooling cycles vis a vis time vs temp. In short, it is possible to do at home, but is best left to a professional heat treater. If you decide to go with A2, it is worth your while to make several blades since the heat treater will charge you based on a lot charge which will allow you a given poundage. Expect to pay anywhere from $50-100 for a lot charge depending on where you live and the amount of local competition. You will need to specify the hardness you want in terms of Rc (hardness on the Rockwell C scale).

[Jake Darvall]

What you can do.....is get an old thick woodie blade.....shorten it and the origional chipbreaker.....and use that. The steels often quite good. And the blade won't cost you much (if anything)

Goodluck.

[Drew Bru]

Thanks for the all the input. I saw some A2 bar stock from an online seller that had hardening directions included, but I didn't realize how precise the process is. Makes sense now, as I've seen that the process involves extreme heat/cold cycles. I have a blade from an old transitional plane that I can easily adapt. Perhaps that's what I'll do.
thanks all!
Drew

[John Goodridge]

I have not done it yet; but I plan to give it a shot in the near future. My plan is to use O1 steel instead of A2. From what I have read, the heat treatment seems to be fairly straightforward for O1.

[harry strasil]

quenching temperature is critical to the outcome of the blade, an easy way to temper is in you wifes oven. lots of bladesmiths do that and a lot of blacksmiths do it too, its sure fire way to get an even controlled heat.

[Terek Johnson]

Mike Dunbar's book Restoring, Tuning & Using Classic Woodworking Tools, has an excellent step-by-step description showing how to heat treat blades. You can pick up a used copy of the book on Amazon for under $10.00. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Brad Olson]

My group buys O1 tool steel from Mcmaster and cuts it up into plane blades.

While we have a friend in the biz, heat treat them, you can do it easily with a torch and a tub of peanut oil.

You don't want A2, you don't have the ability to harden this stuff yourself.

As for quality, our irons run about $6 each with the fee to have them hardened and they are as good or better than what you can get comercially.

We also make our irons out of 1/4" stock, that way you don't need a chip breake-i.e. the same way Steve Knight makes his planes