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Thread: A2 steel plane blades

  1. All of our plane irons are and always have been hardened to Rc62.

    I suspect your blade's poor performance was a result of the hardening technique, probably overheating which causes the growth of large, fragile grains. The piece will still test properly hard but the large grains make it very fragile and the edge will crumble easily. If you break a piece of steel that was overheated, the large grains are visible and will look sparkly. Properly treated steel will look matte gray inside, like gray primer. It's an extreme test, but if something should break, take a close look. You can often see why.
    Ron Hock
    HOCK TOOLS

  2. #32
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Yokohama, Japan/St. Petersburg, Russia
    Posts
    726
    If you get a craving to try different blade in the future, give Tsunesaburo laminated blue steel blade for bench plane a try. It's in the range of Rc 66 - 67, still high carbon blade, but definitely lasts longer than other high carbon blades I've had dealings with. Yet, it's laughably easy to sharpen since the majority of 'meat' is soft iron. There is a great balance between edge retention and ease of sharpening. Simply a beautiful blade. The only drawback is that it's not as thick as other replacement blades. It falls right between stock Stanley and replacement blades offered by Ron here and LN, but it can be coupled with thicker replacement cap iron it works very well. It hasn't chattered on me in several months of use so far. It's simply a wonderful blade and I think if you like O1, you'd love this blade. It is available from Japan woodworker as well as few other places.

    I don't notice any chipping in normal use on soft and hardwood. The only time I got a bit of chipping was when my stock was loaded with silica, but that would've obliterated commercially available A2 blade just as well. For that, I use M2. While I like M2, it's not for everyday woodworking.

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