Is this iron salvageable?

[Jim Koepke]

A Dremel with a cutoff wheel will make quick work of removing a bit of hardened steel. Cut a little short of where you want the edge to be and you won't have to worry about blueing the blade. That will be quick to grind past.

I have a couple similar irons stashed, I can't bring myself to throw them away, still dodn't know what to do with them.

An old blade of mine that was unusable in a plane was cut and made into a couple of marking knives:

Shop Made Knives.jpg

The knife in the center was made from a broken saw blade. The ferrule is a sleeve from a brass compression fitting for 1/4" tubing.

Here is the story on my second marking knife made from a plane blade:

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?229968

It is my most used marking knife.

jtk

[steven c newman]

Tip: IF the iron has no logo and is just a plain replacement....flip it over, and start a new bevel.....

Even if it does, after a few sharpenings, the pitted area will soon be gone, and you can flip it back over, and re-do the old bevel side...and you can get a lot of use out of that iron in the process...

[Peter Christensen]

Steven you're a clever pup.

[Pete Taran]

That cleverness has it's drawbacks. Some irons, especially this early, are laminated. Flipping it over will put the mild steel as your cutting edge. You might spend a lot of time at your sharpening rig with that situation. Take a file and see if the back side is as hard and the front. If so, it's tool steel through and through and that idea would definitely be worth considering.

[Bob Glenn]

Why can't you just flip the blade over and regrind the bevel on the opposite side of the iron? I other words, make the back the front and vice-versa.

[Pete Taran]

Because the lamination, if present, is only one one side and terminates just before the slot. No amount of flip-o-rama will allow the hard part of the iron to contact the work.

[steven c newman]

After doing a few 100 plane rehabs....I may have learned a few things...

BTW: the only times I have seen a laminated iron, was the tapered iron in Ohio planes...

Have seen a lot of irons come through the shop, with the chipbreaker sitting on the bevel....a few even were using the chipbreaker to make a cut....have also seen a few irons with the logos stamped on both faces of the iron. I have a spare 2" wide iron, no logo, except for the 1942 date stamp along the edge of the iron...free of pits, plane was a junker....kept the best parts, and threw they worst away...

A few years ago, one could walk into HD, and buy a replacement 2" wide iron....and even irons for block planes....HD has since quit stocking those 2" irons....

[Pete Taran]

Steven,

Stanley made quite a few laminated PARALLEL Irons. They aren't uncommon at all. Cast steel was still pretty hard to make and expensive even up to the early 1900s. Perhaps the OP can do a quick file test and tell us what he has.

PS: From the Hallowed Paul Sellers: https://paulsellers.com/2015/05/lami...-irons-n-more/

Note my former IT comrade setting him straight.

[Jim Koepke]

Many of my Stanley blades, up until ~1910, are clearly laminated.

jtk

[Tom Bender]

Flip it over and sharpen the other side?

[Pete Taran]

Tom,

Is it groundhog day? See post 19 why this might be a problem.

[george wilson]

You can grind a small bevel on the back of the blade, which will get rid of the pits, and give the plane a higher cutting angle, more suitable for planing hard or figured woods. Many a 18th and 19th. C. plane blade I have seen had the blade beveled anyway for exactly this reason.

The blade so treated will be a little harder to push, but will resist taking hunks of wood out due to figure, which always favored by craftsmen long ago,and by those who know this "secret" today.

[Derek Cohen]

You can grind a small bevel on the back of the blade, which will get rid of the pits, and give the plane a higher cutting angle, more suitable for planing hard or figured woods. Many a 18th and 19th. C. plane blade I have seen had the blade beveled anyway for exactly this reason.

The blade so treated will be a little harder to push, but will resist taking hunks of wood out due to figure, which always favored by craftsmen long ago,and by those who know this "secret" today.

Thank you George (You are well?)

I posted this strategy as well, which has appeared to have gone ignored. Yet it is so quick and simple to do.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Brian Eaton]

Not meaning to ignore anyone - as I mentioned before I think for the time being I'll set the iron aside and wait until I'm in between projects to give it another look and make a decision on what to do. I will definitely make sure to refer back to this thread to give some more consideration to all of the ideas presented here. Thanks for your input!1

[Charles Guest]

You can grind a small bevel on the back of the blade, which will get rid of the pits, and give the plane a higher cutting angle, more suitable for planing hard or figured woods. Many a 18th and 19th. C. plane blade I have seen had the blade beveled anyway for exactly this reason.

The blade so treated will be a little harder to push, but will resist taking hunks of wood out due to figure, which always favored by craftsmen long ago,and by those who know this "secret" today.

The cap iron police just issued a warrant for your arrest.