Veritas Bull Nose Plane- sharpening FYI make sure you register off the proper edge

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Good day all:

I got a Veritas bullnose plane in with a bunch of tools I bought bulk in a tool box. I already have one, so I am getting it spruced up to sell. I decided to hollow grind the edge on the Tormek for whoever buys it since it had some nicks to touch up anyway. The blade for this plane has a widened part at the business end, and then has a narrow shaft (not sure what to call it) at the other end, since it is made to fit edge to edge in the plane. The Tormek has a registration jig for sharpening plane blades, and the only way I could make this fit the jig was to register along the long, skinny part.

Well, I started grinding and it was taking a lot off one side versus the other. I stopped and checked everything. The Tormek wheel did need to be dressed, so I dressed it with the diamond truing tool. That helped a little, but not much. I rechecked everything, and all the Tormek stuff appeared to be square. Why was this thing grinding at an angle? I then checked the skinny edge of the blade to the wide edge, and it was off by just a wee bit- not much, but enough that if you register it in the jig on the skinny edge, then the business end is not going to be aligned square to the wheel.

Since this was a used one that I have no clue how it was used, I decided to check my own, and same thing- it was slightly different on the skinny edge versus the wide edge.

THIS SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM FOR USE- it is perfectly square edge to edge on the business end, and the skinny end doesn't have to be perfectly square, and the plane has adjustment grub screws to adjust to match the edge of the skinny end. The problem is if you use that skinny end to register to a jig, then you need to first make sure it is square to the wide end.

I took a picture to try to illustrate- I aligned a straight edge to the wide end edge, and then measured the gap top and bottom between the straight edge and the skinny edge. You can see there is a slight difference in gap between top and bottom.

This is a great plane, and is well made. The issue has nothing to do with function of the tool, and I am only posting in case someone else bumps into this and can't figure out why they keep getting a skewed edge when registering this blade in a jig. I am not claiming there is any poor quality here- you just have to make sure you register to the right edge and don't assume the skinny edge is square to the business end.


Bullnose.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

Interesting observation.

Even some of my bench planes are guilty of not having parallel sides.

In an imperfect world even some of the best things may display minor imperfections.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Malcolm

Just thinking out aloud here ...

The angle of shaft is the important issue - not because you want to clamp in in the Tormek ( you could get around any skew here by grinding on a platform freehand) - but because the adjustment hole is centred on the shaft, and this is responsible for aligning the bevel (if the bevel is squared to the shaft/hole). Since a shoulder/bull nose plane needs a square bevel, if the blade is presented off-square owing to the skewed shaft, you cannot set the bevel square. The side set screws cannot compensate for this.

One answer would be to grind the blade at a (fine) skew to compensate for the skew in the shaft. This would require running a line from the hole down the shaft to the bevel, and scribing a line square to this to grind to. The line from the hole would be parallel with the sides of the shaft. Once the hollow grind has been made, freehand hone on the hollow.

The second method is to purchase a new blade. Contact Lee Valley, explain, and they may send you one free (although you are not aware whether the previous owner damaged the shaft by dropping it).

A third method follows from the above: straighten the shaft with delicate hammer blows. I would scribe an outline first to check progress.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Malcolm Schweizer]

It is not bent; it angles on both sides. It is still straight and the hole lines up properly.

Hi Malcolm

Just thinking out aloud here ...

The angle of shaft is the important issue - not because you want to clamp in in the Tormek ( you could get around any skew here by grinding on a platform freehand) - but because the adjustment hole is centred on the shaft, and this is responsible for aligning the bevel (if the bevel is squared to the shaft/hole). Since a shoulder/bull nose plane needs a square bevel, if the blade is presented off-square owing to the skewed shaft, you cannot set the bevel square. The side set screws cannot compensate for this.

One answer would be to grind the blade at a (fine) skew to compensate for the skew in the shaft. This would require running a line from the hole down the shaft to the bevel, and scribing a line square to this to grind to. The line from the hole would be parallel with the sides of the shaft. Once the hollow grind has been made, freehand hone on the hollow.

The second method is to purchase a new blade. Contact Lee Valley, explain, and they may send you one free (although you are not aware whether the previous owner damaged the shaft by dropping it).

A third method follows from the above: straighten the shaft with delicate hammer blows. I would scribe an outline first to check progress.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Matthew, then I would scribe the centre line, scribe a square line for the bevel, and hollow grind to that line freehand on the Tormek (using a platform rather than the blade holder). The set screws can hold this shape at the desired angle to the mouth.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Matthew, then I would scribe the centre line, scribe a square line for the bevel, and hollow grind to that line freehand on the Tormek (using a platform rather than the blade holder). The set screws can hold this shape at the desired angle to the mouth.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Once I realized the issue, I used the blade holder, but I aligned the cutting edge to a square set up across the wheel instead of the one on the jig.