Coolest video on hand plane blade cutting wood EVER!!!

[Steve Voigt]

Steve, I was on the point of writing something similar, so I will just support your comments.

It may be that many here were not party to the debates and experimentation we went through from 2012 onward. It may also help for others to read some of the research on setting the chipbreaker distances and leading edge angles, especially that of Kees, as well as the articles on Steve Elliott's site, and that of David Weaver.

I also want to commend Warren for linking to John Strawn's post. Re-reading it, I am again amazed by the insight John had (does anyone know what has happened to John - we were good mates several years ago, and then he dropped out of sight). Warren, of course, has been the one who argued and argued the value of the chipbreaker in the face of detractors - and I was one of them many years back .. until I saw the light.

One of the "problems" with selling the chipbreaker method is that some, such as David, will say it can be learned in one hour, and others, like Warren, will say it take years to do so.


Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Derek. I agree about John Strawn. To teach yourself the use of the close set cap iron on a Japanese plane, back when no one was talking about it, was no mean feat.
Re your last sentence--can one learn all the subtleties of the cap iron in an hour? Of course not. But one can learn the basics, and get most--maybe 80%--of the effect in a very short time. The rest is refinement.

[Jim Koepke]

Fine Woodworking, volume 1 number 1 from Winter 1975 had an article on hand planes. It included metal models and included instructions on making a wooden bodied plane. It included this about setting the cap iron / chip breaker:

Chip Breaker - FWW Winter 1975.jpg

The 1953 edition of the Stanley Tools Catalog No.34 says this about the "Cutter Cap":

It also turns the saving in such a way that it prevents splintering the surface o the wood when cutting against the grain.

It seems the effect of the chip breaker has been known and documented for even longer than these two examples. It seems to be one of those "common knowledge" items that is so common, no one mentions it for a generation until it is rediscovered.

As the FWW article implies the offset of the chip breaker depends on the work at hand. If one is doing scrub plane work with a cambered blade the chip breaker can be set back a bit. Removing saw marks after ripping a piece? The cap iron doesn't need to be set close.

Taking the last few shavings for the final smoothing? Then the cap iron should be set closer to the edge.

The best teacher for this is getting out to the shop and trying it.

jtk