Carbide blades for handplanes?

[John C Cox]

HSS will *work* for a plane iron and they are available. I have a few super cheap Japanese planes that use a HSS iron.

But, I wouldn't recommend them. They're a pain to sharpen. I mean, at least they are much more "sharpenable" than carbide, but...

There are much better steels for the handtool woodworker. There's a reason vintage steels, O1, PMV-11, and Japanese White and Blue Steels, among others, are so popular among handtool woodworkers.

That was my point. Many people need to test things for themselves, though.

[glenn bradley]

I don't expect a finished surface from planers, jointers, or saw blades. I expect a finish ready surface after final planing.

Bingo. Insert heads give a very smooth finish. A well aligned saw gives very smooth ripped and crosscut surfaces. Still nothing goes from machine to finish in my shop. The use of carbide on many machine cutters is targeting durability. I have some 10" blades with cermet II tips that outlast typical carbide by several times. I doubt that it is a good candidate for hand tools though ;-)

[Robert Hazelwood]

I expect that carbide would not hold up well at the acute edge angles we use in hand tools. It would fail by edge chipping before getting to demonstrate its advantage in wear resistance. In a scraper plane, or a high angle plane where you are sharpening a bevel at 45+ degrees, it might well be another story. Of course then you run into the problem of sharpening it.

[Marvin McConoughey]

I have and use Rali planes with (optional) carbide blades. They work very well; on a par with my conventional blades with various steel alloy blades. Please note that carbide is available in a range of quality, sharpening efforts, and sharpening angle. Among the variables is the size of carbide particles. And, as with many man made materials, the technology is continuing advancing.

Totally unsuitable for handplanes.
I don't even like steels that include large carbides for handplanes (looking at you, A2).

Sharpness and sharpenability are of huge importance for handplanes, and even steels with large carbides tend to chip easily -- something that you really don't want in a hand plane.

It's completely different from a machine using a rotating blade or cutter traveling at 1000's of RPMs. Moving that fast, sharpness doesn't matter so much. And, moreover, people don't sharpen such tools.

A plane iron that can't be sharpened (or that no sane person would want to sharpen) and can't take and hold a fine edge, or one that is prone to chipping is, is, well, complete garbage and not something I would ever want to suffer using...

[Tom M King]

No thanks on a plane iron, but on a tile job I just finished where I needed to remove a lot of old tile, carbide tipped chisels turned the job into a different, easier realm than steel chisels I had always used before. I have one grinder with an about worn out CBN wheel that sharpened them multiple times easily and quickly. Turns out small taps behind a sharp carbide edge gives almost as much control cutting old installed tile as carving wood with a good sharp chisel.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I bought several sizes of them. It was almost like learning a new trade.

[John C Cox]

Horses for courses. I had a laugh when I read the ad copy for one of the premium chisel bits for small jackhammers. They called them "Self-sharpening." Ha! That's a fancy name for they chip out pretty fast... But I guess if you're going at masonry, they do a nice job on tile grout and brick mortar.

The thing with carbide blades is understanding the cutting mechanism. Power tools generate IMMENSE power output compared to human hands, but they also generate tremendous heat. The cutting mechanism tends to be shearing and scraping rather than slicing through the work. At this, they excel. Thin them down and put a keen edge on them and use them for slicing cuts, and they can chip and crumble VERY quickly.

I experimented a LOT with high carbide volume high speed steel tipped plane irons. They work VERY well for roughing and stock removal. The thing is, power machines work so much better for stock removal that it's not worth the hassle.

The downside is their behavior on dulling. They tend to chip and pull out carbide crystals rather than wearing politely. As such, they go from "Sharp" to half dull instantly, then sort of stay half dull forever.

As I have gained more experience, I moved away from carbide and high speed steel equipped hand tools towards quality high carbon steel. Stuff like W1 and O1 and the 1.25% C file steels just take beautiful, long wearing edges. When prepped properly, their fine cutting phase lasts longer for me.

If I had to do a lot of handwork on rough cut lumber - planing off tool marks, dirty and oxidized outer layers, and the like, I would probably dig my HSS tipped irons back out, but otherwise, nope.