Curved planer blade?

MeDoctor

MeDoctor

Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Messages
279
A co-worker asked me to sharpen a 2" hand planer blade for him today, and he wants me to retain the current slight curvature on the bevel end of it. Shoot, I thought the thing was just badly worn toward the edges -- or that perhaps someone screwed it up when they sharpened it.

I'm mostly ignorant when it comes to woodworking and the varieties of woodworking tools, but all of the planer blades I've ever seen are dead straight across the bevel end. Is it possible that the blade is supposed to be curved, or is this guy coming out of left field?
 
Yes. He wants the corners left "soft", whether it's a scrub or not. I have hand-plane blades that are almost half-round (well, not quite that curved), used for "scrubbing" and for planing concave surfaces.
 
Thanks Stretch. I spent about an hour on it using the scissor attachment on my Edge Pro. Managed to get it hair-splitting sharp while retaining the radius on it. He was so pleased that he asked me to do the iron on a number 5 Stanley that he's restoring.
 
You done good by maintaining the radius on the edge of his plane iron. That slight rounding keeps the edges of smoothing planes and other planes used on the surface of boards from cutting unsightly grooves. It can take a lot of work to properly prepare a plane iron for this use so he would have likely used it on you if you had sharpened it straight across. That would be OK for block planes, jack planes, and the like intended for squaring the edges of boards. If you think people are funny about sharpening their knives you haven't seen nothing yet! Intense woodworkers get plumb silly about their plane irons, chisels, turning tools, and so forth. I use my Tormek on just about everything so I don't spend all my waking hours sweating over stones. I'd rather be working on a project instead of grinding away on blades.

K
 
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