With chipbreakers, it matters. Single irons, not so much.

-------- Original message --------
From: Cliff 
Date:06/01/2017  5:31 PM  (GMT-07:00)
To: oldtools@s... 
Subject: Re: [OldTools] Am I on the road
to stupidville? 

I wonder when the thing about flattening the backs of plane blades and 
chisels arose?  Is it really necessary? does it make a bog difference? 
I've never flattened mine.  I'm pretty sure the old masters didn't do 
it, but I've never met one so I wouldn't have been able to  ask.  Thing 
is if they did it, then it'd already have been done.

Belt sanders can't produce a very flat surface.

I gotta say,  pushing  4.25" of steel  plane blade across anything  
sounds like  work.


On 5/31/2017 10:31 PM, Christopher Dunn wrote:
> Galoots
>
> I bought a huge wooden panel raiser plane with a 4-1/4" wide tapered
> iron, and started flattening the back of the iron on my coarse diamond
> stone. Five hours later, and only about half the cutting edge is flat
> (the two corners are low). I've never dealt with such a wide blade
> before, but there's got to a better way.
>
> So what's the better way?
>
> The smart thing to do is to put a back bevel on the iron and call it a
> day (like the last guy who owned the plane), but I now consider this a
> challenge and want it the back flat.
>
> Would a belt sander work? Or would it round over the back of the iron?
> Or would it destroy the temper of my iron in 4.7 nano-seconds? I'll
> keep dipping it in water.
>
> Thank you for your responses in advance,
> Chris
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