Pitting on back of vintage rebate plane iron

[gold_bantam]

Hi all,

I purchased a vintage straight rebate plane and the back of the iron has some pitting, unfortunately mostly at the cutting edge.

What would you advise doing about it? I'm well aware of how long it will take to lap it out with sandpaper on glass and hope not to have to go down that route. I've just recently done this with a beading plane iron and skew rebate iron.

My thinking is that as it's a joinery plane 1) the rebate won't be seen anyway 2) most rebates are likely to be less than the 1" width of this iron
so I can just use the opposite corner to where the deepest pitting is 3) I have a skew rebate plane which could smooth off after starting the rebate with this straight one.

As an aside, could it be advisable to ruler trick on a plane like this?




I wish I'd checked the iron before purchasing but honestly it's a lovely old plane so would be nice to use it.

 

[steve355]

Get a piece of o1 and make a new one. They are consumable. The main tricky bit is tapering the iron. Lie Nielsen sell pre-tapered irons.

 

[Jacob]

Hi all,

I purchased a vintage straight rebate plane and the back of the iron has some pitting, unfortunately mostly at the cutting edge.

What would you advise doing about it? I'm well aware of how long it will take to lap it out with sandpaper on glass and hope not to have to go down that route. I've just recently done this with a beading plane iron and skew rebate iron.

My thinking is that as it's a joinery plane 1) the rebate won't be seen anyway 2) most rebates are likely to be less than the 1" width of this iron
so I can just use the opposite corner to where the deepest pitting is 3) I have a skew rebate plane which could smooth off after starting the rebate with this straight one.

As an aside, could it be advisable to ruler trick on a plane like this?

View attachment 169748


I wish I'd checked the iron before purchasing but honestly it's a lovely old plane so would be nice to use it.

I'd just sharpen it and use it. Maybe grind back a few mm if there's a very deep pit, but little ones can be ignored.
See how it goes.
Have a go at the ruler trick if you feel like it. It's easier without a ruler - just raise the blade a touch as you hone, to make a shallow bevel on the face. I call it "the without a ruler trick".
Don't bother with "lapping" it's just a modern sharpening fashion and yours doesn't look too bad anyway.

 

[Adam W.]

I'd just use it and see how it goes.

 

[Trafalgar]

It'll produce some striations on the surface and require more frequent honing but it's still probably useable. I'd spend 30 minutes lapping it on sandpaper on glass and call it done.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I’d grind back past the deep pits, sharpen and use. That iron has enough life in it to last years.

 

[gold_bantam]

Thank you for your replies. I'll give it a quick flatten then and try it out.

 

[--Tom--]

Sharpen and use, pits don’t look too bad so a slight back bevel might help

 

[Orraloon]

As the rest are saying just sharpen and use and see how it goes. If you have to then grind off the worst few mm near the edge as it looks pretty good after that. Doing rebates you take quite a heavy shaving and even if there are some visible lines in the bottom of the rebate they will not be seen by anyone but you. It will do the job well enough while you keep an eye out for a replacement or just learn to live with it. I have a couple of less than pristine old irons and chisels in my shed.
Regards
John

 

[gold_bantam]

Thanks all. Seems that the crux of hand tool woodworking for the hobbyist is learning to live with things and just getting on with it. Chances are the 'problem' is just something your mind has come up with and then making a big deal out of it!

 

[Adam W.]

You'll find that as you use it and keep sharpening it, it'll soon sort itself out.

 

[gold_bantam]

Ok, so I was prepared to just leave it and see how I got on. But I watched the Bill Anderson excerpt on restoring rebate planes on YouTube (woodandshop) and he mentioned zirconia for lapping. I thought I might as well give it a try just for experience so bought a metre of 80 grit cloth backed zirconia for £6.25.

I'm not kidding when I say that I had all the pitting out in 20 minutes. It was phenomenal. I did this iron and another one with the same 12" strip. It is very tough and I just washed it off every few minutes to remove swarf. It is so heavy duty that it doesn't deteriorate like paper backed abrasive. And I'm drying the strip off because I think I can use it again. Definitely beats an 8" strip of aluminum oxide paper going in the bin every few minutes! Definitely recommend.