Good idea or sacriledge?

[rafezetter]

Just saw this and my first thought was "oh no what a waste!"

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Joiners-S...lectable_ToolsHasdware_RL&hash=item1c265ce058

 

[marcros]

Don't really know. On the one hand it seems a shame, but on the other they are never all going to get used in planes so better converted into something useful than sat rusting on a shelf and eventually tossed out.

 

[Grahamshed]

If in doubt
toss it out.

 

[custard]

My marking knife is similar, I bought it from Bristol Design Tools about twenty or thirty years ago and it's given sterling service ever since. i use a Blue Spruce for marking out dovetails and this converted plane iron for everything else.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I sort of see what you mean about sacriledge, but I struggle to think who'd need a 7/8" cut iron. The only thing I could think of is a rebate plane with a cap-iron, of which I have come across the very occasional example, but the iron is the wrong shape for that. Has anybody got a 7/8" smoothing plane?

Maybe it's not such a bad thing that a nice piece of steel is doing a woodworking duty, and will probably do so for a couple of lifetimes.

 

[rafezetter]

I sort of see what you mean about sacriledge, but I struggle to think who'd need a 7/8" cut iron. The only thing I could think of is a rebate plane with a cap-iron, of which I have come across the very occasional example, but the iron is the wrong shape for that. Has anybody got a 7/8" smoothing plane?

Maybe it's not such a bad thing that a nice piece of steel is doing a woodworking duty, and will probably do so for a couple of lifetimes.

I'd hazard that this has been cut down on the sides as well and ground to bevel point. I can see how not all plane blades will see "proper" service though, I found another woody one in a garage of a friends late father on saturday, just hanging there, no woody plane to be found anywhere.

 

[Bedrock]

Understand your concerns but I think Marcros has the right of it. Go to any second hand tool store and there will be a drawer full of old Sheffield plane blades. I would rather see the steel put to a new use rather than rust away, waiting against the day when someone turns up looking for that particular blade.

 

[AndyT]

The Sheffield List (the standardised catalogue of tools available from many Sheffield toolmakers) listed cut plane irons from 1 1/4" up to 3" - at least, it did in the 1871 edition available at the Internet Archive - so I agree that these have probably been cut down. So they are very unlikely to be usable as plane irons. So, odd as it seems, I reckon it's a good move to regrind these and put them to work. Not a bad price either.