selfmade replacement blade.

[János]

Hello,

The blade of my Stanley low angle block plane is approaching the end of its life (I have bought it in 1993, so it has taken me a decade to use it up). I decided to make the replacement blade myself.
Today I have made the blade. I cut it from a piece of flat rolled tool steel sheet. The steel is unhardened, but the rolling process work-hardened it quite a bit, so cutting out the blank has been a hard work, even with a bi-metal blade in a metal-cutting frame saw. After cutting the strip, I have annealed the steel with a gas soldering lamp: I heated the steel to orange red and left it to cool slowly. Then I have flattened the blank with a small hammer on my Record anvil. I filed up the edges and drew the cut lines on the steel (I used the original blade as a template for mark-out). Then I drilled a few starting holes on my bench-top drill-press, with an 1,8 mm dia HSS twist drill. I used a jeweller's piercing saw and no.1 metal cutting blades for cutting out the openings. Then I filed the edges up to size and shape.
It has taken about four hours to make. Now I should harden and temper it, but do not have suitable oil at hand, so I must postpone this step. I will inform you about the results.
The new blade is approximately 2,5 millimetres thick (the stock was 2,6 millimetres nominal thickness, but the flattening reduced that somewhat), the original Stanley blade is 2,0 millimetres thick. I will see whether thicker is better, or not :wink:

The steel I use is No. 1770 (C = 0.7%, Si = 0.4%, Mn = 0.7%, P < 0.035%, S < 0.05%)

Have a nice day,

János

 

[János]

Hello,

I have finished the blade, and put it to work today.
I used very advanced, highly classified technology, developed by NASA for their Mars landing.

I pre-heated the blade for twenty minutes in the kitchen oven, at setting 8. Then I heated the blade to glowing red with the soldering lamp, and kept it at that state for ten minutes. Then I quenched it, first in motor oil, then in cold water. After quenching I put the blade back into the oven, and slowly heated it, increasing the setting to 8 in about ten minutes, and kept the blade at that for twenty minutes. Then I turned off the oven, and let it cool down.

The blade looked like this after the treatment. I tested the hardness with a saw file, and sharpened the blade's working end.

After sharpening the blade was keen enough to shave the hair from the back of my hand. So I put it into the Stanley low angle plane, and started planing.

The blade is working well, it is as good or better than the original blade was. It cuts walnut with ease. As it is thicker than the original blade, it has more weight too, so the whole plane is a little bit heavier than before. I like the results.

Have a nice day,

János

 

[stoatyboy]

Wow

I never cease to be impressed by people who can do stuff like this in their kitchen

I have trouble sharpening blades let alone making them!

well done that man

 

[AndyT]

+1 to that! It's not as if you chose an easy one, with that big hole to cut in it!

 

[Richard T]

Janos wrote: "The steel is unhardened, but the rolling process work-hardened it quite a bit, so cutting out the blank has been a hard work, even with a bi-metal blade in a metal-cutting frame saw. After cutting the strip, I have annealed the steel with a gas soldering lamp: "

In ten years time, when you need the next one, if you remember to anneal the steel before you start work on cutting it out you'll save a lot of time and innocent saw teeth

Very well done. =D>

 

[jimi43]

Hi Janos

Brilliant my friend and great patience in holding that iron for 10 minutes at hardening temperature and getting it right!

It is one of the most satisfying things in the world to make your own tools and irons are surprisingly easy if you are only using tool steel...it's getting it and keeping it at the hardening temperature that is vital.

Anyone who has attempted to cut and shape steel with only hand tools will sympathise with you on the amount of effort required...but it is worth it in my opinion. I don't know if you remember this one I had to make for a Spiers infill I got without an iron....

Internal cuts are the worst...so you were quite brave in attempting that as a first iron!

I don't have as much of a problem with the hardening though using the old kiln....

....but I would use vegetable oil (cheap type)...rather than engine oil...Tubal Cain in his book suggests this could be dangerous but there are others who would disagree...

I'm not chancing it!

But one thing is certain...when you get beautiful shavings from your own iron....

....nothing else is ever the same again!

Sorry if you have seen the above pictures in a previous thread...I just wanted to join and support you in the success of your first and may it not be the last!

Jim

 

[János]

Hello to all,

Thank you for your kind comments. I like "do it yourselfing" :wink: Keeping the steel hot enough for ten minutes was not that hard, albeit the soldering lamp is a little bit underpowered for heating plane blades... Unfortunately, I do not have such a handy little furnace like Jim's. It resembles an enameler's furnace closely... And indispensable for such a wide and long plane iron than yours, Jim, as that requires lots of heat to fire it red hot.

I used motor oil, because it is less prone to boil over or catch fire, and has less odour than sunflower oil. It is much thicker too, so the steel cools down slower in it, I think.

Have a nice day,

János

 

[Aled Dafis]

I've been on the lookout for one of those for ages, really handy for heat treating blades etc. It's quite difficult to find one big enough to take full size irons as most are intended for enamelling small pieces of jewellery.

Should you happen to find one on a sunday morning Jim, please pick it up for me, I'm sure we could come to some agreement as to reimbursement.

Cheers
Aled

 

[jimi43]

It is indeed an enamel kiln Janos...another bootfair find a few years ago....and dirt cheap. It just fits a No.7 size iron...just! But that's enough for me.

You can occasionally find them relatively cheap on FleaBay but you have to keep looking. With a decent digital thermometer and an eye on the rise and fall around the critical temperature (780 to 815 deg)...you can get superb results.

Aled...of course I will mate. But try FleaBay too....you never know....

Jimi

 

[Aled Dafis]

It is indeed an enamel kiln Janos...another bootfair find a few years ago....and dirt cheap. It just fits a No.7 size iron...just! But that's enough for me.

You can occasionally find them relatively cheap on FleaBay but you have to keep looking. With a decent digital thermometer and an eye on the rise and fall around the critical temperature (780 to 815 deg)...you can get superb results.

Aled...of course I will mate. But try FleaBay too....you never know....

Jimi

I had a search running on ebay for about 6 months which was quite fruitful, but they were all £150+ :shock: :shock:

Aled

 

[matthewwh]

Nice job Janos! (and Jim)

I hope you will be enjoying a bit more metalworking now that the seal has been broken.

I know the pleasure of making it is what it's all about, but seeing your production process doesn't half make me appreciate what good value 'off the peg' ones are.

I followed a link in another thread to Nic Westermann's excellent site earlier today, I really fancy having a go at making one of these:

 

[Aled Dafis]

Same here Matthew, I had a quick go at school but made a real pigs ear of it, hence needing some tuition!!

 

[matthewwh]

It's a really lovely craft to learn, you start looking at objects around you in a whole new way and unlike wood you can make things bigger as well as smaller - it almost feels like breaking the rules!