I finally found a reference today about why the second iron is referred to as a chipbreaker. Not that everything has literal names, but I learned to use the chipbreaker on my own without reading texts about it. the texts have been around, but apparently nobody else bothered to read them and understand their usefulness.
10 years later, I found the dandy reference about planing in holtzapffel's 1875 update, which is available here on google books, and there, too. Of course, we are aware of the straightening of the shavings, and years later, the probably never fully translated guide from the japanese professors who experimented ultimately for industrial purposes (the result is the marunaka supersurfacer) attempted at the end to figure out how to describe setting of the double iron in a japanese plane. they faffed around in their language because there isn't a distance set and it's not as convenient to set the cap iron in a japanese plane for a few different reasons - their resulting comment was "when the shaving length is shorter" or something along those lines. When a shaving straightens, it's compressed a little and is shorter than the planed length. I never noticed that or checked it and it's been too long since I saw a partial translation to know if they also said straight. But that also didn't provide any clarity about why it's called a "chip breaker" rather than bender or straightener.
however, reading the newly found holtzappfel book, which has better-than-modern or "i learned in 1960s experts" (like paul sellers) instructions for sharpening, the text describes the straightening of the shaving when smoothing.
but then describes that when setting the cap iron on a jack plane, the action of holding the shaving down will actually break it resulting in segmented shavings coming from the plane. This is certainly the case - the jack plane shavings will break if the cap iron is set close. We only typically set the cap iron closer on a jack plane when it's a necessity, and it isn't on well sawn wood. I've only casually thought maybe the shavings were breaking because the wood just didn't have a great sawn orientation.
10 years later, I found the dandy reference about planing in holtzapffel's 1875 update, which is available here on google books, and there, too. Of course, we are aware of the straightening of the shavings, and years later, the probably never fully translated guide from the japanese professors who experimented ultimately for industrial purposes (the result is the marunaka supersurfacer) attempted at the end to figure out how to describe setting of the double iron in a japanese plane. they faffed around in their language because there isn't a distance set and it's not as convenient to set the cap iron in a japanese plane for a few different reasons - their resulting comment was "when the shaving length is shorter" or something along those lines. When a shaving straightens, it's compressed a little and is shorter than the planed length. I never noticed that or checked it and it's been too long since I saw a partial translation to know if they also said straight. But that also didn't provide any clarity about why it's called a "chip breaker" rather than bender or straightener.
however, reading the newly found holtzappfel book, which has better-than-modern or "i learned in 1960s experts" (like paul sellers) instructions for sharpening, the text describes the straightening of the shaving when smoothing.
but then describes that when setting the cap iron on a jack plane, the action of holding the shaving down will actually break it resulting in segmented shavings coming from the plane. This is certainly the case - the jack plane shavings will break if the cap iron is set close. We only typically set the cap iron closer on a jack plane when it's a necessity, and it isn't on well sawn wood. I've only casually thought maybe the shavings were breaking because the wood just didn't have a great sawn orientation.
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