High End Plane Blades

[CStanford]

You definitely shouldn't be ignored.  You should speak up more often! 

[derekcohen]

I think it dodges some experiences and anecdotes. I don't know enough to type date manufacturing processes at either company and only have my own experience for any kind of physical proof in my own mind. And thank you for taking the time to respond.

I am not sure what to write in reply that will convince you otherwise. You ask for anecdotes for proof. Clearly your own experience is enough to convince you otherwise.

I can give you my experiences, which would be counter to yours. Stalemate. Instead I offered you the specs that LV works to. LN does not do this. LV have specialised machinery that surface grind the backs of blades to a flatness that will test the flatness of your sharpening media. LN lap their blades by hand. They have posted video on this. Chris Schwarz confirms this. LN make good tools. I own as many LN planes as I do LV. Every LN blade required lapping at the start. Mostly not a lot. I did not mind and consider it par for the course. This must not be considered a criticism of LN, simply a statement of fact. Every LV blade was ready to go from the start. That is not propaganda. That is also fact.

Flat blade backs are not essential but they do make life easier. The unflatness of Stanley and Record blades is the reason why David Charlesworth came up with his "ruler trick". Flat blade backs do not need the RT. What's not to love about a flat back?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tpt life]

By the way, that video by Chris Schwarz is not appropriate here - the LV blades are in a class of their own when it comes to flatness and preparation.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I am going to respectfully ask you to reconsider making statements so globally forceful as this (after reading your last moderated statement) that sound as statements of scientific fact rather than experiential opinion. This has the effect of making you seem a salesman rather than a mentor. Uniqueness of process does not automatically certify superiority.

[derekcohen]

I am going to respectfully ask you to reconsider making statements so globally forceful as this (after reading your last moderated statement) that sound as statements of scientific fact rather than experiential opinion. This has the effect of making you seem a salesman rather than a mentor. Uniqueness of process does not automatically certify superiority.

 

C Shaffer, do you understood that Chris was demonstrating setting up a plane with LN blades, and the OP asked about setting up his brand new LV plane? Further, that the Chris Schwarz video was about lapping the LN blade, while the LV blade does not require lapping? 

 

My comments come from experience with all these tools, and I offered advice to the OP what to do.

 

I think that you protest too much. What lies behind that?

 

Regards from Perth

 

Derek

[RJsumthn]

With my experience with the blades I just received I think that it is a good practice to take any new blade to your finest stone to start with and see where that takes you. As with my LV blade the 8000 grit stone was all it took but with the Hock blade I realized I need to take it to a courser grit. Polishing the back can only improve a blade regardless of who manufactured it. If I ever get a LN plane I will do the same thing with that blade. Both manufacturers realize the importance of a flat back and they each have their own way of reaching that. Each process can make the back perfectly flat but each process has room for error. 

[CStanford]

Every cutter, chisel, etc. that you own should see your finest stone for thirty or so strokes right off the bat.  If they're not flat, then move back in grit and work them 'til they are then back up through the grits. The absolute worst and bellied cutter I've ever owned took a little over an hour to put right.  I frankly expect to still be getting service out of that cutter when I'm in my mid-70s to put a little perspective on all of this 'stuff.'

 

Otherwise, it's quite possible, actually it's a lead pipe cinch, that you will be making new cutters flat TO THE MEDIA YOU OWN which is at the end of the day the flatness you need and the one that is inevitable anyway.  How many digits to the right of the decimal point a manufacture is capable of working is interesting I suppose, but at the end of the day meaningless in your day-to-day work with your hand tools.  There will always be the crowd for which this sort of thing really gets juices flowing.  All you really need are cutters without egregious inequities.  Your honing media can, will, and should take care of the rest as you bring your tools to a level of truth that you will be able to maintain yourself without a NASA-grade clean room.  Rest assured that it is a fool's errand to work to an externally imposed level of accuracy measured quite literally to three or more decimal places.  If you want to do this sort of thing, then be a homeshop machinist not a craftsman in wood.  If you own implements capable of even making these measurements then you are already heading in the wrong direction.

 

Also, there is never a need to create a back bevel on your fine stone as a supposed aid to honing, regardless of how tiny. If at some future honing you impart a stout and tenacious burr that's a little tough to remove then it's ok to make a slight lift, a very slight lift, ON YOUR STROP FOR  A FEW STROKES.

 

Honing stones should be used to preserve geometry.  Sharpness is mostly a geometric concept/ideal.  Flexing the last bit of the burr and removal of rag and putting a little extra polish (really dubbing) on at the end of things and generally finessing edges is a job for a very judiciously used strop.  And every cutter,chisel, etc. in every instance of shop work doesn't even need this additional treatment.

 

It's good to have shop standard routines.  It's not good to become a judgment-less automaton.