Dear Tool Producer... - The English Woodworker

…why can’t you make thick irons laminated?

Why is it that my Grandad doesn’t grind. My Dad doesn’t have a grinder. And up till me shopping for swanky instruments, I by no means needed to grind?

Exhausting steels and thick irons.

It’s a mixture which wasn’t present in my Grandad’s workshop.
And that thick hard metal takes some going to put on by way of.  So out comes the grinder.

This contemporary ‘enchancment’ to our irons places a spanner within the works of any old-fashioned sharpening routine.
A routine must be systematic, however what’s distinctive about an strategy to softer steels and thinner irons, is that we can be progressive.
It turns into a really swift cycle which permits us to repeatedly optimise to the duty.

Sharpening thick, hard irons additionally needs to be systematic, however this time it’s inflexible.

I’ll clarify this additional one other time, however what’s essential is that they differ. And to be environment friendly all through our work we have to acknowledge this and strategy them in a different way once we sharpen.

A contemporary thick iron alongside the iron from my Stanley. Not solely is there extra metal to work away, however the metal is rather a lot more durable as well.

However my query stays.

Might we now have trendy instruments, with thick laminated irons?

It might make our routine much less disjointed.

Older thick irons, reminiscent of in picket planes have been principally laminated. A skinny layer hard sufficient to take the sting, was given mass from softer metal that could possibly be labored away shortly. Generally, tender sufficient to make use of a file. No grinder was wanted.

With their extraordinarily hard steels, the Japanese take this a step additional and hole out the again. As a result of no woodworker ought to spend extra time working away metal than wood. Oh, and they"re laminated additionally.

Right here the skinny Stanley iron is seen with an previous picket aircraft iron. There’s numerous additional thickness within the previous iron, nevertheless it’s nonetheless quick to work, as the majority of the bevel is delicate sufficient to file away.

A pleasant thick iron might be very welcome at sure levels of a undertaking.

So might this be viable?
Is it inefficient value clever to laminate two metal varieties collectively? Even when it dramatically lowers the quantity of fancy metal used?
Or is it simply an unknown want?

Planes made in the present day from the likes of Veritas, Lie Nielsen are genuinely excellent. However they’ll by no means be as versatile as my previous Stanley due to this.

I don’t anticipate you to reply that.
However we"re nonetheless taking in your personal sharpening associated questions via the Pre-order of our new video collection.

Thanks to everyone whose queries have already been acquired, there’s an amazing selection and we’re now making a begin going by way of the planning of that last chapter.
Should you do have a query and haven’t requested but, then remember to do it in the present day, as Chapter One will probably be up and operating tomorrow. Extra particulars could be discovered right here.

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