Popular Woodworking 2001-02 № 120, страница 29
"lateral adjustment" lever can be adjusted a tiny bit to compensate for small errors.) If you're a little sloppy at the stone, lateral adjustment will help you compensate for your less-than-per-fect edge. However, the downside to lateral adjustment is that it's one more thing that can fall out of adjustment, so tuning up a plane with this feature will take longer. • Preparing the blade for use: The blade that comes with your plane could be ready to use out of the box (though this is unlikely), or it could be so messed up it's good only as a bookmark. First you must flatten the back of your blade before you sharpen it (much like you flattened the sole), then you grind a bevel on the front edge, and finally you hone and strop your cutting edge. In general, we recommend a cutting angle of 25°. Though some manufacturers grind their blades to 20°, we've found edges at this angle are more susceptible to crumbling during use, which means you'll be sharpening more. The only way to find the ideal cutting angle is to experiment a bit over the years and find what's best for you. Also, some catalog companies carry aftermarket blades that are of higher quality than the stock blade that came with your bargain plane. Woodcraft (800-225-1153) carries blades by Hock and Samurai. Lee Valley Tools (800-871-8158) carries blades by Hock and blades they manufacture themselves. • Blade adjustment: In all the planes tested here, you turn a knob to increase or decrease the height of the blade. What's important to note is how sloppy these knobs are. On some planes, you have to turn the knob almost 360 degrees before the blade will budge. On other planes, the adjustment is far more sensitive and requires little or no spinning. Also, pay attention to how low-angle block planes at a glance finely the adjustment works — we measured this by seeing how many turns it took to move the blade 1/16". In the world of block planes, we prefer finer adjustment because the difference between a perfect shaving and a torn up piece of wood is a tiny movement of the blade. • Blade thickness: The thicker the blade, the less chatter you'll get. Inexpensive planes have irons that are just over 5/64" thick (.08"). More expensive planes have blades that are about 1/8" (.125") thick. Aftermarket blades, such as those from Hock and Lee Valley, weigh in at a beefy 3/32" (.094") thick. Testing All these planes were tested with their stock blades. First the sole of the plane and the back of the blade were lapped flat (if needed). We then ground the cutting edge square to the sides, and then honed and stropped a secondary bevel. Finally, the planes were put to use. All ratings are on a scale of one to five, with "one" being unacceptable and "five" being outstanding. A couple notes on the categories these planes were judged on. "Turns to move 1/16"" indicates how many full turns of the height adjustment knob were necessary to move the blade forward 1/16". "Height knob slop" indicates how much we needed to turn the height knob before the blade would move either in or out. And "throat/blade variance" indicates how much wider the plane's throat is compared to the blade. No matter which plane you choose, from $40 to $600, rest assured that you will be able to tune it after some practice to produce perfect shavings. The only question is how easy that tuning will be and how good-looking you want your tool to be. PW
Bridge City CT-7 Bridge City 800-253-3332 www.bridgecitytools.com
This is a beautiful plane, well-finished and machined with a solid brass body that's double-dovetailed to the steel sole.The edges are beveled to give a smooth feel in the hand, and the overall impression is that of a piece of jewelry. That said, we found the machining on the throat plate to be a little loose. The pommel was placed a little further back on the plane and felt less comfortable to some of us than other planes.The cap lock-down screw, mounted underthe cap, works smoothly and is easily accessible. Howevei; if you back out the blade a bit too much the cap will come loose, so be careful.The CT-7 does not have lateral adjustment, so hone up on your sharpening skills. But the blade (shipped at a 20' bevel) takes a nice edge and performs quite well. If anything goes wrong with this tool, Bridge City will recalibrate it or replace it for $5.If the Lie-Nielsen plane is a Mercedes-Benz, then the Bridge City is a Lamborghini — with the associated price and eccentricities. 29 Popular Woodworking February 2001 |
