bench planes – tapered or parallel blades?
Although this article is about blades used in wooden planes, there is an interesting parallel between the blade choices available to wooden plane users at …
bench planes – thick or thin irons?
From the time they were introduced in the 1860s by Leonard Bailey until quite recently, metal bench planes were supplied with thin irons. On paper …
Bench planes – blade steel choices
Makers of edge tools, including plane blades, need to be concerned about several different properties of steel: Toughness: This is the ability of the steel …
bench planes – laminated vs steel blades
If you pick up a wooden bench plane from the the last century (there are lots of them about still!) the chances are it will …
Wrought Iron
As discussed in the previous post, plane blades from the 19th century were typically made of a wrought iron backing with a hard steel bit …
Early Steel Making – Blister steel
Bar-iron (also known as wrought iron) was the raw ingredient for creating a form of steel known commonly as blister steel, and blister steel was …
Crucible steel
The crucible steel made in Sheffield maintained a reputation as the best steel in the world for nearly two centuries. This success was built on …
The Bessemer Process
By the 1850s the demand for the high quality steel – driven by the rapidly expanding railway, armaments and ship building industries – was beginning …
Sheffield Crucible steel, end of an era
Crucible steel was still in demand well into the twentieth century, despite competition from the steel created by the spectacularly successful (and much cheaper) large-scale …
laminated plane irons revisited
An earlier post about laminated plane irons asked why manufacturers went to the trouble of making their blades by welding a steel bit on to …