Official Luthiers Forum!

I've never even heard of a chipbreaker before today. Not that I'm the most knowledgeable hand tool guy, but they're obviously not super important for good results, considering that they really don't seem important enough to be in common useage. I'm with the tune it up, hone it properly, and pay attention camp.

_________________
Old growth, shmold growth!

The chipbreaker is only used on bevel down planes (i.e. "bench" planes). Nearly every bevel down plane has one. No bevel up plane ("block" plane) has one. A block plane has a cap iron instead. The cap iron itself, on a bevel up plane, acts as the chipbreaker to hold down the iron. So you probably just don't happen to own any bench planes.

Todd,

I can understand why Stanley added a chipbreaker as their blade is very thin.
Later modern plane maker, like LN or LV, had begun to use thicker iron.
Surely I believe the chipbreaker is not necessary with the thicker iron.
But they do include it; I am just wondering why is that so.

Sen

_________________
-----
Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

each brand has their niche

LN is including the breaker because they are copying the bedrock design - and improving it while retaining the essence of the classic tool
LV seems to be emphasizing the bevel-up designs and thus has omitted the breaker

-jd

re: LV block planes
Their new ones are very, very nice. I tend to use this for larger jobs:

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.a ... 1182,48942

and a LN 60 1/2 for fine work:
http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1216

And I own other LN and Veritas planes as well. Veritas bench planes are kind of a dud, IMHO, but with most everything else I find it's kind of a toss up.

Hey, Todd, I have a Veritas BU Smoother (that's the latest smoother they came out with a couple of years back), and I'm passing it around on another forum for people to try out. I've cut off the list for more folks, but let me know if you want to try it before I take it back. There are a couple still in front of your so you wouldn't see it for maybe a month or two, but you're welcome to take it for a spin on it's way back to me.

I think there's someone out there making replacement handles. The totes on their joinery saws (the ones with the black backs) are the most comfortable I've ever used...I feel cramped on most other saw...but the ones on their planes seem a bit small to me.

I'll let you know when you're up for the smoother.

LV has a new plane iron coming up.
It is said to have sharpness and easy to sharpen like / close to O2 and edge retaining attributes like / better than A2

[url]http://www.popularwoodworking.com/tools/woodworking-hand-tools/veritas’s-new-pm-v11-steel-coming-soon?et_mid=564308&rid=24339297[/url]

_________________
-----
Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

exciting discussion...

_________________
"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Todd, Lie Nielsen does actually make the low angle jointer with the adjustable mouth now. I'm not sure how long they've been doing this, but they are now building them this way.

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=7_5

I think there's no question that the chip breaker reduces chatter in stanley style bevel down plane, which is why Lie Nielsen made the blade thicker as well as the chip breaker thicker than stanley. Most of the wooden planes that use a single irons have thicker tapered blades that get up to 3/16 inches thick, so this may be one reason why they don't need a chipbreaker.

I still think that there is no question that this chipbreaker trick works if it is needed, but for many people it may not be needed at all, and in that case,there's no reason to try it. I personally think that for thicknessing wood, it is best to use a toothed iron followed by a thinly set smoothing plane or scraper. That will work no matter how difficult the grain is.

Jonas

The chipbreaker primarily_applies a preload to the cutting edge_so that the edge doesn't
dig down into the cut. It does not, except in rare (read industrial) applications, 'break the chip'.
If necessarily used, as with the Bailey design, it makes sense to keep it as close to the cutting edge as possible. If you choose to use training wheels, why not have them well set up?

Interesting. Why, in your opinion, do metal-bodied planes have more practicality than others, and how did you learn this?

One of the useful tidbits I learned in school was "try not to have contempt before examination".
It's worth a try.

ps: The Birkenstock bit could be cute, but Stock has used to to death here. Maybe you can
come up with something on your own.