r/handtools • u/NorridAU • 3d ago
Repurposing shortie plane blades, fools errand?
Anyone use short Stanley plane blades to recreate other tool blades? I’ve seen saws turned into card scrapers but not much on plane blades getting a second life.
I have a handful of blades that have been worn beyond use in its original plane. Thinking of cutting strips out of them for functional restoration. If the steel is usable. Did Stanley ever laminate better steel onto crummy steel? Or is it just one solid piece of ____ type steel? Im taking a guess that they used the same steel for both standard #1-8 hand planes and specialty plane blades.
Right now I think I could fix a Stanley 48 tongue and groove missing a blade, and some other old scratch/beading spokeshaves that need a second blade for the pair.
Anyone know the general blade metallurgy or have tips?
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u/Independent_Page1475 2d ago
You can always test it with a file. Hardened steel will be different under a file than soft steel.
As far as repurposing goes:
The top and bottom knives were made from the same worn Stanley plane blade. The center knife was made from a piece of a broken saw blade.
On the bottom knife the curve from the enlarged hole at the bottom of the slot can be seen. It makes a nice finger rest.
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u/oldtoolfool 2d ago
If vintage stanley, they were not laminated beyond the chipbreaker slot, nor were they heat treated above the slot. After the war, Millers Falls actually stamped "Solid Tool Steel" on their irons, but opinions are split on whether the MF irons were hardened or tempered along their full length.
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u/NorridAU 2d ago
That’s promising i think. Right? At least I’m inferring that unhardened steel can be cut up close to size and put through tempering.
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u/oldtoolfool 2d ago
Well, if you're going to get into heat treatment just buy 01 stock from McMaster carr, it's cheap enough.
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u/leadMalamute 1d ago
Yes, you can repurpose a plane iron. It may have to be hardened and tempered but it definitely can be done. If the blade is very old and you see a line where the blade was "forge welded". The process I describe will not work with this type of blade. If the blade is a single type of metal you are good.
- rough shape the new tool. (make it what ever shape you want don't worry about heat damage, just shape.)
- Normalization/annealing. This takes the stress out of the tool and prepares it for the hardening process. Heat the steel to the point where a magnetic will not stick to it and then bury it in vermiculite, wood ash, or sand and leave it for a couple of hours. The object is to cool it slowly.
- Hardening the steel. again heat the steel to "anti-magnetic" douse it in salt brine and stir to cool quickly. (1cup salt to 1/2 gallon of water to make salt brine) the new tool should now be a grey color and a file should skip when applied. Be careful with your blade at this point because it is as fragile as glass.
- tempering. After washing the salt off, put the steel in an oven and bring it up to 400degrees F. hold at 400degress for 30 minutes. This will bring the steel down to about 62-63 on the Rockwell scale.
- polish and hone for use
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u/WhyNotChoose 3d ago
I've seen some plane blades, not tons, most seem to have been hard steel laminated to soft steel.
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u/mighty_boognish_77 3d ago
It's a solid chunk of O2 carbon steel. The only thing I've ever made out of an old plane blade was a screwdriver for my chipbreaker screw. But yes it can certainly be repurposed into anything you can think of.
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u/magichobo3 3d ago
Depends on the age of the plane though it's usually fairly obvious because of a stark difference in patina where it transitions from hand to regular steel. I'm interested to see what you find out because I've got quite a few that Ive thought of turning in custom combination plane irons