Stay Gold

This is my Lie Nielsen No.4 smoothing plane in bronze with a few customizations. The original A2 steel has been replaced with a Tsunesaburo blade and the knob and tote have been changed from cherry to walnut. Aesthetics aside, there are a few functional improvements which can be made. A wise woodworker shared the following fettling tips with me yesterday. 

The yoke engages a very sharp steel slot in the cap iron. You can see here that it's already started to score the soft bronze of the yoke. This is on a plane that has never touched wood... 

If you look closely you can also see evidence of the bite on the cap iron, the sharp steel edge has deposits of bronze. 

The fix is to take a diamond file and break the sharp edge, top and bottom. 

A little oil on the lever cap hinge pivot goes a long way too. 

Eastern Function | Western Form

A Tsunesaburo plane blade arrived today from Stuart Tierney @ www.toolsfromjapan.com. I've wanted to experiment with a laminated eastern style blade on a western plane for some time now. I'll post results once I've had a chance to flatten the back, sharpen and put the iron to use. 

Japanese packaging is always meticulous, it's something i appreciate. 

The cutting edge steel is called hagane and it is forged to a softer piece of steel called the jigane.