[Mike in TN]

Woodcraft offers replacement blades for their WoodRiver line of planes that can be used for other planes. They were advertised as O1 steel in the past and I believe they still are. They are much thicker blades than original manufacturer blades so that the chip breaker screw may or may-not work and the depth adjustment may have some issues with your planes. I have not had any problems with mine so far but you may have with your particular planes. I also had to file the mouth of one of my planes to account for the thicker blade even after adjusting the frog all of the way back but I understand that is common for the thicker blades on the market.

The blades add extra heft and I find the extra thickness at the bevel provides easier registration for freehand sharpening. While I don’t normally buy a lot from Woodcraft due to the cost, these replacement blades seem reasonable when compared to some of the other thick replacement blades being offered. So far they have given me very good service compared to original blades and the competitor thick replacement blades at a much lower cost.

Have fun

Topic

[Robert Porter]

#2029171

Ouch, You don’t have to file the mouth on a plane. There are a couple of options really. Try shifting the frog back a touch to allow for the additional thickness and if that does’t work finding irons for older planes isn’t hard. If you can’t find an iron you need just ask and I’ll try to help. But please don’t file anymore mouths if you can at all help it.

[Mike in TN]

#2029172

Hi Robert,

I understand where you are coming from but my planes are not museum pieces. After all, normally we have to de-rust, de-burr, flatten, refinish, and do all manner of other things (including filing the mouths on some occasions) to our old planes before we can put them to use.  Stanley made them by the millions and they are still readily available. Frog adjustment alone is not enough to allow the use of these blades on some planes. Slightly modifying a couple (out of the couple of hundred in the pile) just a tad didn’t seem such an issue, The amount of filing necessary is just enough to pass the shaving in a smoother and is small enough that the mouth still closes up with simple frog adjustment for a standard blade.

There has been a lot of buzz about the thicker blades being offered on the market and I had quite a bit of experience with thicker blades from my wooden planes, some of my non-Stanley transitional planes, some of my new planes, and one thick aftermarket blade from a different source, so I thought I would give these a try. I have extra original blades and new original thickness aftermarket blades, so getting a blade really wasn’t the issue. These blades were simply being mentioned as an alternative to the much more expensive, thicker, aftermarket blades being offered. Instructions for those will often mention the high probability that the mouths of the old planes may need to be modified.

The thicker blades add heft, resist chatter, make it easier for registration during freehand sharpening, and the modern steels seem be ever so slightly better than the original blades. Original blades will do the work well enough but I do like the thicker blades.

By all means, if you have a museum piece then don’t modify it.

Have fun.

[Author]

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