Ken Vaughn writes:

> Your comments concerning a "side relieved" or beveled edge for a #289 
> cutter iron caught my attention.  I assume that you are talking about 
> a blade which is trapezoidal in cross section, like those of the #46 
> skew cutter combination plane.  If this is the case, then my #289 has 
> such a cutter iron.  My #289 was US made and bears the Stanley 
> "Sweetheart" logo.

and

> While re-reading my reply, I began to question whether trapezoidal was 
> the correct geometry description.  Perhaps I should have said that the 
> cross section was a rhomboid, 4 sides parallel but not at right 
> angles.

I, too, have trouble in ascribing the correct names to geometric shapes.

In those of my wooden rebate planes wherein the cutting edge is set skew 
to the line of travel of the plane only the off-side edge or the iron is 
relieved, the near-side edge being square with the front and back faces 
of the iron.  The relief angle is about 45 degrees and the edge 
initially produced by this relief is reasonably sharp although not to a 
degree where it would readily take a shaving from timber.

As a rhombus is an equilateral parallelogram I take it that the shape of 
the section of your iron to which you refer is simply a parallelogram 
which is not a rectangle.  No such luck for me with my #289 which, 
although it has a skewed cutting edge, is simply rectangular in section. 
Maybe my iron is a replacement for the original.  Your iron, with its 
"Sweetheart", logo, would appear to be the original.

Regards from Brisbane,

John Manners 

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