The cutters on my James Swan hollow auger are ground like plane blades
and, as far as I can tell, must be that way since they are bedded at 0
degrees.  If they were beveled on both sides, the bevel on the bottom
side would interfere with the surface just cut.

Is the iron in the Stearns bedded at a non-zero angle?

Blake  

>>> Gregory Isola  08/03/06 10:55 AM >>>
Tim ponders the counterintuitive sharpening of hollow auger blades:

I think the blade is sharpened wrong: Its sharpened on both sides (like
a
knife) rather than just on one side (like a normal plane blade).

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Nope, that's correct, at least for the popular Stearns models. Quick
quote
from G.N. Stearns's 3/5/78 patent (#201,064):

"...this cutter is bevelled on both sides, so that it can be reversed,
and
wear either side up alternately to equalize it."

So it's an efficiency issue, but it doesn't adversely affect the
actual
cutting action of the auger. My Stearns hollow auger does require a
fair
amount of fiddling upon initial setup, but once I get everything in
place,
it cuts tenons like a champ.

Greg Isola
Alameda, CA

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