Ken Pendergrass wrote:
>  If one starts with a well made antique toothed blade, that is one
>  which is nearly flat before tuning, one can have very narrow, pin
>  like, mini plane blades as I think of it.

I have 2 toothing planes in my posession, one being a rather old P. Law
dated at perhaps 1787-1833 here:

http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/get.phtml?message_i-
d=80247&submit_thread=1#message

The other is a rather newer looking "Reaney + Woods".

The older blade is narrower at 1 3/4" against 2", but otherwise the
blades are extremely similar.

The blades were examined under a 10x loupe.

The teeth exist for around 1 1/2" at the end of the blade. At the
commencement of the teeth (an uneven line across the blade) there is a
simple 'V' groove, which start quite shallow and becomes a little deeper
towards the (sharp!) end of the the blade.

However, the apex of the peaks between the grooves also become sloped
towards the end of the blade, and the slopes are very slightly concave.

I'm afraid my digital camera is broken, so I have prepared a diagram
here: http://www.wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/details.php?image_id=4553

I am not sure wether the sloped convex face was made with a separate
tool, or if the tool used to make the groove forces the little peak and
slope into existence simultaneiously with making the groove. The
processz appears to be one of either punching or moulding (as opposed to
grinding). The older blade is substantially flared in the area of the
teeth, supporting the notion of metal being moved (not removed).

Given this cross section, if the blade is sharpened with a normal bevel,
the tooth shape is simply an exaggerated version of the cross section,
and does NOT (sorry Ken) have a flat leading face of any size
whatsoever.

    BugBear
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