Previously I had bought plane iron upgrade for my block plane and the performance of the block plane greatly increase.
So I took the plunge and got the expensive plane iron upgrade.
I knew I had to open the mouth due to the extreme thickness of the iron and chipbreaker.
It's about 5mm thick each.
The iron was not as sharp out of the box as they had claimed but that is to be expected.
It didn't took long to sharpen the iron though.
The chipbreaker was sharp too :) I had a nasty cut on my index finger while sharpening them.
Anyway, I opened the plane iron mouth at the body and adjust the frog back.
I screwed the chipbreaker to plane iron leaving about 1mm between them.
Then I place in the iron assembly in the frog.
At a certain point, I couldn't adjust forward the iron it was stuck somehow...
I check and I thought I had problem with the frog but that wasn't the cause of the problem.
It was the screw hole in the chipbreaker was knocking against the holding screw for the plane iron at the frog.
The IBC did not make the hole large enough...
That was a design flaw!!!
Anyway as a workaround, I set the chipbreaker back leaving more gap between the iron edge, about 4-5mm gap.
Now the iron manage to protrude the mouth.
I test on pine wood and it cuts great leaving a very smooth surface.
I email Rob Cosman about it and he replied promptly.
He said it's was probably due to the different placement of the frog screw in my pre-war Stanley #5 Jack.
He had pass along my email to IBC.
Anyway he added that he didn't quite believe in the chipbreaker...
Well if he didn't believe int he chipbreaker then why bother to make one then?
Well I don't expect them to reply any further.
So much for a customer service.
I checked my other plane iron by Lee Valley which I use for my Stanley #4.
The chipbreaker was oval in shape and had big allowance for movement.
A check online with Hock chipbreaker also reveals an oval shape.
So why cant they just make an oval shape?
Anyway I use my file and open up the screw hole in the chipbreaker
Now I can set the chipbreaker near the iron edge and still be able to move the iron forward.
I works even better now!
The IBC chipbreaker stuck at the screw! Unable to adjust more forward. The iron didnt even protrude the mouth!
Close up
Lee Valley plane iron. Tee chipbreaker has a oval shape and there are ample allowance for movement.
The closeup clearly shows ample allowance for plane iron movement.
Openning up the screw hole in the chipbreaker
Now can set the chipbreaker close to the iron cutting edge.
Close mouth
Ample allowance for adjustment.
Cuts great! This is a good product but need to rework it to make it work.
The plane surface is very smooth and has a slight gleam to it. (Just like my Japanese kanna). Very good plane iron to have (minus the design flaw that is)
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