Premium Replacement Hand Plane Blades

Two ways to instantly enhance the performance of almost any vintage or economy bench plane are by replacing the standard iron with a thicker one and upgrading the chip breaker. This is particularly crucial for smoothing or jack planes and those used on challenging woods. It's important to note that vintage planes were originally crafted for carpenters working with softwoods, not the harder woods typically encountered in modern workshops.

The thin irons commonly found in most bench planes, especially in economy, Stanley, and Bailey planes, may be faster to hone but are excessively flexible and struggle to withstand the significant stresses at the cutting edge. This typically leads to chatter and tearout. Taytools premium blades are a full 1/8” thick, have a 25-degree bevel, and come lapped, requiring minimal effort to hone to a razor edge.

Chip breakers on vintage and economy planes are thin and have a bent or formed edge that will not always mate well with the back of the blade. While thin vintage chip breakers can aid in stiffening the iron, they will never do so as effectively as a thicker chip breaker will. Taytools' premium chip breakers are a full 1/8” thick and have a machined end that mates much better with the back of plane blades.

Plane Tip: The best way to tame tearout is to set the edge of your chip breaker as close as possible to the edge of your plane blade. This breaks chips long before they can turn into tearout.

Investing in a new, thick replacement iron and chip breaker makes a truly remarkable difference in the overall performance of your hand planes.