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Home Blog Stanley A6 handplane performance after sharpening the iron (“blade”)

December 23, 2014 By Al Navas

Stanley A6 handplane performance after sharpening the iron (“blade”)

My brother-in-law gave me the (fairly rare) Stanley A6 aluminum handplane as a present recently. Although it needs a little work to improve appearance, I simply wanted to check how it would perform after sharpening the iron (“blade”).

I was interested in sharpening this hand plane right away, as the iron had nice camber to it; this was a signal that the previous owner used it to quickly flatten edges and faces on lumber. My guess is that the camber is about a 6- to 8-inch radius.

What do you think? I still must sharpen a bit more, using my scary sharp setup – five PSA sheets of sandpaper on a large and very flat 1/4-inch plate glass.

I *needed* a longer hand plane, as the Stanley 4-1/2 was the longest I had. This one will do a great job at jointing lumber I will be using for small boxes.

The A6 is technically a foreplane, which falls between the A7/A8 jointer planes, and the #3 and #4 smoothers, and the jack plane, or #5.

As time permits, I might clean up some of the surfaces on the iron, the cap iron, the frog, and the plane body itself. I will probably not replace the broken tote (“handle”).

– Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Hand plane, Tools Tagged With: performance, sharpen, Stanley A6

About Al Navas

I love working with wood, and sharing here on the blog. I also love designing items that my clients will love having in their homes and offices. Please let me know if you need a special piece to share with your loved ones. Freelance, Legal, and Community Interpreter. Love photography.

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