Page 39 - Australian Wood Review №103 2019

TOOLS & EQUIPMENT

6 7

A2 was considered to be a big
advancement over O1 because it is
much harder and holds an edge for

longer. But I’ve found there are some
issues with A2 steel, the major one
being that the edge shatters as it
wears and you can just see this with
the naked eye, or more readily with

a magnifying glass. You might think
that this is because of the harder
woods that we use in Australia but
the same effect is seen with European

and North American woods.

The fix is to sharpen A2 steel at 35°
instead of the more usual 30°. This
works for most bench chisels and 8

for bevel down planes. However for
paring chisels and bevel up planes
you do want to be able to use lower working temperatures. They are called recent development has been the
cutting angles of 25-30°. high speed steel for their ability to addition of alloys such as vanadium.

run at high speed, for example when Vanadium carbide particles are
A2 chisels and blades are available cutting metal. The extra hardness also very small and wear resistant
from Lie-Nielsen, Veritas, Blue makes HSS more difficult to sharpen but vanadium tends to fall out of
Spruce and other high end suppliers. although modern composite water suspension as molten steel cools.
Replacement A2 blades are also stones do so without too much trouble.

available for older Stanley and In woodworking, HSS is most often To solve this problem high vanadium
Record planes. For chisels expect to found in lathe tools which are usually steel is sprayed through a very small
pay $80 – $100. sharpened on a grinding wheel. HNT nozzle into a vacuum chamber to
Gordon also offers HSS blades for their cool into a fine powder. This powder
High speed steel (HSS) hand planes. can now be compressed and rolled

These steels have additional elements into sheets like any other steel. The
like tungsten, vanadium, cobalt or Powder metals (PMV) resultant product is incredibly fine
molybdenum which allow the hardened Powder metal technology has been grained highly wear resistant steel
steel to resist softening at very high around for a long time but a more that will take a keen edge and hold it.

www.woodreview.com.au 39