Ray Iles Carbon Steel Replacement Plane Irons

These traditionally made irons by Ray Iles revive a lost feature of traditional blade making: the warp created in the process of hardening the steel. When the irons are ground after hardening, it�s not uncommon for a few thousandths of the warp to remain. This is actually a good thing. What Ray does is check every iron for concavity and then grind the bevel on the side that is slightly convex. What you end up with is an iron with edges that quickly contact the stone, so you get a quick area of flatness right next to the edge where it matters. But that�s not all…. Over time as you sharpen the iron, you will chase the burr front and back, and slowly wear the back. If the back of the iron was initially flat, you would not only have a lot more wear and tear on your stones as you flattened the entire back, but chasing the burr would round over the edge of the iron, requiring eventual re-grinding of the tool. With a slightly concave back, the flat portion at the edge just makes its way up the blade as the blade wears.

In Japan they also ensure that back of every tool is a little concave, but there in this done by explicitly forging in a deep hollow. In the West the hollow is always very fine. In the old days, all irons were made this way. Then companies stopped checking to ensure they put the bevel on the convex side, and so we, the customers, had a real chore to get a blade in order, and in response, companies decided to just ensure the irons were very, very flat. The funny part about this is that nowadays you can buy instructional videos explaining how to sharpen the flat back of a tool and create an artificial hollow. We hope Ray�s initiative to go back to a fine concavity will catch on.

We think you will be really pleased by how easy to sharpen and maintain these irons are, and of course what a great edge you will get. The bench plane irons are all around 0.115″ thick and the block plane irons are about 0.100″. The extra thickness over a standard Stanley iron also translates into superior performance. Made in England.