Bedrock 605 1/2 restore

A blade from a respected, top-of-the-line vendor, such as Ron Hock, should not need that much help in my opinion. Unless there was an understanding that the blade you were buying would need a lot of work, I would send that back. A little honing here and there is one thing; this is quite another.

I say give him a chance to make it right—my guess is he will.

I agree. I was surprised! I’ve been working for about 45 mins straight on it on a 120 grit diamond stone and I’m only have way there. I may send it back. It’s O2 steel too not A2. I can only imagine how long it would take in A2.

-- Greg, Owner, Quality Carpet One, www.qualitycarpetonecrofton.com

BerBer5985: This is not to say that you are doing anything wrong, but when I first took the plunge into hand tool woodworking, I had a somewhat similar experience to yours. I had purchased some Lie-Nielsen planes and was having difficulty flattening the back, I went as far as to send one of the blades back for analysis (Lie-Nielsen is really good about stuff like that). While the blade was en route, I was still trying (with another blade) to get it right and was able to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Again, this is not to say that you are doing anything wrong (how would I know, you never actually stated what you are doing to flatten the back), there very well could be something wrong with the blade. Just wanted to relate my experience.

Good luck.

Steven

I’m trying to figure it out myself. Seems like it shouldn’t take this long. I’m using a DMT Diasharp 120 grit diamond stone. All pressure flat across the blade and the diamond plate. The blade itself seems slightly bowed, like when I set it on a flat granite countertop laying flat, it will rock like there’s a high point right in the middle, which is what the flattening is showing. This is the first high end end new blade I;ve purchased, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I would imagine that it would lapped fairly flat. None of my veritas planes needed anywhere near this amount of work. A little, but very little. 10-15 mins total to flatten the back.

-- Greg, Owner, Quality Carpet One, www.qualitycarpetonecrofton.com

I got a 2 1/4” hock, and it was miserable trying to get it flat too. Unimpressed

Nice looking plane!

That’s a sweet bedrock, Berber. That’s the smaller sized 5 1/2, right? I have a couple of the rounded side bedrocks and think they’re great, although not a attractive as the flat sides in my opinion.

Let us know what Hock says and then get that badboy making some shavings! :-)

-- "hold fast to that which is good"

great job on the restore.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

I am surprised to hear that people are having a problem with Hock blades, and I agree with the comments to give him a chance to make it right. He seems like a world class guy to me, and I have had a great experience with his products.

GREAT job with the restore!

-- PaulMayer, http://www.vernswoodgoods.com

Nice Job Greg! Sorry to hear that about the Hock blade. Please update us when you get a resolution. Thanks for posting.

-- ~Tony

I’m not hugely upset with the hock blade or anything, just didn’t meet expectations out if the box. I’m thinking once I get back flat that the notion will change. It could just be onebad blade out if the bunch. Who knows! Either way thanks for the kind words on the restore. After doing one and discovering electrolysis, the 2nd one went much faster and smoother. They are really pretty easy to restore. Once I get the back flattened on that blade, I’ll give it some good testing. The chipbreaker that I ordered with the blade is perfect, so I’m sure theblade will be just fine after some more work.

-- Greg, Owner, Quality Carpet One, www.qualitycarpetonecrofton.com

Hi Greg,

I apologize for the out-of-flatness of your blade. The demand is quite small for the 2-1/4” (#5-1/2) blades so we continue to make them right here in our back-yard shop instead of having them made in the factory in France. The difference is that our small shop doesn’t have the surface grinder necessary to flatten blades after heat treatment, which is where distortion (non-flattness) happens. We try to weed out blades that are TOO out of flat but sometimes one gets past us. Yours is especially nasty in that it appears to be convex across the back which makes it all the more difficult to flatten. They usually cup slightly (a few thou at most) during hardening which is much easier to correct. Please accept my apology and contact me off-list (you can use the mail form at www.hocktools.com) to arrange for a replacement.

While waiting for your replacement blade to arrive, why not give the ruler trick a try? You’ll be getting a new blade anyway so you have nothing to lose. After only a few seconds of flattening (no kidding), you’ll be able to use the blade you have until the new one shows up. Not everyone agrees with it, and you shouldn’t use it for chisels, but it saves an immense amount of time on plane irons. Worth a try, IMHO.

My compliments on the beautiful job you’re doing on the restoration. Nice work!

Ron Hock
www.hocktools.com

-- Ron Hock, www.hocktools.com

Wow, that is some impressive customer service. Good luck with the new blade.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that at all! Thank you so much! Believe me, I didn’t come on here to bad mouth products and I know sometimes it happens. I was just thinking I had unrealistic expectations for the blade. Even when I bought my Stanley chisels recently, they needed a fair amount of flattening, so I wasn’t expecting to have to do nothing to the back, but I was amazed how much this one required. Now the chipbreaker I’m very impressed by. Very nice! I really appreciate the customer service! Thank you so much! Where should I send the info? Do you need to mail this blade back to you now or later? Also, will the ruler trick work with a 8” x 3” stone? I’ve seen Rob Cosman do it on his website but he has the shapton stones which I believe are 4×10”.

-- Greg, Owner, Quality Carpet One, www.qualitycarpetonecrofton.com

Greg – I use the ruler trick on my 8”x3” waterstones and it works great.

-- Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.

ok, i’ll be the one to ask.

What is the ruler trick?

-- San Diego, CA