# Jointer Plane Iron: Camber or not?



## 12strings (Nov 15, 2011)

Let the Debate begin! On your Jointer plane, do you have a slight camber on the iron, or straight accross? Please defend your choice with evidence!!! Are you completely happy with your choice or tempted to try the other?

I'm undecided. I definitely am sold on a pretty radical camber for my scrub/Jack Plane for rough work, and I think I'm going to be a Straight blade guy for the smoother, but jointer/try plane, I'm not sure.

What say you?


----------



## Loren (May 30, 2008)

If you plan to use it for jointing boards I would recommend a 
square grind. A cambered iron gives you less width to work
with when joining wider boards. It is not unknown to skew 
a jointer plane a bit and a cambered iron's geometry does
not favor this technique.

However in flattening boards a camber may serve your
preferences by taking a narrower, deeper cut and 
reducing surface "steps" which need removal out later.


----------



## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

Slight camber, relieved corners.


----------



## sikrap (Mar 15, 2009)

No camber for me on jointers, but I may give it a try.


----------



## Milo (Apr 24, 2009)

I'm forced to have a slight camber, mine ancient jointer won't go flat!


----------



## jmos (Nov 30, 2011)

I camber. I had mine flat with relieved corners and ended up putting some minor, but noticeable plane tracks in some work pieces. It took a lot of extra work to get them out.

I could see having a straight blade for edges and a slightly cambered blade for faces, or two planes set up each way.


----------



## Smile_n_Nod (Jan 20, 2011)

For jointing, a cambered iron makes it much easier to correct an out-of-square edge. True, the edge is not "perfectly" flat (it's slightly concave, to make the profile of the iron), but even when using an iron cambered by about 0.006" at the edges, I can joint a 3/4" wide board so I can't fit a 0.0015" feeler gauge between a try square and the center of the board.


----------



## barringerfurniture (Sep 17, 2013)

I'm about to spend a good part of a day tomorrow tuning up tools. Up until now, I've had cambers of various degrees on all but block planes without a lot of logic. But I think tomorrow, I'm gonna try grinding everything straight with just slightly rounded off corners to prevent tearing at edges. If I owned a scrub, that might be an exception.To answer the original question, my jointer has always been straight with eased corners. I wouldn't really call it a camber. And I do it freehand.


----------



## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

relieved corners, no camber on my jointers.


----------



## Benvolio (Feb 10, 2013)

straight on my 7 and slight camber on my 6.

that way I use my 7 as a dedicated edge jointer and my fore plane picks up flattening operations where the jack has been.

Besides, it's less hassle to surface your surfaces with the lighter number 6 as you're lugging less iron about.


----------

