sharp/dull blade drawing Berg Ekilstuna small map
Finest abrasives.
Microbevels front and back.
Use a jig.
Copyright (c) 2002-15, Brent Beach

Test Summary

A high carbon steel blade from a Swedish company.

The edge was durable, retaining a smooth edge during use.

Berg Ekilstuna

This iron came from a Stanley Defiance style plane, a second line of planes that was offered by some Canadian department store chains after the second world war.

The planes could well be Stanley planes, but have no markings. Their style is very similar to the second line Defiance planes Stanley made from 1925 to 1953.

Berg Ekilstuna chisels are well regarded. These irons seem to work about as well as similar period Stanley irons, although they do not appear to be laminated. A previous owner got a lot of use out of this plane, working it down to about 3/4" of usable steel.

The Test

March 19, 2002.

As with all my other tests, I honed three front and back bevels using 15, 5, and 0.5 micron 3M micro abrasive paper.

The front bevel, 200 X magnification, after the 0.5 micron paper.

The 5 micron scratches still appear to reach into the 0.5 micron bevel, indicating perhaps that I should have spent a little more time on this grit.

sharp
The front bevel, 200 X magnification, after 100 passes along 4 foot douglas-fir board. The wear bevel is about 4 pixels wide, the edge still quite regular. 100 passes
The front bevel, 200 X magnification, after 200 passes. The wear bevel is about 8 pixels wide, but the edge is still regular.

It is typical of these high carbon steel blades that they wear a little more than more modern steels (HSS for example), but retain a smooth edge throughout.

200 passes

LINKS

Check out my jig page for a simple jig you can make in your shop, along with a sharpening set up using sheet abrasives, that reliably produces excellent edges, for all types of irons.

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