Palm Smoothing Plane  Ref: HNT-PSP
	1. What is the best wood to use in the plane body? A. All timbers used for the plane body are very suitable for this purpose and will provide good serviceability and long life. It really comes done to your budget and personal preference based on the look of the wood. However, here are some points to consider: Cooktown Ironwood has more of a natural oily feel to it than other timbers. Its texture is not quite as fine as the acacias or ebony and is generally is not as beautiful. Acacias ( Gidgee, mulga and Desert Rosewood) have a very fine texture and are generally very beautiful. Macassar Ebony has a romance because of its beauty, but generally it is not quite as dense as Ironwood or the acacias. 2. Will the sole of the wooden planes wear? A. Yes, the sole of any plane be it wood or metal will wear because of the friction created when planing wood. However, the hard dense timbers used in the sole will wear very little over the life of the tool. Wood on wood has very little friction hence wear is minimal. 3. Which blade should I choose, High Speed Steel (HSS 18% Tungsten) or High Carbon Tool Steel (TS)? A. In the smoothing and trying planes where you have a choice of HSS or TS, your choice should be based on the intended use of the plane. If you intend to do a lot of scraping a HSS blade will hold its edge much longer due to this metal being designed to hold an edge under high heat. If your main use for the plane is just planing then the TS blade will be just as good as the HSS blade. Both blades can be sharpen to a very fine edge with good sharpening equipment but the HSS blade will usually take a bit longer to sharpen. Also cost is a factor here. 4. What do you recommend for sharpening blades? A. I recommend hollow grinding the bevel of the blade on a standard 6" or 8" dry bench grinder using any wheel, which has been cleaned with a diamond dresser or equivalent. Grind only to .5mm (1/64") from the edge to avoid burning, unless you have to repair a chip etc. Once hollow ground hone the bevel on a 1000 grit(+/- 200grit) water stone or diamond plate until a burr is felt across entire back of blade. Then do the same for the back of the blade ensuring it is flat all the way to the edge. Next repeat this process on a 6000 to 8000 grit water stone. A micro bevel may be used for this last step based on your preference. 5. What is the advantage of a HNT Gordon Plane over a common metal plane? A. A HNT Gordon Planes are designed with a higher blade angles for use on cranky/interlocking grain timber which would normally tear when a standard metal plane is used. These planes give you the option to plane or scrape the wood as required to give a smooth finish. 6. Why do you use such thick blades? A. Thick blades eliminates chatter. Chatter can leave unwanted marks on the timber and will help induce the dreaded tear out. Also a thick blade eliminates the requirement for a backing iron which can cause problems if not fitted just right. 7. Why didn't Stanley or Record make a plane with a 60 degree blade angle? A. For the exact answer you probably have to ask these companies, but here is my opinion: 45 degrees is the optimum cutting angle for wood in its pure form. E.g. with straight grain. Cutting at 45 degrees also has less of a blunting effect on the blade edge, so in theory this would seem the best angle to use to mass produce a plane. However, in practice this angle is not so effective because timber is rarely the straight grained medium a 45 degree plane was designed to smooth. A higher blade pitch will start to induce an element of scraping which will reduce the likely hood of inducing tear out. Also if you increase the blade pitch to 60 degrees in any plane you also increase the effort required to push the plane through the wood, so combined with the additional fiction of a metal plane it would have made using the plane very hard work.