So now that cap iron's prepared, what we now want to do is position it correctly on to
the iron. Don't watch this video without seeing the
previous one, if not it'll just look like a bloke hitting a bit of metal with a screwdriver.
Which is basically what it is. All of my planes, all my irons, or on the
bench planes anyway, have some degree of a camber on them. I love cambers, I'm not in
to just nicking the corners, I like to camber the full iron. It's just easier to sharpen.
So, the finest of my smoothing planes, right up to my rough planes, they all have that
camber. And it is perfectly compatible with cambers, it's just less so the bigger the
camber gets, it's pointless basically. We'll talk more about the cambers later on,
but what I'll focus on first of all is the smoothing plane, which is where it's most
important, it's where most people will find it beneficial. Now the positioning of the
cap iron, to the cutting edge of the iron is absolutely dependant on the thickness of
shaving you intend to take. If you, if you set this up and you literally can't see light
off the edge, you set it so tight to the edge, and then you want to take an eighth inch shaving
off, good luck. It isn't gonna happen. The same goes if you want to take the most whispy
thin shaving and you've set the cap iron an eighth inch back, the cap's doing nothing,
it won't do anything. So we've got to understand what we're wanting our planes to do, in order
to set this correctly. I have to do it in methods which require,
that guarantee efficiency, should we say, so if there's a veneer calliper or some sort
of engineering gauge in here, it hasn't got a place. I don't use them, I haven't got one
in here. It's as simple as that, you don't need them to do it. And I think, a lot of,
a lot of, I suppose confusion, or misunderstanding, misunderstandings on the cap iron, come from
our obsession today to take the finest shaving possible. I've seen shavings at shows that
can go upwards they're that fine, and that takes the human element out of being able
to set these things fast and accurately. Because that shaving must be a billionth of an inch
thick, what ever that is. And we've got to then position this bloody thing a billionth
of an inch off the edge of the cutting edge, and it's just not realistic in my head. So
I'm looking at these fine shavings and I'm listening to these talks of tear out, and
I'm thinking my bloody shavings look more like cardboard, why aren't I getting tear
out? And the simple fact is my cap iron was never set stupidly close to the edge, I mean
it is, very close on my finer planes. You know, I'm not saying it has to be set back,
not at all, it has to be very close to that edge. But my shavings were always of some
substance. And therefore, the fact that, lets just say it was half a mil off the cutting
edge, that's not a big gap, but it's certainly not close by some people's standards. But
my shavings are probably approaching that even on a smoothing cut. I don't bloody know.
But that's why I wasn't encountering trouble. That's why the way I was shown doesn't tear,
because it's shown for practical usage. So to position this, on a real world shaving,
I'm not in to this fine stuff I've made that clear. Put that screw back on it's a bit bent
over. Just, you can, you can, just nip it up by hand and you can wiggle it close as
you like. Don't get right to the edge, just get something like. You can get your screwdriver
and just nip it up, and then, to really get it where you want just tap it. That's about
there. You want it the same all the way along, on most planes, lets just say you've been
sharpening this a few times and you've knocked the iron slightly out of square at the end,
it's no biggy, you can just tap it and skew the cap iron on it a bit. Obviously over time
you're going to have to straighten that up a bit. So that's all I do, tap it up and I
get it as close a s I can, until I can just see a bead of light. I don't know what that
bloody measurement is I couldn't give you it, if it's less than an eighth it's unmeasurable,
that's my motto on all of this. And that's it, that would be set up now to take any smoothing
cut I would need, I don't know if you can see anything on there, it's not particularly
close I don't think, when I look at it, but it works. So to me that's the beauty of the
cap iron, it really allows us to take practical size shavings, shavings that are getting the
bloody job done, and still maintain absolutely no tear out, and you shouldn't be getting
tear out if you've set these up right. The thinner shavings in my opinion, the ones that
go upwards not down, they are, they work perfectly in high angle planes, they work much better
in, they respond better to a tight mouthed plane, so there's nothing wrong with them,
they just don't in my opinion have the best place for a cap iron, they'll work perfectly
well but you've just got a job setting that up every time. Now setting these up on heavier
cambered planes, heavier cambered irons. What have we got here, we've got something averagely
cambered, that'd be probably somewhere around the try plane region. So if we just get rid
of that, now I want to do a complete an utter separate video on cambers because I think
cambers aren't as simple as just putting a random round edge on your cutting edge, you've
got to, there's a lot more to them, you're wanting to optimise them to the job in hand.
The last thing you want is this great big camber on it and all you're taking is this
half inch shaving out the middle that's really thick, it defeats the object. You've got all
this width and you should use it. So what I tend to find, what optimises them, so this,
this camber here I don't know what it ism you can probably see, if I put this cap up
to it you might be able to get a gauge of the depth. What is it, it's about a sixteenth
in the middle to nothing either edge. So that's quite a, it's a fairly useful size, or should
I say camber, it's a useful curve. So in order to set that up all I'm going to do is nip
it down and ensure, let me just tighten this up so it's not moving on us. And ensure that
on the edges, each of the edges it's flush with the cap iron, and then it has set itself.
That's all you need to do on a cambered iron, and it'll work. Because this is now optimised
for its max thickness shaving it can take, and that's the width of the shaving. That's
really what your plane should be doing, you don't want to be, like I say taking this skinny
little thing out the middle, it's a bit pointless. If I look over here, I'll just pull this one
out. God know what state this is in, I'll wish I never took it out when we see it probably.
This is a good hogging plane, you can see it's a fairly good camber on there. And again
the cap is, it's just thrown in, I'm not being precise on these thick things, I actually
have planes with cap irons, without cap irons because I do personally find I would rather
get my iron out quicker and have it always a keen edge over just trying to get a few
more shavings out of a dull iron, because of the farce taking it off. You can see here
I've just set it up to the corners, and again that's optimised for its own shaving, it's
heaviest shaving. Once you start getting to these thicker curves and cambers, honestly
you're not gaining nack all benefit really to having them because if you're tearing out
at that level too deeper, well you're either going too close to your lines with a coarse
plane or you're, or you just want to use a finer plane it's as simple as that. So ultimately
as a summary, the, always just make sure you're setting that cap iron to the thickness of
shaving you intend to take, and your irons if they are cambered correctly will already
be telling you how to set that because you just set it to the two corners every time.
If it's a fine smoothing plane do something like that and you'll be there. And ultimately
experiment have a little play, you're not going to hurt anything tapping it a bit closer.
If you go too close it'll just clog it up a bit, and just loosen it and tap it back
a bit. That's all I do, I like it nipped up and just hit it about, you're not going to
hurt it, tap it where you want. It's far easier than trying to set it up on something or trying
to see it because as soon as you turn it it bloody moves anyway.
So that's three retched videos now about cap irons, it's starting to get a little dull.
You should however now have the basic understanding of what this thing is. I encourage you to
experiment, to play a little bit. It's a very touchy feely thing and not fixed. Different
timbers, different tools, you get the picture. Different monkeys on the tools. Mastering
this will eradicate tear out with the minimal of fuss.