No. 8 blade availability???

[AAvK]

Anyone know if there is a #8 blade (2-5/8" wide) and cap iron that is more reasonably priced than everyone's popular favorites, such as Hock? $59 is just about twice too much!

Thanks all,

Alex

[Bob]

Check here

I don't see one listed, but their other blades and irons are reasonably priced. You'll probably have to send them an email to see if they have or can get #8 parts. I'm sure they can.

Bob

[Mike at American Sycamore]

try making one! good luck.....$59.00 might just be a fair value... Mike

[AAvK]

Ain't no way I can do that! No skills or resources in metal working.

Alex

[AAvK]

Well yes, I see they have a really good price on their 2 3/8 blade and cap iron with screw at 16.95, so I will give them a call. Thanks for the suggestion.

Alex

[AAvK]

There, I just called and he will make the blade alone for $30 using a very basic heat treating method and oil quenching using O-1 tool steel. What he lists is is Stanley original stock, at those prices.

Alex

[Nova]

After looking for a cap iron for a number of years at garage sales and flea markets without luck I got the cap iron from Ron Hock. I shouldn't have wasted my time looking elsewhere.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[AAvK]

And Mr. Hock himself called me back after I left a message there, he said the 2 5/8" cap iron is $24.95, is regular stock, but they don't list it on the site.

Alex

[Joe Wells]

You can get a #8 Hock for $32.50 here:

've ordered several Hock blades there.

[David Hall]

Reminds me of kind of a gloat I reported a while back. Woodcraft had the #8 Hock blade on its clearance rack at 80% off & I paid about $10 for it. Problem was when I got it home it didn't fit my Miller Falls 18 (a #6 clone) - damn! So I did the only thing possible, I played on ebay until I bought a #8C for $50 to go with my $10 blade.

Sorry, didn't answer your question unless you too can find one on a clearance table somewhere.

Dave Hall

[AAvK]

That's cool, we all make mistakes. The Stanley #8 I just bought is an early type 10 with no frog adjustment, and that is not shown at Leach's site. I emailed him about it with a digital shot, never answered.

But it was a killer deal as the tag on it said $95, he let me have it for $50. But the cap iron is too warped to use and the blade has got to be the original one from 1907.It looks like it might have too much in the way of micro cracks and warping. 24 inches of ugly beauty and no cracks in the main casting.

Alex

[Hock Tools]

$59.00 ?... yikes!

The list price for our #8 blade is $39.00 in high carbon or $49.50 in Cryo A2. You might find them for less out there but $59.00? Where did you see them for that much?

And yes, we do have cap irons for the #8 for $24.00.

Ron Hock HOCK TOOLS

[AAvK]

It's the two prices added together. Actually it is $63 for both! Previously I saw $20 for the 2 3/8" cap iron, thought the 2 5/8" might be the same. But, I do need both.

Alex

[Patrick Olguin]

A good friend of mine sez to me - buy the best and cry only once. I've gotten carbon steel and cryo/A2 irons from Ron. They are unmatched in my ten or so years of planing lots and lots and lots of wood. I have the A2 in a #6. Life is too short to use something less capable.

Expensive is once, cheap is forever.

Humbly submitted, O'Deen

[AAvK]

I thank you. I am considering buying the set, one eBay seller refuses to make a blade for me until he relocates by January, $9 difference, but he uses a proper high carbon steel and an advanced method of heat treating in atmosphere controlled ovens, compared to a "torch".

By the way... me buying the numbah 8 is was the result of your advice in a previous thread comparing 7 and 8 planes, also mentioned in the B&G pages, thanks for the rightious influence!

Alex

[Hock Tools]

Lest this post leaves anyone thinking that we harden our blades with a torch...

That 'advanced method of heat treating in atmosphere controlled ovens' is actually the standard method of production heat treating and has been for a long time. The only time anyone uses a torch that I know of would be the dyer with a one-off small item. Our blades have been hardened in atmosphere controlled ovens and mar-quenched from the beginning (that's 1982, in case anyone was wondering).

Ron Hock HOCK TOOLS

[AAvK]

That is good to know and thank you for the clearity! St. James Bay uses a "torch" and he told me that on the 'phone, so the $9 diff is worth it. Good intuituion.

Alex