Radi-Plane: anyone try one?

[Mike Brady]

My neighbor had this lying with some of his dad's die-making tools at the city-wide garage sale on Saturday. He didn't know what it was, nor did I; but it was easy to see it was for softening long edges on milled or planed wood surfaces. It actually works very well and has two cutters in trail that allows for the first one to take a shallower cut than the second. It does not make a chamfer, but a very clean round-over; perfect for Mission furniture long edges. The profile is adjustable via hex screws.

[Admiral]

I had one years ago, can be fussy to set up, but once set is ok. Never really used it much, if at all.

[Guest]

I have two of those. As Admiral said, they are fussy, difficult to sharpen and prone to tearout. I don't recall the last time I used one. I much prefer a block plane for softening edges or chamfering.

[tim_leo]

I found a similar one at an estate sale a few years ago that only cuts chamfers. I cleaned it up, set the blades and gave it a try. I thought it was difficult to get the two blades to work in tandem. It did an okay job on the chamfer as long as the grain was clean. It had trouble with gnarly and reversing grain.

Then I put it on the shelf and never used it again.

[lilrichard2]

Have one - been using it for years - but it must be set for very light cuts, otherwise, there is a lot of tearout.

r2

[Mike Brady]

I sense a theme developing here. I did hone the cutters using a diamond plate a a tapered round diamond hone. It was quite easy to do. I'll keep working with it. Maybe this tool need the blessing from The Schwarz.

[Paul-in-Plymouth]

I got something very similar from Grizzly a few years ago called a “Slickplane.” With some fiddling, it did a decent job on simple grain. But, as others have pointed out for the Radiplane, it was fussy to set up and maintain. I buried it in an old toolbox someplace, and it hasn't seen the light of day since.

If you want a small round-over tool, the Veritas Cornering Tools work very well on simple grain. Plus they’re easy to sharpen and require no setup.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.as...&cat=1,230,41182,41200

[Bill_Houghton]

Had one; got rid of it. The design limits it to dead straight edges, and I get more flexibility, if a little less precision, with a block plane.

[Mike Brady]

Good thing Mr. Mathers didn't test market his invention on Woodnet.

[RickW]

I have one in my door-hanging kit. It is great for rounding the edges on doors.
I've used it a time or two on other things, but that's been it's primary use.
Rick W