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Current Category Sharpening & Blades > Hock Blades & Planes

Offering You the World's Finest Blades for Planes and Other Hand Woodworking Tools for 25 Years!

We've been at this since 1981, starting out making knives and doing the craft fair gigs, which has got to be the toughest marketing work in the world. The staff and students at James Krenov's Fine Woodworking Program at the College of the Redwoods here in Fort Bragg convinced me to re-tool to make plane irons for them. Turns out woodworkers are very appreciative of better-quality tools and one blade led to another and another and it wasn't long before we were making only woodworking tools.
          We are a small metalworking cottage industry located in the middle of Mendocino's renowned woodworking enclave. For seventeen years our tools have been handcrafted to satisfy the demands of the most discriminating professional. Shaping, bevelling, and slotting have been done by hand-grinding and precision machining; mostly the dedicated efforts of Larry, "Mr. Quality" (everyone should have a Larry.) But we've grown so much in the last couple of years that we've started "outsourcing" some of the blades to high-precision factories in the United States and France. Several of our standard items are now being cut out with a laser and ground flat after hardening. You may notice the change from the black oxide surface that has identified our blades for so long to a bright, shiny (and flat) surface on the new ones. Alloy and hardness specifications remain the same (except for our new line of A2 Blades) and we are pleased and proud of our new wares. We still focus on the intended use of the item and work to facilitate that end. Little attention (or expense) is spent on "image" considerations such as packaging, promotional gimmicks, or non-functional cosmetics. The extra thickness of our blades offers superior stability, precise adjustment, and easier honing.
           High-carbon tool steel -- not "high speed" or "chrome vanadium" -- holds and takes a keener edge better than anything else we've tried. (See our "tool steel rap")

Ron Hock
HOCK TOOLS

Check out Ron's demonstration video......Windows Media (33mb) or Quicktime (15mb)

8.5 minutes approximately and great viewing

Are these the best plane blades ever?

We think they are!!!

These 2.4mm thick premium, HIGH CARBON STEEL blades offer a substantial improvement over the inferior chrome-vanadium stock blade that came with your plane.  Mr Hock hardens these blades to a Rc62 rather than the standard Rc58.  What does this mean to you?  A blade made with a finer grain steel can be sharpened to a much sharper edge and the higher hardness value means less trips to the sharpening stone.

After considerable research and evaluation, Mr Hock decided to add A2 Replacement Blades to our catalogue of world-renowned HOCK High-Carbon Steel Blades. We're offering the most popular replacement blade sizes in AISI A2 that has been cryogenically treated for maximum edge retention.  You get increased wear resistance without any increase in brittleness so a Cryogenically treated blade will hold its edge longer. You can keep working instead of sharpening.

Scraper Plane Blade to suit Stanley #112 QTY:

Scraper Plane Blade to suit Stanley #80 QTY: