Brass dogs are not tool friendly!

[Mike Olson]

Some online descriptions of brass bench dogs says "tool friendly brass". I guess that doesn't count plane irons.

I am still learning how to use my planes properly and this is only the 3rd day using the new bench dogs.

I secured the wood (1/2" rough cut spruce) and started planing. eventually it planed down far enough that the plane iron caught the dog and chipped my iron pretty bad:mad: The dog itself got away with just a little scratch on the top.

Now how is that tool friendly?

[george wilson]

Use wooden dogs! I make mine out of beech or maple.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Mike, You have to think of "friendly" as a relative term as in they are friendlier than steel. I agree with George, almost any harwood is a better choice for most applications and then you can have as many as you want. Personally, mine are ash, but that's only because I had the right size cutoffs when I made my last batch.

[Mike Olson]

Sadly i did have wooden bench dogs i was using, i just recently UPGRADED to the brass ones. now i wish i hadn't.

[Frank Drew]

No metal fixtures or fastenings on the benchtop if you can help it; if youi can run into it with a tool, you probably will, eventually. And, as Dave noted, wood scraps and cutoffs are free and always available.

[Randal Stevenson]

How tall are they? Use the brass ones with lumber that your going to plane down to taller then them, and the wood ones otherwise.

Or how about when you get close, turning your board around and working the other direction.

Learn from it, we all will make mistakes. Life is full of them for a reason.

[Jim Koepke]

He who has made no mistakes has likely made nothing.

jim

[James Taglienti]

Even if you have wood bench dogs, you can chip an iron if you hit it hard enough. Sometimes i really get into my smoothing and i have a few dogs made out of hickory that like to work their way upwards. The quick transition from face grain walnut or pine to end grain hickory is not kind to the iron. I have even damaged irons on pine knots.

[David Keller NC]

Every run a metal plane into a steel dog? I have - the results are really, really REALLY bad - a deep gouge out of the sole of the tool, with a 1/4" chip out of the iron that needed what seemed like days of grinding to take out, and likely removed 2 years of life off of the blade.

So yeah, the "tool friendly" thing is relative, but I can assure you that brass is at least an order of magnitude less damaging than iron or steel.

[Mike Olson]

So yeah, the "tool friendly" thing is relative, but I can assure you that brass is at least an order of magnitude less damaging than iron or steel.

ouch, yeah i see your point. I'm just fuming because all i have to sharpen my tools is sand paper and there is no way i'm going to get that chip out. so, i have to either buy a grinder now, or get a new iron.

i would have been SUPER pissed if i ruined the bed of my plane since i spent a whole day flattening it with sand paper on a long piece of glass. There would have been far more words coming out of my mouth than just "Son of a!!!"

[Jim Koepke]

I have even damaged irons on pine knots.

I do that all the time. I think pine knots are specially hardened before the wood is sold.


I'm just fuming because all i have to sharpen my tools is sand paper and there is no way i'm going to get that chip out. so, i have to either buy a grinder now, or get a new iron.

i would have been SUPER pissed if i ruined the bed of my plane since i spent a whole day flattening it with sand paper on a long piece of glass. There would have been far more words coming out of my mouth than just "Son of a!!!"

If you still have the set up you used for lapping the plane sole, use it on the blade. I have taken a lot of metal off of a blade quickly with a long piece of 80 grit on a flat surface.

jim

[James Taglienti]

Jim , it's almost like they are a different species... They're actually very good looking, though waxy, if i could build something from a massive knot I would :o

[Jim Terrill]

Jim , it's almost like they are a different species... They're actually very good looking, though waxy, if i could build something from a massive knot I would :o

Get a pine tree that has been attacked by a white pine weevil then. It's about as close to a tree that is one big knot as you can get. Saw one that was about 2' DBH and then spread to over 8' wide about 10' up as all the branches split out. Would have made a cool circular table if you could have tamed the grain somehow.

[Ruperto Mendiones]

You can save yourself a lot of time by using a belt sander clamped upside down.


RDM

[Jeff Bratt]

Even my metal bench vise had its little dog replaced with a block of maple. I easily threaded the lock-down thumbscrew into that block and then put away the steel (or iron) block that used to be the raisable (is that a word?) dog in the vise. That has saved a plane or chisel blade more than once...