My first gloat

[David Laaneorg]

Hello everyone. I'm still relatively new here, and relatively new the the Neander Way. We moved to our first house this past Dec. and in preparation of having my own garage to turn into a shop, I began dreaming. My dreams very quickly exceeded my budget, and I began to look for ways to still get my shop, but for less. With that, I discovered the recently published "Hand Made" by Tom Fidgen which opened my eyes. Since then all I can do read and learn and try to collect some tools. I have a few hand tools which I enjoy using, but to be honest, they are very cheap and perform the same. I have been dreaming of getting some good tools, that is tools that work well and are relatively easy to fettle (love that word, it's just fun to say).

Anyhow, on Friday my Dad calls and says I need to call my Aunt and Uncle. My Uncle is getting on in years, and can't do much around the house anymore. My Aunt is tired to taking care of the whole place by herself. So, they've sold the house and are moving into a condo. Turns out, their kids didn't want any of the tools he has in his basement shop. My Dad said I should give them a call and check it out before they get tossed in the trash. Good thing I did.

The haul includes:

No. 608C jointer, lever cap has been replaced, the blade needs to be replaced.
No. 4 Bailey in great shape
No. 9 1/4 Block plane with a crack in the left cheek running through to the mouth, bummer but maybe fixable
14" wooden plane - some research online has determined it to be made by Salmen in England, their Pharoh Master plane model, english beech, wonderful condition
No. 81 cabinet scraper - needs a new blade
No. 101 plane, needs cleaning and fettling, but otherwise workable
10" brace by Sears model no. 4241
Unknown eggbeater drill, slightly seized, but cleaned up quick and works like a charm
Yankee No. 30 with flathead screwdriver bit - need to get new bits for this one
Yankee No. 41 drill with bits in the handle
General Butt Gauge
Old Stanley Bevel Gauge
Lufkin Extension Rule - 6'
An old Frosts Mora Sloyd Knife
2 old coping saws - with blade holders that actually rotate, not like the newer saws that are incredibly cheap
An assortment of old files and chisels
5 banks of drawers full of screws, nails, bits and pieces from a lifetime of fixing things

That's not even all of it, but I'm am so excited about this haul. I tried offering them some cash, they wouldn't take it. I had to take it for free.

The coolest moment, I was looking at the eggbeater, and there was this line around the handle. It looked decorative, but something in me said to give it a twist. Sure enough, the old wood handle was hollowed with a twist lid. I popped it off and inside were 8 nice new drill bits for the Yankee No. 41. My Uncle's eyes bug out, and he says "I've had that drill for 40 years, I never knew that came off!" Somehow, that escaped him. Probably the only thing to ever escape him.

The only question I have is about the cracked cheek. I'd love to get the tool working again, is there any way to repair a cracked cheek? It does flex visibly when you twist it in your hands.

Ok, this gloat has gotten a bit long, and my next step is to build a proper tool cabinet for all these tools, good thing I start my vacation next week.

Oh yes, I'm very happy!

[Jonathan McCullough]

Other than when the time comes for you to give it away, that's the best haul there is, because it stays in the family and goes to someone who has an interest in keeping those tools in good condition and doing their intended purposes.

[Mike Zilis]

Congrats on your gloat! All the sweeter that the tools stay in the family and continue to be used, appreciated and maintained.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

Gloats from the family are some of the best.

The cracked plane may be fixable. Do you know anyone that does welding or you can try JB Weld or other such metal repair substance.

jim

[Matt Hankins]

David,

That is a fine start to your hand tool collection.
May I suggest a small project made with your Uncle's tools as a thank you gift. Imagine the mixture of pride and sadness when one hands over his tools to the next generation. I think a small box or other item would be very appreciated.

Matt

[Chris Griggs]

David,

That's an awesome haul. I am very jealous. Tom Fidgen's book also aided me in rapidly devolving into the Neander way. His book is literally sitting in front of me on my coffee table as a write this. I pick it up and page through just about every day.

I'm currently half way through the small cabinet (titled "Ain't no feathers...") which is the second project he goes through in the book. It's a really fun little project that is really helping me to improve my dovetailing.

FYI Tom is one heck of a nice guy. He loves it when people do projects based on the ones in his book and if you ever have any questions or just want to share something with him about your own work, shoot him an email and he will always send a thorough response (although I believe he's on vacation at the moment so it might take him longer then usual to respond).

Congrats again on the great haul. Hope you get a chance to start putting those tools to good use soon.

[Jake Rothermel]

Boy, am I jealous of that haul...

For what it's worth coming from me, I think Jim's right: Welding or brazing it back together would certainly work, if you know how to do it and have the equipment OR know someone who can do it for you. In my limited experience, properly welding metal makes the joint stronger than the rest of the metal itself but you'll have to grind and lap the fix back to flat and you'll probably have to check EVERY other connection for flatness after it's been fixed as any extreme heat will warp places like the sole and maybe even where the frog joins like crazy.

Still, even if you end up having to buy a replacement 9 1/4, it's a small price to pay for so many great and well-cared-for tools! And I'm sure your uncle is glad to be giving them up to someone in the family and who will continue to care for them and put them to good use. Well done!

[Jonathan McCullough]

I haven't tried it, but it seems to me that you could disassemble that plane down to just the broken casting, strip the paint/japanning, and throw it in a charcoal fire. With a little blower you could quite easily get the casting glowing red hot, though you wouldn't need to in order to melt plumber's silver solder. The thing would be to get it just hot enough to melt the solder; there's a good chance that capillary action would suck the hot solder right up into the crack(s). You couldn't do it with a propane torch though, because you'd be heating up just one local area of the casting, which would warp it both as it heated and as it cooled down. Heating it up uniformly in the charcoal would prevent problems. Block planes with adjustable mouths like that are really complicated. Even being careful, I'll bet you'd warp it enough for it to be noticeable. Happily, since you've saved so much money not buying tools, maybe you should get a good new block plane.

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

I agree with everyone . . . what a great and touching story. Congrats to you. I have spent a small (or large, depending on your income and perspective:eek:) fortune on tools, both hand and powered. It is my hope, one day, that my boys will want to take up the craft as their hobby and I can do for them what your Uncle did for you. I'm sure making you happy and continuing his tradition and love of working wood was more payment than money could ever satisfy given his advanced age.

On that note, I fully agree with Matt as well. What better thank you than to make your first project with those great tools one for he and his wife.

A fitting tribute no doubt.

Congrats again . . . start making some shavings!

[David Laaneorg]

Thanks for all of the ideas!

I will definitely be making something for them as they move into their new place. The only tough thing is figuring out what to make.

Chris - Tom is a very good guy. I ordered my book directly from him, and his emails and comments were great. I live just about 40 min. away from his home in Toronto, I'd love to spend a few hours with him in his shop sometime. I'm sure I'd learn a lot. I just have to find/make the time.

Jake - you're right on the point that I've saved enough to go and get a good block plane. I've been eyeing a LV low angle for a while. I've heard that you can never have enough block planes, so if I can still fix it, I'd be happy. Have one set up for rough work, one for fine tuning, one for letting the kids try, one for just looking at, one to set on the bookshelf beside the woodworking books, one ... well, you know.

Jonathan - that's an interesting idea. Do you know someone that has tried that? How well did it work. I was thinking of taking it somewhere to get brazed, but your system would seem to help prevent the worst of the warping. Fettling the plane after a repair is something I can do. I have two really cheap planes (almost embarassing to admit, but a Footprint bench plane, and a Groz block plane) that took a fair bit of work to get satisfactory results. The soles were flattened, both needed the frog landing refiled to get things lined up and square, and let's not mention what shape the blades and chipbreakers were in. So a little work to correct some minor warping is something I can handle. I'd just like to prevent some major warping if possible. I've read elsewhere on the forum that explaining to a brazer how to set up the heat sink and clamp up the sole flat can help prevent the worst while brazing. The biggest problem is finding a welder that won't charge an arm and a leg for the work.

I'm still sorting things out, and finding places for everything. Once my bench is clear I can start fettling the planes and I can't wait to hear them sing. I took a couple of shavings as they are, and although the blades left nicely wavy tracks, the tools felt really good. I love the feeling and heft of the 608, and the wooden plane gets me giddy. The only thing I need to make for the wooden plane is a plane adjusting hammer. I'm thinking of whipping up a quick small wooden hammer with a little weight added inside, or should I just make a small brass hammer?

Dave

[bridger berdel]

Thanks for all of the ideas!

I will definitely be making something for them as they move into their new place. The only tough thing is figuring out what to make.


spend some time with them first. that way you'll be able to figure out what they need.




Jonathan - that's an interesting idea. Do you know someone that has tried that? How well did it work. I was thinking of taking it somewhere to get brazed, but your system would seem to help prevent the worst of the warping.

I've used a charcoal grill for a small forge. it works well.

read up on brazing, and flux, and silver solder. a propane torch for fine heat control at the point where it all happens is good, and the grill is good for bringing the whole thing up to temperature slowly and evenly and bringing it down again slowly and evenly.



Fettling the plane after a repair is something I can do. a little work to correct some minor warping is something I can handle. I'd just like to prevent some major warping if possible. I've read elsewhere on the forum that explaining to a brazer how to set up the heat sink and clamp up the sole flat can help prevent the worst while brazing. The biggest problem is finding a welder that won't charge an arm and a leg for the work.

a blacksmith might be more to the point than a welder. someone who understands about heat treating steel. and brazing.




I'm still sorting things out, and finding places for everything. Once my bench is clear I can start fettling the planes and I can't wait to hear them sing. I took a couple of shavings as they are, and although the blades left nicely wavy tracks, the tools felt really good. I love the feeling and heft of the 608, and the wooden plane gets me giddy. The only thing I need to make for the wooden plane is a plane adjusting hammer. I'm thinking of whipping up a quick small wooden hammer with a little weight added inside, or should I just make a small brass hammer?

Davemake a quickie first. your first one (or two) will probably be the wrong weight...

[Jim Koepke]

The only thing I need to make for the wooden plane is a plane adjusting hammer. I'm thinking of whipping up a quick small wooden hammer with a little weight added inside, or should I just make a small brass hammer?

Dave

The hammer is a personal choice. You might try just a piece of scrap wood at first to see if you need the weight or not.

I made mine from one of my first chisel handles that did not work out and a piece of scrap lingum vitae.

156326

It is mostly used on a prelateral #6 I picked up. A light tap is all that is needed for fine adjustments. It also gets used on some of my planes that don't have blade adjusters.

jim

[David Laaneorg]

That's a great looking little hammer. Something like that just might be what I need most. I've tried using a tack hammer, and I don't need anything heavy to adjust the plane. Light taps were working well, I'd just prefer not to leave tap marks from a metal hammer all over the toe and heel faces. I've got some scraps of white oak sitting around waiting for something to do. It has some excellent density. Maybe I can turn something similar from that (of course I need to put the pole lathe I build last month to use more often anyway).

[David Laaneorg]

Ah, the joys of fettling. I turned my attention to the No.4 first. The sole was out by almost 1/32 in one place. A good bit of sanding on 220 wet/dry with mineral oil finally got it much better. My biggest concern was that it was hollow across it's width very consistently, so having that taken care of was a good feeling. I wanted to set this up as a smoother, not as a general use plane, so I wanted the tolerances fairly tight. Then I disassembled everything and double checked the frog alignment, and replaced that as far forward as I could. A good bit of sharpening for the iron got that into shape. The back was pleasantly flat, but it had much more of a camber in the cutting edge than I wanted, which I had to flatten out. The varnish on the tote and knob were horribly chipped. Some scraping to remove the varnish, then switching to a finer scraper to smooth things out some more, a coating of oil, and we were in business. A quick squiggle of wax on the sole, set for a fine cut, and woooooosh. Effortless smoothing. I wanted to see how fine a cut I could take... a useless exercise in most cases, but it's fun to know. With some red oak I managed to pull 0.001" shavings consistantly, with some pine I managed to cut that in half. Ahhhhh, the finish it left, shimmering smooth, inviting, deep. I'm happy.

Next, I turned to the old Pharoh woodie. Again the blade needed a fair bit of work to the bevel side, but the back was again nicely flat. Again, much more camber than I wanted even though I'm planning to use it more as a try plane. Still, the was I got it, a full width shaving would have to take a shaving just over 1/32" thick! Remedied that pretty quick. The sole had a hump just half way between the mouth and the heel. a few light passes with the freshly tuned No.4 fixed that nicely. With a freshly sharpened blade, this thing sings.

I've gotten as far as examining the No. 608C. To my surprise, the sole is dead flat, each and every way I could think of looking at it. Dead Flat. I was dreading having to flatten that to any degree. The blade is very worn out, about 5/8" of metal left in the blade until I hit the keyway for the chipbreaker. I'll be getting a new blade for that soon, but for now I'll just sharpen it to see how she performs. I haven't had a chance to disassemble it to check the frog, but the tote and knob will need some work, I may just do the same as for the No. 4. I love the feel of an oiled tote. The top of the tote has the horn split off. I will have to make a replacement for that sometime soon as well, but for not it should work. I'm still just happy that it works.

The little No.101 was a quick one to clean and fettle. I love how that one handles. It seems to be the perfect little plane for breaking edges with a slight chamfer or roundover.

I disassembled the No.81 to check it out. It seems to be in great shape, except for the blade and soles. The blade has been sharpened so much that it barely fit under the screw. The soles have been abused. someone even cut the rear wood sole back, for what I'm assuming was clearance, but the mouth opening is huge now. The thing is that I have read that the original blocks were Brazilian rosewood, and these seem to be original.

The old Sloyd knife sharpened up beautifully, it carves wonderfully. The control afforded by the bevel and how your sharpen it properly makes a huge difference. I have read in a number of old sources, that you shapen these knives like a chisel with two bevels. Keep the bevel flat as you shapen, both sides. No secondary bevel, no hollow grind. I have to agree that this way the knife is great for carving and whittling. And very comfortable to hold.

A couple of questions to ask then.

1. Where would the best place be to get blades for a No.608 and a No.81?

2. What wood would be best to use for replacing the rosewood on the No.81.

[Jonathan McCullough]

David, no I haven't used solder to fix a plane, but I'm considering it for a project I'm working on. The nearest thing to a tutorial that I can think of is Bob Smalser's two-part tutorial on how to make a high-angle frog. The first part can be viewed here:

http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDocs/Wood_How_To/INDEX_How_To_pages/Smalser_on_FiftyDegreeFrog.htm

[Jim Koepke]

Where would the best place be to get blades for a No.608

Hock makes a good blade. Others are sure to have their favorites. My #8 has a Hock blade with the original Stanley chip breaker and works fine.

jim