wood planes not holding iron securely

[Mike Olson]

I have finally had a little extra time on my hands and I've started to mess with the wooden molding planes i picked up at an estate sale a few months ago.

I can't seem to get the wedges to secure the irons enough to prevent them from slipping as I'm using them. I cleaned the irons with sand paper to remove the rust as they were pretty bad. I also put a lite coat of paste wax on them to keep them from rusting again.

I noticed that the side of the wedge that contacted the irons had some type of glaze on it. I sanded that off and they held better but I still can't go more than 2 passes before the irons loosen up. I'm afraid to hit the wedge with my hammer to tighten it up as there are two with the top of the wedge already broken off.

Should I remove the wax from the irons? if so, what should i use to prevent rust?

Thanks,
Mike

[David Weaver]

I have finally had a little extra time on my hands and I've started to mess with the wooden molding planes i picked up at an estate sale a few months ago.

I can't seem to get the wedges to secure the irons enough to prevent them from slipping as I'm using them. I cleaned the irons with sand paper to remove the rust as they were pretty bad. I also put a lite coat of paste wax on them to keep them from rusting again.

I noticed that the side of the wedge that contacted the irons had some type of glaze on it. I sanded that off and they held better but I still can't go more than 2 passes before the irons loosen up. I'm afraid to hit the wedge with my hammer to tighten it up as there are two with the top of the wedge already broken off.

Should I remove the wax from the irons? if so, what should i use to prevent rust?

Thanks,
Mike

Use a light non-penetrating oil or wax the irons only at the bottom if they're slipping. The wax probably isn't helping, I've never waxed a moulding plane iron, so I couldn't say if it was the entire cause.

The glaze you saw on the wood was probably burnishing against the iron. It's likely it'll happen again (that's not a bad thing).

You can strike the wedge fairly hard with a soft faced mallet (when hitting it to make it tighter) and get it in good and tight. The ones with the top broken off may have been made that way by someone striking them to loosen the wedge. It's easy to break a wedge that way. I hit mine fairly hard going in, but light strikes only if ever getting one where the wedge is really tight from a plane that shrinks or a wedge that rusts fast to an iron.

You can always make another wedge, too. Sometimes you have to.

When you strike them to tighten them, do your best to strike them right in the middle of the wedge at the top and not toward the top of the wedge finial. There is a lot of strength in the middle of the wedge if the finial isn't cut too deep and you get a straight run of grain all the way down the wedge.

Hopefully that makes sense.

[george wilson]

As David said. just use a small hammer to tighten the wedges so you can hit them squarely on the tops of the wedges. You don,t need to hit them real hard. A firm tap will do. Get rid of slippery wax on the wedges or irons.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Should woodies be stored with the blades and wedges kind of loose? I picked up a few and they seem to be in good condition, and would like to keep them that way. It seems to me that keeping the blade & wedge snugged up tight, plus just the right temp/humidity changes, could warp the body or do something untoward. Should we also give a woodie plenty of oil when we get it? Seems to me that it is a regular feature of maintenance, and that the odds are good that any woodie you find out in the wild will not have had a nice oiling-down since Lincoln.

[george wilson]

I never loosen mine,and they have been o.k. for 40+ years.

[David Weaver]

Should woodies be stored with the blades and wedges kind of loose? I picked up a few and they seem to be in good condition, and would like to keep them that way. It seems to me that keeping the blade & wedge snugged up tight, plus just the right temp/humidity changes, could warp the body or do something untoward. Should we also give a woodie plenty of oil when we get it? Seems to me that it is a regular feature of maintenance, and that the odds are good that any woodie you find out in the wild will not have had a nice oiling-down since Lincoln.

Cleaning an old woodie, oiling it and then waxing it is a nice thing to do. If they've gotten wet or the surface has rotted (maybe that's humidity alternation, but if you see old beech planes with a fragile/crumbly surface, you'll know what i mean), it spices them up a little. You can do it however you want. I like to use a scotchbrite pad with BLO in it. Teak oil or whatever else should work fine, too. You can get loose surface stuff and grime off and get a good coat of oil on and in it at one time. How you do it after that is up to you, but with BLO, a coat of wax the next day after wiping off any BLO that has made its way back out keeps them from getting a mold coating on them.

The reason the wedge is tight in a lot of them probably has a lot to do with the cheeks since they are likely (hopefully) quartersawn and the shrinkage will mostly happen in the width of the plane.

If you get one that's really really tight, it either came from somewhere more humid and dried out or it hasn't been apart in a long time and dried.

Of course, if the iron is rusted to the wedge and bed, that's a different issue - one that sucks!

I leave mine snug in storage. They are in a dry environment, and I've never had an issue once I get them apart initially. Unless they come from somewhere humid, it's likely they've done almost all of the drying they'll ever do by the time you get them. If you don't leave them snugged, then there is nothing to keep the iron in the plane.

[Mike Olson]

Only hammers i have right now are generic construction hammers, big ball peen hammer, and a 1 lb brass hammer head I use with my chisels.

Would a little hammer turned on a lathe from oak or maple be heavy enough for this purpose? else i'll need to keep my eyes open at estate sales for a little hammer.

edit: wow, google search for wooden plane hammer turned up loads of great stuff.

[David Weaver]

Only hammers i have right now are generic construction hammers, big ball peen hammer, and a 1 lb brass hammer head I use with my chisels.

Would a little hammer turned on a lathe from oak or maple be heavy enough for this purpose? else i'll need to keep my eyes open at estate sales for a little hammer.

edit: wow, google search for wooden plane hammer turned up loads of great stuff.

A small dead blow mallet is nice, or a faced mallet, even a decent rubber mallet works fine. You can strike the back of the plane with those without denting the endgrain. You could take any cheap metal hammer and crudely glue any scrap piece of leather to it and be fine, too.

Save the small metal hammers for adjusting the iron and use the soft-faced mallet to strike the wedge and plane body.

[john brenton]

Go get a 1/2" brass tee and a 1/2" brass plug from your local big box store.

Fit a home made handle to the outlet threads, screw the brass plug into one of the main threads, and screw a piece of hardwood into the other.

It's a weird looking plane hammer, but it will take you all but 20 minutes and you'll use it all the time. Use the wood side for the wedge and the strike button, and use the brass side for the iron itself.


Only hammers i have right now are generic construction hammers, big ball peen hammer, and a 1 lb brass hammer head I use with my chisels.

Would a little hammer turned on a lathe from oak or maple be heavy enough for this purpose? else i'll need to keep my eyes open at estate sales for a little hammer.

edit: wow, google search for wooden plane hammer turned up loads of great stuff.

[george wilson]

if you are concerned about MOLD,by all means use TUNG OIL. Mold won't grow on it,but sure will on linseed oil. We stopped using BLO on our tools many years ago,and went to tung oil,since some craftsmen stored their wools i unheated sheds.

Tung takes 3-4 days to dry.

[David Weaver]

george - when you made planes, did you leave them in an oil bath and then wipe off the excess over the next few days after they came out of the oil, or did you just wipe on the oil to begin with? Do you know what the traditional planemaker's did?

(purists, close your eyes) I cut an old ohio tool jointer into parts last night, and I'm wondering how much of the surface darkening is due to a heavy coat of oil aging. I can't find beech like that anywhere for smoothers (the growth rings are tight!!), and the plane was $20 and had a bum wedge and a bit of a twist in it, but a good double iron set. I threw that in a box and cut the plane in half at the cheeks and then cut the back half at the tote. A plane like that is worthless to try to sell to someone because I know nobody will take the time to true the twist out of the bottom (and there was a lot, it might have been wear) and make a wedge, and if they would do that, they'd want to pay a lot less than what the wood is worth to me (even as chisel handles, it's beech better than I can find elsewhere).

(purists, close your eyes again) in fact, I may start cutting apart common jointers that I find at flea markets when they have a good long section of beech behind the tote or ahead of the mouth. I've passed by at least a dozen of them over the last couple years.

I am curious as to why the surface is so dark on them when the wood inside is so fresh.

[James Scheffler]

(purists, close your eyes) I cut an old ohio tool jointer into parts last night, and I'm wondering how much of the surface darkening is due to a heavy coat of oil aging. I can't find beech like that anywhere for smoothers (the growth rings are tight!!), and the plane was $20 and had a bum wedge and a bit of a twist in it, but a good double iron set. I threw that in a box and cut the plane in half at the cheeks and then cut the back half at the tote.


I can imagine that the craftsman who last owned that jointer would have cut it up and reused the parts for other planes, if he came across a better one. It gives new life to an old tool, as people have done for millenia. If it was a museum piece, that would be different, but clearly it isn't.

Jim S.

[David Weaver]

I can imagine that the craftsman who last owned that jointer would have cut it up and reused the parts for other planes, if he came across a better one. It gives new life to an old tool, as people have done for millenia. If it was a museum piece, that would be different, but clearly it isn't.


Good points, all of them. Of about 50 planes, moulding planes included, maybe more, I have only run into one that was from a less common maker, and it's a little used plane, so I never would've cut it up, anyway.

But for the multitude 125 year old wooden planes with used up irons, broken totes, cracked cheeks, etc with a common stamp, they're probably headed for the burn pile otherwise, anyway. And there are A LOT of those out there - a lot more than there are good sound planes with mouths that don't show much wear.

[john brenton]

Yeah, I chopped up some plane the other day to make a wedge...I could barely read the maker's maker's mark...something like "Chebr'. Must have been from Eastern Europe or something.:rolleyes:


I can imagine that the craftsman who last owned that jointer would have cut it up and reused the parts for other planes, if he came across a better one. It gives new life to an old tool, as people have done for millenia. If it was a museum piece, that would be different, but clearly it isn't.

Jim S.

[Don Dorn]

I never loosen mine,and they have been o.k. for 40+ years.

Wow - there you go. I don't have any woodies but have thinking about the Hock shoulder plane for fun and was wondering about this - no more though. Thanks George.