Dave Anderson NH
04-13-2003, 10:17 PM
About a month ago I received the Clark & Williams 55 degree coffin shapped smoothing plane I ordered from Bill and Larry in January while I was at the 18th Century Furniture conference at Colonial Williamsburg. This is without a doubt the finest smoothing plane I own. Out of the box it was honed to perfection and required absolutely no fettling before being put to use. No other maker provides a tool in this condition. I'll say that again, NO OTHER MAKER PROVIDES A TOOL IN THIS CONDITION!!
Since the plane is a tapered iron smoother with a wedge, it requires a hammer to adjust the iron and set the wedge. I decided I needed an appropriate hammer which wouldn't mushroom the heel of the iron like the steel hammers will. I also didn't want steel striking the wedge or the heel of the plane and leaving marks in the beautifully finished beech. Bill Clark uses a combination of a brass hammer for the iron adjusting and a shot filled deadblow mallet to tap the wedge or the heel of the plane. I decided that I wanted a dedicated hammer worthy of the quality of this plane.
My results are pictured below. I bought a 1 foot length of 1" diameter 360 brass from McMaster-Carr and chucked it up on my wood lathe after doing a couple of sketches. I turned it to shape and left a tenon to hold a hollowed piece of end grain lignum vitae for the other head. My reasoning was that the brass would be for tapping the iron and the lignum vitae would be for setting the wedge and hitting the heel of the plane to withdraw the iron. The lignum vitae is epoxied in place on the brass tenon. I then took some of my trusty spokeshaves and shaped the handles out of white ash. The wedge holding the heads in place on the handles is made from scraps of black walnut held in place with some yellow glue. The finish is nothing more than a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil for the handles.
I had a lot of fun, and now I've got my prototypes done for Wood Days. The bummer is trying to figure out what I'll do next year.
Since the plane is a tapered iron smoother with a wedge, it requires a hammer to adjust the iron and set the wedge. I decided I needed an appropriate hammer which wouldn't mushroom the heel of the iron like the steel hammers will. I also didn't want steel striking the wedge or the heel of the plane and leaving marks in the beautifully finished beech. Bill Clark uses a combination of a brass hammer for the iron adjusting and a shot filled deadblow mallet to tap the wedge or the heel of the plane. I decided that I wanted a dedicated hammer worthy of the quality of this plane.
My results are pictured below. I bought a 1 foot length of 1" diameter 360 brass from McMaster-Carr and chucked it up on my wood lathe after doing a couple of sketches. I turned it to shape and left a tenon to hold a hollowed piece of end grain lignum vitae for the other head. My reasoning was that the brass would be for tapping the iron and the lignum vitae would be for setting the wedge and hitting the heel of the plane to withdraw the iron. The lignum vitae is epoxied in place on the brass tenon. I then took some of my trusty spokeshaves and shaped the handles out of white ash. The wedge holding the heads in place on the handles is made from scraps of black walnut held in place with some yellow glue. The finish is nothing more than a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil for the handles.
I had a lot of fun, and now I've got my prototypes done for Wood Days. The bummer is trying to figure out what I'll do next year.