Use large sholder plane with part of iron width ground off for use on shooting board?

[Christopher Hawkins]

In a previous thread (URL below), I learned my plan of trying to offset the iron of a shoulder plane for use on a shooting board was not likely to succeed. This triggered an idea that I'd like bounce off others.

Buy a 2nd iron for a large shoulder plane
Grind off 1/16" or 1/8" of the width of the blade (being careful not to overheat the blade
Install in plane and use

To me, this seems like it would provide

The cheek required for use on a shooting board.
a wide dead flat surface to lay on the shooting board's horizontal surface.

The Veritas large shoulder plane has knobs which can be moved to provide what I envision to be excellent handholds for shooting. The pictures shown here... http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=50273&cat=1,41182,41192,50273 make it seem as though this should work quite well. Comments and concerns? If it is a bad idea, let me know before I waste time/money.

PS. Sorry about hijacking the previous thread. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?171686-Veritas-medium-shoulder-plane

[george wilson]

The blades on my LN's are only about .005" beyond either side of my shoulder plane. You can't offset it .005" ? Besides that,you are limiting yourself to fairly thin boards for shooting. Why not at least make yourself a simple Krenov type plane with a flat side for shooting?

[Rob Fisher]

As everyone in the other thread was trying to persuade you, this just seems like a foolish idea. Could you make it work? Possibly. But why buy an extra blade and then ruin it? You could buy a used Stanley 4 or 5 (or similar style plane) for probably less than the cost of a new blade and set that up to be a shooter. Don't over think this. A shoulder plane is designed for trimming shoulders and other similar flush trimming jobs. A shooting plane really needs to have a cheek to work.

[Chris Griggs]

Honestly, I really don't think it's a good idea. I see what you mean about the knobs making seem like a good shooter, but it would be a pain to switch blades every time you shoot. You'd be better of getting a vintage no. 5 or no. 6 (if you don't have one already) from brasscityrecords.com or sydassloot.com for $30-$50 at most, and just using that as a shooting plane. You can always make a hotdog or some other handle for it. Or since you won't have spent a ton of money on it you might be fine with tapping the side and installing a handle of some kind.

[Greg Wease]

I have seen this done effectively by someone who had a damaged blade on his shoulder plane. However, it was a limited application for jointing edges of 1/8" material for guitar tops and backs, not for general use. I currently use a LN 62 with hotdog handle for shooting but have used various Bailey planes with good results for years.

[Sam Takeuchi]

If you are willing to buy a replacement blade, you should simply just buy a vintage bench plane. There are plenty of them on the cheap about the same price or few bucks more. All this effort seems more trouble than what it's worth just to save a few bucks.

[Andrew Gibson]

Maybe I missed it but why would you buy another shoulder plane for $200+ rather then buying say a BU Jack for the same cost. I would think this would be a much better use of the funds and give you an excellent shooting plane as well as a good jack that can do a lot of different jobs with an extra iron or 2.

I use my BUJ all the tome for shooting, as well as many other end and long grain work... I really love it for trimming the end grain on large dovetailed casework.

I think you could use the shoulder plane for shooting, all that would be needed would be to relieve the corner of the iron, this could be done on a coarse stone and then could be worked passed if the need were to present itself... this would be better then grinding away a lot if the iron. I am not sure however that the plane would work as well on a shooting board as you are thinking it would... It might, but I think it's an expensive tool to make work when another tool would work better and be more versatile.

[Sam Takeuchi]

Actually, take a 1/8" (or maybe 1/4" is better) hardwood veneer, cut it to the profile of the shoulder plane in question. Slap it onto the side using double sided tape or whatever, and there you go. That should make it usable on a shooting board. Check for squareness, of course, but it should work ok.

[Jim Koepke]

Christopher,

Welcome to the Cave on the quieter side of the Creek. Your profile doesn't show your location. Are there many yard sales or second hand tool sources in your area?

One of point that makes a non-shoulder plane a better choice for shooting is that the iron does not extend all the way to the edge. This is what causes a small land (strip, section, what ever one wants to call it) on which the sole of the plane rides (registers). An off set blade in a shoulder plane could make this area of the shooting board small enough to be next to useless.

One reason my preference is for a larger plane is that I didn't have stable thin stock to use when making my shooting board. With 3/4 stock and a #6 plane, there is still about 1-1/2" of blade above the platform for cutting. (There is actually a bit more, but I am not going to run out and check right now.)

A low angle bevel up plane excels at this job since it takes less effort to shove it through the cut. My choice was the LN #62.

Technically, any plane with a flat side relatively perpendicular to the sole/blade can be used. Rabbet planes, of which a shoulder plane is, do not work well because they tend to cut into the part of the shooting board that guides the plane.

Once you have a shooting board you will find just about any plane comes into play for different stock.

You say you do not have many planes currently. My guess is that will change as you learn to sharpen blades and use the ones you have.

jtk

[Christopher Hawkins]

Christopher,

Welcome to the Cave on the quieter side of the Creek. Your profile doesn't show your location. Are there many yard sales or second hand tool sources in your area?

One of point that makes a non-shoulder plane a better choice for shooting is that the iron does not extend all the way to the edge. This is what causes a small land (strip, section, what ever one wants to call it) on which the sole of the plane rides (registers). An off set blade in a shoulder plane could make this area of the shooting board small enough to be next to useless.

One reason my preference is for a larger plane is that I didn't have stable thin stock to use when making my shooting board. With 3/4 stock and a #6 plane, there is still about 1-1/2" of blade above the platform for cutting. (There is actually a bit more, but I am not going to run out and check right now.)

A low angle bevel up plane excels at this job since it takes less effort to shove it through the cut. My choice was the LN #62.

Technically, any plane with a flat side relatively perpendicular to the sole/blade can be used. Rabbet planes, of which a shoulder plane is, do not work well because they tend to cut into the part of the shooting board that guides the plane.

Once you have a shooting board you will find just about any plane comes into play for different stock.

You say you do not have many planes currently. My guess is that will change as you learn to sharpen blades and use the ones you have.

jtk

As a beginner in the hand tool world, this forum is a great resource for me. Someday I hope to be able to help others, but at this stage I'll likely be on the receiving end nearly all of the time.

I was really hoping the shoulder plane idea would work, but the collective wisdom of the various contributors has convinced me to abandon this idea.

Actually I have a fair number of planes, but only 2 bench planes.

With regard to sharpening, I'm pretty decent as a result of attending Chris Schwarz's "Handplanes, handsaws and handcut joints" class this summer (July 11 - 15 at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.) We spent the entire first day learning how to sharpen and then practicing. Wow. What an eye opener!

I'm located in central Ohio. I'm now headed off to fill in my profile.