Proof that plane mania is contagious

[Harvey Pascoe]

When I first came to SMC I thought that the attention lavished on hand planes was, well, excessive and I'll admit to having something of a bad attitude about planes, largely owing to my first two purchases around thirty years ago, pictured here. I came to call these "junk" planes, partly because they worked so poorly, and partly because I didn't know how to use or tune them. Six months or so of reading Neanderthal remedied that and here is the result.

A Stanley C5 Jack plane, circa early 70's and a Craftsman C557B 10" bench plane.These were not rust bucket jobs but merely had badly warped soles. The soles and sides of both were trued up on a flat bed sander @120 grit but have not yet been taken to a finer grit. All the steel parts had corrosion removed and polished with 3M fiber discs on a die grinder. The Craftsman is all original but I made a new handle for the Stanley out of vera wood to replace the ugly plastic one. Don't have a lathe so the plastic ball remains.

Both these "junk" plans now work very well (aside from the horrible blade adjusters which I could do nothing about) and will take nice .002 shavings from difficult wood. They are now welcome additions to my arsenal of hand planes, useful and used.

See what you guys done to me, now I'm a plane nut, too!

208889208888208887208886

[David Keller NC]

Yes indeed - the slope is quite steep (the slippery one, that is). For your next purchase, you might consider getting a Stanley #4 that was made prior to about 1930 and tune it up. Your next plane should probably be a smoother anyway (a #4-1/2, #4 or a #3), and you will find that the quality of the castings, totes, bed, blade and blade adjuster are all very good. Not Lie-Nielsen good, but certainly much better than their post WWII prodcution. Best of all, there are tons and tons of them out there, so they're cheap.

BTW - That's an unusual grain orientation for the tote you made for the 5C. Almost all iron planes used a horizontal grain orientation. The reason is that the toe and spur of the tote can be easily sheared off because of the short grain. On the other hand, the actual handle part is considerably stronger in the orientation that you've made. Very early 18th century bench planes had totes with a vertical orientation and short spurs for this reason.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I understand your pain Harvey. I have that exact Craftsman plane, the first I bought some 30 years ago. When I had more time than money I must have spent at least 10 hours flattening the sole and correcting all of its other deficiencies. It has worked well for years now, but it was a bear to get there when I had little knowledge and no guidance. It always made me wonder why when I went to my parents house and used my Dad's stuff it worked so well but when I came home planes were a nightmare. Of course I could have done the smart thing and asked my Dad but I always forgot.

[Harvey Pascoe]

For some peculiar reason I refined these clunkers AFTER I bought several LN & LV planes. I guess I just wanted to see what, if anything, could be done with them.

The new handle is vera, related to lignum vitae. I couldn't break it if I tried. The grain direction was determined by the size of the little piece I had remaining.

The trick to making handles is to bore the bolt holes and counter-sinks in your wood blank first at the appropriate angle, then cut the handle to shape.

[Jim Koepke]

Good work and beautiful handle.

I was going to say you will be amazed what you can do with an older plane, but you may already know what is possible from your better planes.

jtk

[Harvey Pascoe]

Good work and beautiful handle.

I was going to say you will be amazed what you can do with an older plane, but you may already know what is possible from your better planes.

jtk

I wasn't expecting much when I started this so I was amazed at how well those planes worked. I'll bet the old timers used to curse those blade adjusters all the way to Hades and back! I wonder how many letters Stanley and other mfgrs got screaming CAN'T YOU DO ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Eh, I was always taught to just use the blade adjuster to get things "close", and then hammer tap to dial it in. In actuality, I probably never use the adjuster on any of my planes. . . Hell, I'd probably prefer planes without an adjuster at all. I've thought of removing it from my jointer, it just seems to get in the way . . .

[Jim Koepke]

I'll bet the old timers used to curse those blade adjusters all the way to Hades and back! I wonder how many letters Stanley and other mfgrs got screaming CAN'T YOU DO ANY BETTER THAN THIS?

As a plane is used a lot, the adjuster likely wears a bit. Having the lever cap real tight can add to this.

I am not particularly bothered much by the backlash in my adjusters.

Once I get my shaving thickness dialed in there isn't much reason to change it. That is part of my extra plane theory. I'll do jointing with a #8, then take a few finer passes with a #7.

Same with most of the other sizes. Have one set for hogging and another set for finishing.

If for some reason the cut has to be adjusted, it isn't a big deal.

jtk