My first infill smoother, a Spiers, and I've got a ton of questions for the experts

[Jeff L Miller]

I just won a Spiers infill smoother that was incorrectly listed on Ebay as a Sandusky plane. The iron (wrong size) is a Sandusky, and the plane was not.

This was in a barn, forever it seems, and the poor thing is in horrible shape, rust, pitting, damaged rosewood, on and on.
Normally I just like to lightly clean and "do no harm", to a plane; this is going to be different I think. No craftsman would be proud to have this on his bench, (the degree I usually strive for) its too ratty. With that, I am going to clean it and do the necessary repairs.

The rust is everywhere and I feel I need to remove the infill bun and tote to have a good shot at eradicating most of it. I've already driven out two of the pins that hold the bun and its removed. I know, I don't usually go that for but this one is an exception to me. Those pins are a pain to remove if you haven't done so by the way. Additionally, the anatomy of this plane is entirely different than anything I'm used to. For all the Folks across the pond, I hope I'm not making you queasy.

When I figure out how to post a pic, I'll do so.

My first question, and its may be odd to some, is....what size iron to look for. The mouth is 2 1/4 inches wide. I assume I want an iron that is 2 1/8 inches wide giving me 1/16 on each side of the mouth. Only a guess on my part, and I want to find a replacement iron while I rehab the plane.

Jeff

[Jared McMahon]

I won't say anything about how to restore the plane, every time I try to improve the condition of one of my old tools I usually just change the way in which it looks bad. However, if you or anyone else has tips for fitting new infill wood, I'm all ears. My wedge-type infill smoother could use a make-over.

I think your two options for irons are either surfing the antique tool sites and eBay, or TBC:

http://thebestthings.com/newtools/hock.htm

Scroll to the bottom, you'll see a handful of choices.

And lastly, congrats on your new toy! Er, tool.

[Steve Elliott]

It's best if the blade is the same width as the throat opening in the plane body. Shavings can get caught in the gaps at the sides if the blade is narrower. Also, making lateral adjustments is easier if the blade pivots right where it comes through the plane sole.

Several years ago I bought a Spiers plane in a condition similar to the one you describe except that the seller had started to rehab it. The sides had been partially sanded to a combination of bright steel and blotches of rust, the sole had been left coated with rust, and the infills had been treated with raw linseed oil, giving the plane a greasy feel and an odor. After some careful work the plane looks pretty close to new and works as well as any infill plane I've used. I still prefer the look of a well cared for older plane, but in a few decades this one may look that way again.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Steve

I do believe that my Spier runs on a blade that you sent me.

Jeff, I did a complete restoration - from bare shell upward - several years ago. There is an article documenting all steps on my website:

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolRestorations/Renovating%20an%20Infill%20Smoother1.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Keller NC]

Jeff - a couple of notes;

Look carefully at the Spiers mark on the lever cap. The oldest Spiers planes are wedge-type infills (i.e., they don't have a lever cap per se; they have a wedge abutment made of brass) and have screws through the sides that act as pins. These antiques are quite valuable, even in fairly rough shape.

The first lever-cap Spiers planes have "Spiers, Ayr" in what appears to be Courier font, but the mark is upside-down compared to "normal" infills made by Mathieson, Preston, Norris and others. That is, the type is right-side up from the perspective of someone gripping and using the plane, but upside-down when viewed from the front. Later, this same style script was placed on the lever cap in the more normal orientation.

Finally, in the waning years of Spiers during the 1920's, the Courier-style font was replaced with a script-style logo.

From the standpoint of the iron, realize that any British infill was a "make to fit" operation. That is, the plane was assembled as a target mouth-width (2", 2-1/8", etc...), then the plane was matched to a particular iron. The iron was ground, hardened and tempered, then the mouth of the plane was filed to fit this particular iron very closely. One can typically determine whether a plane has its original iron by looking at the back of the blade & cap iron, and comparing it with the back of the lever cap and the back infill wood. These parts have assembly numbers (generally 1-9, although occasionally one might see an 11, 13 or some other "teen" number).

From the point of view of your restoration, you may want to follow the same procedure - buy a Hock parallel iron replacement from The Best Things in a thickness and width that is slightly oversized (and I don mean slightly - you don't want to have a lot of filing to do), and file the mouth to fit. Many of these infill planes would've had a 5 thousandths or less mouth width with the iron correctly set to take a shaving when originally manufactured.

[george wilson]

I have 2 Spiers coffin smoothers. One is handled,the other is not.

[Jeff L Miller]

Jeff, I did a complete restoration - from bare shell upward - several years ago. There is an article documenting all steps on my website:Derek

Derek, I've been reading and watching your work for years and I always appreciate the detail you put into your projects, thanks.

"The first lever-cap Spiers planes have "Spiers, Ayr" in what appears to be Courier font, but the mark is upside-down compared to "normal" infills made by Mathieson, Preston, Norris and others. That is, the type is right-side up from the perspective of someone gripping and using the plane, but upside-down when viewed from the front."

David, I have the upside down version of Spiers on the lever cap, its right side up from the user point of view, upside down when viewed from the front. The cap is held on with the same mild steel pins that were in the bun, not the screws. I've only taken the bun off so far, before I damage anything, I want to proceed carefully from here.

I'll try to post some photo's tonight.


Jeff

[Jeff L Miller]

Here are a couple of pic's of the plane as listed, the rusty bottom.
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af91/anneandjeffro/KGrHqRiQE6LCsDS-JBOi2Oew6U60_31.jpg

The side view, plenty of lapping in my future
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af91/anneandjeffro/KGrHqVhME5ophonI2BOi2Jt5TPg60_31.jpg

Please tell me this piece of rosewood is supposed to detach from the infill section, you can also see some mold inside the infill
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af91/anneandjeffro/P1010002-4.jpg

There are more, but you get the idea
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af91/anneandjeffro/P1010010-2.jpg

[Steve Elliott]

When I removed the top part of a Spiers rear infill there was a wedge of wood (not even rosewood) that was a filler between the handle and the infill. So it's normal for a small piece to be in there. The hide glue in mine wasn't holding things together after 100 years but who's going to complain about that.

[David Keller NC]

Jeff - That plane isn't in nearly as bad a shape as your first post would lead me to believe. In fact, I'd say that's about typical of what one finds in an infill plane "in the wild". Handled infills by spiers and mathieson generally have cracked and broken rear handles, but yours seems to be nicely intact.

Yes, Spiers planes of later vintage often have 2-piece rear infills that makes "overstuffing" easier to manufacture. "Overstuffing", btw, refers to wood that is flush with the steel sides.

What I would advise you to do is re-glue the infills with hot hide glue (yes, it's worth purchasing a can of ground dried hide glue just for this purpose). That is what was done originally, and it allows you to make a correction if you mis-align the parts when you put it back together. Realize that the rosewood in your plane is irreplaceable. It's brazilian rosewood, which is no longer exported from Brazil, and the wood in your plane is also of considerably higher quality than is available today, so it's worth taking due care in getting it back into the plane correctly.

Also, I wouldn't bother lapping the sides. You will have to take a great deal of metal off to make the sides shiny and bright, and that may excessively weaken them. Instead, I'd lightly buff them with steel wool just to take the active rust off, lap the sole, re-install the infill wood and wax it, then carefully fit a new parallel infill iron to the plane to get a tight mouth. Your plane will still have some collector's value with the iron that came in it, though much of that will evaporate if you lap the sides, polish the lever cap and re-finish the wood.

[Jeff L Miller]

Steve, thanks for the info on the size of the iron, I've located an older Sorby I hope will do the trick.

David, valuable information, I appreciate it, thats what I was hoping for when I started this project, a little hand holding.

When you say glue the infills back in, I will do that with the bun, but do also glue the two piece rear infill, or does that top piece just survive with a friction fit?

Jeff

[Steve Elliott]

Jeff,

The top piece of the rear infill should be glued to the lower piece. I agree with David that hot hide glue would be best.

[David Keller NC]

Jeff - Steve's correct - the top rear piece of infill would've originally been glued. Interestingly, British infill makers also hot hide-glued the infill wood into planes even though some of this infill wood was also pinned or screwed to the sides. While adhesion between hide glue and metal (of any type, typically steel or gunmetal, but on earlier planes, wrought iron) is suspect, my guess is that the hide glue was a way to fill small gaps between the infill and the metal, and assisted friction in keeping the infill in place.

One more comment about your plane's condition. It appears that the front bun has a rounded top surface. That's unusual and desirable - many of these planes have had flat planed onto the surface of the top bun to remedy bruising from hammer strikes. While I don't advise this method with infills, it was apparently common to slightly retract the iron by gripping it and tapping the top of the front bun.