george wilson
02-02-2012, 10:25 PM
This is a bad picture from a slide,but you can see the engraving well enough to get the idea.
I made this plane literally from scratch. I was doing some casting at the time,and cast several of these planes. They were made from old copper pipe and 10% pure tin,which is a nice alloy. We made the castings for the 18th.C. fire engine from the same alloy. I have a plain bronze one with a wrought iron cap and brass,knurled cap screw. It needs to be polished before it can be shown.
The 10% tin alloy takes the gumminess out of the 90% copper,making it very nice and "dry" feeling to file. It doesn't pin up the file. The tin also makes a nice bronze color.
I had made a gas furnace inside a 5 gallon pail. I made a tapered mold that looked like a bucket to form the inside of the furnace,and got some refractory clay somewhere. It wasn't cheap,I recall. I made a lid from the clay also.
Working out doors wasn't very satisfactory,so eventually I gave it up,and left the furnace there,unfortunately. I had also made a brick furnace that used coke or charcoal. If you ever do this,a lesson to learn is to not let much air blow into the charcoal(from below),or it will cool the crucible. I got to where I could melt cast iron,but only did it as a trial.
This is called a chariot plane due to its use by coach makers. It is a perfectly satisfactory little block plane,though.I made a wooden pattern which I still have,and made the flasks too. I used Petrobond casting sand. It is simpler to use than water based(green) sand,though it smokes a little from the oil content. I mulled the sand(mulling is knocking or stirring clumps of used sand back into single grains) with a big mallet.
The plane is about 4" long in the body. It uses the old Roman crossbar to hold the Brazilian rosewood wedge. The iron is 01,which is what I used mostly back then. Tempering color left on the iron.
The engraving was done with hammer and chisel,which I made also. The steel toe is typical of these planes.It enables making a very tight throat,when you can add the toe separately. Note that the screw slots are "timed" to face the same angle. This is done by making the screws too tall,slotting them,and screwing them down tight. Then,the sides of the screw can be marked as to where you want the slots to line up. Then,the tall heads are cut off,and,using the marks,the slot is re cut. This used to be done on fine guns and other fine quality instruments. Still done on Purdey shot gun locks.
When I engrave,I only make a few major "S" and "C" scrolls to fill out the areas to be engraved evenly (evenly is important). You don't want busy areas and sparse areas. Then,I cut the engravings ,doing the leaves and vines,etc. freehand. I find it easier than following drawn lines,which somehow tends to make me a bit nervous. It is too confining and cramps my creativity. Doing block lettering is different. These need to be laid out 100%,to get the letters spaced correctly,and all the same size.
This was another presentation piece for a president,thus the engraving. I would not want to use this plane for working,as the engraving would soon get worn on this relatively soft bronze alloy.
I made this plane literally from scratch. I was doing some casting at the time,and cast several of these planes. They were made from old copper pipe and 10% pure tin,which is a nice alloy. We made the castings for the 18th.C. fire engine from the same alloy. I have a plain bronze one with a wrought iron cap and brass,knurled cap screw. It needs to be polished before it can be shown.
The 10% tin alloy takes the gumminess out of the 90% copper,making it very nice and "dry" feeling to file. It doesn't pin up the file. The tin also makes a nice bronze color.
I had made a gas furnace inside a 5 gallon pail. I made a tapered mold that looked like a bucket to form the inside of the furnace,and got some refractory clay somewhere. It wasn't cheap,I recall. I made a lid from the clay also.
Working out doors wasn't very satisfactory,so eventually I gave it up,and left the furnace there,unfortunately. I had also made a brick furnace that used coke or charcoal. If you ever do this,a lesson to learn is to not let much air blow into the charcoal(from below),or it will cool the crucible. I got to where I could melt cast iron,but only did it as a trial.
This is called a chariot plane due to its use by coach makers. It is a perfectly satisfactory little block plane,though.I made a wooden pattern which I still have,and made the flasks too. I used Petrobond casting sand. It is simpler to use than water based(green) sand,though it smokes a little from the oil content. I mulled the sand(mulling is knocking or stirring clumps of used sand back into single grains) with a big mallet.
The plane is about 4" long in the body. It uses the old Roman crossbar to hold the Brazilian rosewood wedge. The iron is 01,which is what I used mostly back then. Tempering color left on the iron.
The engraving was done with hammer and chisel,which I made also. The steel toe is typical of these planes.It enables making a very tight throat,when you can add the toe separately. Note that the screw slots are "timed" to face the same angle. This is done by making the screws too tall,slotting them,and screwing them down tight. Then,the sides of the screw can be marked as to where you want the slots to line up. Then,the tall heads are cut off,and,using the marks,the slot is re cut. This used to be done on fine guns and other fine quality instruments. Still done on Purdey shot gun locks.
When I engrave,I only make a few major "S" and "C" scrolls to fill out the areas to be engraved evenly (evenly is important). You don't want busy areas and sparse areas. Then,I cut the engravings ,doing the leaves and vines,etc. freehand. I find it easier than following drawn lines,which somehow tends to make me a bit nervous. It is too confining and cramps my creativity. Doing block lettering is different. These need to be laid out 100%,to get the letters spaced correctly,and all the same size.
This was another presentation piece for a president,thus the engraving. I would not want to use this plane for working,as the engraving would soon get worn on this relatively soft bronze alloy.