Mike Allen1010
04-08-2013, 2:50 PM
In an effort to be able to add a bit more detail and decoration to my furniture projects, I have recently been attempting to learn some new hand tool skills.
Motivated by Matt Bickford's excellent book "Moldings In Practice", I decided it would be nice to be able to hand plane or “stick” moldings that would complement 18th-century furniture styles. I thought I would post my experience in hopes it would be helpful for other Neander's who might be interested in giving hand stuck moldings a try.
My first challenge was I had no molding planes. Someday I would love to be able to pick up a set of the premium H&R's from Matt or Old Street, unfortunately I'm told by the LOML that's not currently in the budget.
Thanks largely to the coaching and generosity of our fellow Creekers (particularly David Weaver -- thanks David!), I was able to acquire some old hollows and rounds to add to the few dedicated profile, “complex" molding planes I had picked up over the years, but never learned to use.
Putting the old planes back in working order was a real challenge for me because I don't do a lot of work with curves.
I started with truing up the soles of the hollows using sandpaper and whatever round shapes I could find that matched the desired radius of the various planes (dowels, PVC pipe etc.). Matt's book was very helpful in listing the correct size and curvature of the various sizes of H&R's. Straight edges and a couple passes with a joiner plane helped straighten out the couple bodies that had slight bends.
259385
I then used the hollows to true up the corresponding rounds (I don't have matching pairs, so had to freelance a little). A little work cleaning up the wedges, throats, sealing some cracks and then all the planes got a good soaking of oil/varnish mix - the old beech was really dry!
The hardest and most time-consuming part of restoring these molding planes for me was sharpening the irons and matching the radius of the cutting edge to the soles of the plane.
Using granite and sandpaper I flattened the backs (my fingers were wrecked for a week!). I used Dykem, and a cheap scratch awl to try and mark the curvature of the soles onto the blades – with mixed results. I think I need a better scribe. Ultimately, I mostly ended up grinding the blades by trial and error and repeated matching to the soles, using a sharpie to mark the high spots. Standard bench grinder/sharpening stones worked well for the round irons. I tended to overdo it with the grinder and had better results when I just used the grinder to “get close”, and did the final shaping of the profile by hand.
259392
For the rounds, I used an inexpensive HF cone shape grinding stone chucked in the drill press. I also got a narrow wheel for the bench grinder and used the dressing tool to shape it into a curve. Ultimately slip stones and SC wet/dry sandpaper and finer 3M abrasive sheets on dowels were really helpful. Still this took a long time and although my molding planes now all work; some still need additional tuning to take really fine shavings.
Here's a picture of the restored planes.
259386
Here's the diagram from Matt's book that shows the molding I wanted to make.
259387
Cutting all the rabbits for this molding was the first time in 15 years that made me wish I had a table saw! Cutting these with a dado blade and TS would save a lot of time as compared cutting them with a rabbit plane.
259388259389
Tuning the rabbit planes was critical and it was worth the time I spent truing up the sole dead flat and perpendicular to the body, with the blade protruding slightly past the edge of the body.
With a little bit of practice I was able to use the marking gauge cut to start the rabbits without using a fence -- although it was a white knuckler.
Here's some pictures of the H&R as I used to cut the coves and ovolo’s: after all the time and efforts spent tuning up the planes it was very rewarding to finally be able to put them to work! I need to get a plane adjusting hammer with a softer face -- I put way too much work into restoring the bodies to ding them up with my current steel hammer.
259390259391
Motivated by Matt Bickford's excellent book "Moldings In Practice", I decided it would be nice to be able to hand plane or “stick” moldings that would complement 18th-century furniture styles. I thought I would post my experience in hopes it would be helpful for other Neander's who might be interested in giving hand stuck moldings a try.
My first challenge was I had no molding planes. Someday I would love to be able to pick up a set of the premium H&R's from Matt or Old Street, unfortunately I'm told by the LOML that's not currently in the budget.
Thanks largely to the coaching and generosity of our fellow Creekers (particularly David Weaver -- thanks David!), I was able to acquire some old hollows and rounds to add to the few dedicated profile, “complex" molding planes I had picked up over the years, but never learned to use.
Putting the old planes back in working order was a real challenge for me because I don't do a lot of work with curves.
I started with truing up the soles of the hollows using sandpaper and whatever round shapes I could find that matched the desired radius of the various planes (dowels, PVC pipe etc.). Matt's book was very helpful in listing the correct size and curvature of the various sizes of H&R's. Straight edges and a couple passes with a joiner plane helped straighten out the couple bodies that had slight bends.
259385
I then used the hollows to true up the corresponding rounds (I don't have matching pairs, so had to freelance a little). A little work cleaning up the wedges, throats, sealing some cracks and then all the planes got a good soaking of oil/varnish mix - the old beech was really dry!
The hardest and most time-consuming part of restoring these molding planes for me was sharpening the irons and matching the radius of the cutting edge to the soles of the plane.
Using granite and sandpaper I flattened the backs (my fingers were wrecked for a week!). I used Dykem, and a cheap scratch awl to try and mark the curvature of the soles onto the blades – with mixed results. I think I need a better scribe. Ultimately, I mostly ended up grinding the blades by trial and error and repeated matching to the soles, using a sharpie to mark the high spots. Standard bench grinder/sharpening stones worked well for the round irons. I tended to overdo it with the grinder and had better results when I just used the grinder to “get close”, and did the final shaping of the profile by hand.
259392
For the rounds, I used an inexpensive HF cone shape grinding stone chucked in the drill press. I also got a narrow wheel for the bench grinder and used the dressing tool to shape it into a curve. Ultimately slip stones and SC wet/dry sandpaper and finer 3M abrasive sheets on dowels were really helpful. Still this took a long time and although my molding planes now all work; some still need additional tuning to take really fine shavings.
Here's a picture of the restored planes.
259386
Here's the diagram from Matt's book that shows the molding I wanted to make.
259387
Cutting all the rabbits for this molding was the first time in 15 years that made me wish I had a table saw! Cutting these with a dado blade and TS would save a lot of time as compared cutting them with a rabbit plane.
259388259389
Tuning the rabbit planes was critical and it was worth the time I spent truing up the sole dead flat and perpendicular to the body, with the blade protruding slightly past the edge of the body.
With a little bit of practice I was able to use the marking gauge cut to start the rabbits without using a fence -- although it was a white knuckler.
Here's some pictures of the H&R as I used to cut the coves and ovolo’s: after all the time and efforts spent tuning up the planes it was very rewarding to finally be able to put them to work! I need to get a plane adjusting hammer with a softer face -- I put way too much work into restoring the bodies to ding them up with my current steel hammer.
259390259391