Wooden plane resource

[Cody Cantrell]

Can anyone recomend a good resource on wooden planes? identification and use of? Not real familiar with wooden planes, found a couple at an antique store and wanted some more info before I pulled the trigger.

Thanks,
Cody

[Zach Dillinger]

Whelan's The Wooden Plane: Its History Form and Function is THE book on the topic. They change hands for $150 to $250 but it is worth every penny.

[Hilton Ralphs]

Well like their metal cousins, wooden planes fall into three broad categories.

Bench; smoothers, jointers and jacks.
Joinery; plough, dado, rebate etc.
Moulding; beading, round over etc.

Go browse around www.oldtools.co.uk

[Cody Cantrell]

Thanks guys found what I needed

[Cody Cantrell]

Just bought a copy of Whelans book for $50, patiently awaiting its arrival.

[Zach Dillinger]

Just bought a copy of Whelans book for $50, patiently awaiting its arrival.

You got a heck of a deal.

[george wilson]

Not an incredible amount to know about them. Mostly common sense after you get used to hammer setting the irons. There are a whole bunch of names for every little angle in their escapements (Which I have forgotten!) if you care to memorize them.

Repairs? Inlet a block of boxwood or ebony in front of the throat,and trim to set the gap. Don't use Brazilian rosewood. It wears very easily. Plane the soles flat when they wear,but be aware that you widen their throats when you do this. Install striking knobs to keep from marring the bodies. Diamond shaped ones are nicer than round ones. Round them WAY off,so you don't break their corners when you hit them. Only use a wooden mallet for adjustments to the bodies. Use a little brass hammer on their irons. You can soon get to where you can adjust them to make a .001" shaving. It is enjoyable to adjust one. A much more satisfying job than turning a screw on a metal plane. Where's the skill in that?

I prefer them to metal ones most of the time. they are easier to push,and harder to damage the project with. I make metal planes more often for my own satisfaction (I made WAY too many wooden ones at my job!) just because cool things can be worked into their designs,more than can be so done with wooden planes(normally). You can carve faces on their fronts. Make cool handles for jack planes and similar. I am very careful about the exact shapes I give coffin smoothers, and the eyes at the tops of throats,especially coffin smoothers. These are more subtle design features,but I appreciate them when I find an extra nice old English plane. Sometimes I would take a more clumsily designed coffin smoother and re shape it to a much more aesthetic appearance. I would add striking knobs,repair the throats,and plug their throats up with fresh,sticky window putty,clamp them down to a board,and fill their throats repeatedly with raw linseed oil until,even on long planes,the oil would bleed out to both ends of the plane. Then,it was permanently lubricated,and protected from climate changes that might cause changes in their flat soles. Some have argued VEHEMENTLY that the oil would never dry,and would make a mess. I have been doing it for several decades and have had no such problems. Certainly the oil on the surfaces dries,and I really don't care or worry if the oil INSIDE the wood dries. It can't get out past the dry surface oil. It adds mass to the plane,too. Perhaps I should saw ione of my long planes right in half to see if the oil ever dried? NAH!!!:)

Sorry for the tiny picture of a batch of planes. I need to make a bigger one.

[Terry Beadle]

Hello,

I recommend Jon Zimmers of Portland Oregon. He has really good stock and great service.
I've bought several items from him and they all turned out great.

http://jonzimmersantiquetools.com/

I'm not affliated with him. Just a very happy customer.