Transitional plane rehabs

[bill howes]

Last fall I picked up 4 transitional plane remnants and undertook to restore, rebuild or otherwise return them to use and I thought I would pass on what I learned. The first was a Stanley 26 and everything was present but the tote. That I replaced and after sharpening and cleaning this became serviceable but not a great user.
One was a National a less well known Canadian manufacturer and one an unnamed 27. These two I rebuilt with some e-bay parts, birds eye maple and lignum vitae wooden bodies, new totes and nobs- again usable but looked better than they worked. There is a lot of play in the adjustment and the national blade will not hold an edge.
However the success was the last one which I tried to make into a "scrub plane" . New tote etc . I then round the blade to a camber of 5 inch radius. I added 1/4 inch oak sole which I shaped to the conture of the blade. Its great for rough planeing to flatten a board and even better for hogging off thick shavings off edges for dimensioning.
I'm new at posting and hopefully have attached pictures

[Steve Voigt]

The tiger maple looks very nice!
It's good that you got one good user out of this. I would not be discouraged. Rehabbing transitionals can be tricky. Even at their best, the design has its flaws. It can be done, though; over on Wood Central, Lars Parrington recently converted a transitional into a panel raising plane.
You may find it easier to rehab an old (but not completely shot) woodie.

[Jim Koepke]

Bill,

Welcome to the Creek. Where on this planet do you call home?

Do you have any more pictures of the one that looked like a previous owner decorated?

I have one transitional, a Sargent jointer. It works okay, but never gets used.

Haven't had the need to turn its purpose into warming the house as Patrick Leach suggests.

jtk

[bill howes]

Steve, it is bird's eye maple when viewed from above and then when seen from the side it looks curly. As my mother used to say- even if you're useless you might as well look good. In fairness they do take satisfactory shaving once you get the blade depth adjusted and now I just leave one fine and the other course.
I'm from Nova Scotia. The decoration on the scrub plane is my own, the theory being that that it was the one I was least optimistic and so it might as well be decorated
Thanks for asking-Bill

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

The decoration is beautiful. I'm confused about the scrub - you mention you added a sole shaped to the contour of the plane - so I'm reading that as if the plane's sole is made like a large molding plane, or a gutter plane or such? How's that working out for you? Are you finding it better in use than a flat soled plane for that coarse work? It seems a little odd to me compared to what I've used when working with scrub-style blades in jack or fore planes.

[Jim Koepke]

Nice carving on the sides, thanks for sharing.

jtk

[bill howes]

Sorry for the confusion Joshua. I shaped the sole to the configuration of the plane blade, which I had ground to 5 inch radius. It is lighter and there seems to be less resistance or friction . I look at it as being like putting a chamfer on the sole.