Straight up Junk

[David Weaver]

I've been slumming ebay, I really have no idea why. What I really want is a good high quality double iron wooden jointer, but since I can't find one for a decent price, I've been buying outright junk just to see if it turns out to be decent.

I haven't done anything for style points.

The irons on these planes have all been bad, worse than the pictures look, but the one on the taber plane was worse than anything I have ever seen anywhere - to prove I could make a pork purse out of a sows ear, I ground it on a kalamazoo 1x42 grinder (as in the entire back side, not the bevel), anyway and must've taken a 32nd off of its thickness before going to hand lapping.

This is where they came from, you can see that I overpaid in the case of the big jointer, but I had a serious jones. They are salvage price, but not surprisingly, they are all very nice planes to use, despite their doggish appearance.

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I don't think there's anything useful to learn from this - except if you're looking to satisfy a jones for something different, give one of the old try planes a whirl. Even with the horn work, it took no longer than an hour each to make these planes good (that's a relative term, good meaning that they're flat, they'll take a heavy or fine shaving and not choke on it, and the handles won't fly out). I have a couple of gadgets that assist with that (a long lap to check flatness on a plane when planing the bottom flat, a belt grinder with a decent stiff platen, and a cheap rig to use loose diamonds after that to get an iron ready for stones).


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Please excuse the dust on the third plane, it must've been at the end of the bench when the one in the middle was getting lapped. Otherwise there is never so much sanding dust at once anywhere in my shop. A lap of the sole and a chuff of the dust is a perfect reminder of why we use planes.

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Compare those with this plane (I bought all of these, so there's nothing to the ebay links other than reference), which might not look too much different at first glance. But when you look at the details, it is a plane where you look at it and figure why bother trying to make one, I couldn't make a plane better than this one even if I had the materials. It's excellent.
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The big difference is (I believe these planes are relatively similar in age - probably mid-late 1800s, though maybe the two american try planes are a bit older - one has a dwight and french iron, which probably dates it first half of the 1800s. Anyway, the big difference is that the last fine looking plane is an english plane, and of this bunch, it's the one I'll keep. The rest are give-away fodder. Feel free to slam me for literally being so lazy that I wouldn't stain the horn repairs to match the rest of the planes, they just aren't worth enough money to bother.

The jointer (the one with a huge horn repair) has an insert in the mouth and it literally fell out on the first stroke of the plane. Despite that, it's also a very nice plane to use now. Three of the four (the three junkers) have very accommodating irons that sharpen so easily it's almost an afterthought, but they hold up surprisingly well in hogging work (no glints of chippiness or anything).

I have accumulated enough "nice" stuff that i have no need for junk, I guess I just went for a break from the good to something quick - appealing to the old something for nothing. The upside of it is all of the try planes can literally remove a hundredth of cherry in a pass, near full width. They are great for dimensioning.

[David Weaver]

Oh, I did learn one other thing. The jointer with the biggest horn repair - I did use it with its partial horn after I initially got it set up. It was an extremely painful experience - going back to the earlier discussions in the last few days about what parts of the hand actually supply thrust in the cut - the web of my hand hurt so bad after about 30 seconds of use that I had to stop.

I didn't have any interest in doing more than cleaning up the irons of these planes, and the soles, but the horns couldn't be avoided. They could've been done a whole lot more tastefully, I guess, but I think they distract the eye from the enormous superficial cracks in the plane.

[Andrew Bell]

David,

Looks like a good exercise,

Can you please show "and a cheap rig to use loose diamonds after that to get an iron ready for stones" as I've found this to be the most time consuming part of restorations.

Cheers

[Jim Koepke]

Oh, I did learn one other thing. The jointer with the biggest horn repair - I did use it with its partial horn after I initially got it set up. It was an extremely painful experience - going back to the earlier discussions in the last few days about what parts of the hand actually supply thrust in the cut - the web of my hand hurt so bad after about 30 seconds of use that I had to stop.

I have also been paying attention to my grip lately. The more relaxed my grip, the more just the top area between the thumb and forefinger did the pushing.

With a two or three finger grip the triangular area between the lower bones of the thumb and forefinger are what makes contact with the tote.

Thinking about the offset tote had me wondering if it might be an advantage or more comfortable for skewing a plane. Would skewing allow for more work before changing blades?

jtk

[David Weaver]

David,

Looks like a good exercise,

Can you please show "and a cheap rig to use loose diamonds after that to get an iron ready for stones" as I've found this to be the most time consuming part of restorations.

Cheers

* Any flat piece of cast or mild steel as a base - has to be dead flat, like a machined side, though. At the worst, you could buy one of the $25 kanaban plates (that's what I did) that has screw holes so you can attach it to something like a block of wood

* An iron holder that you make (should cost nothing) -http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?160656-Free-(to-make)-Iron-Holder-I-know-I-ve-posted-this-before (if you have irons or chisels that don't have a slot, two hardware store hose clamps make a good way to secure stuff to the holder. They'll never wear out, only the end of what you're flattening ever touches a stone or rubs on anything.

* loose diamonds off of ebay

The total cost for all of my stuff including diamonds was about $45. I have had it for about 6 or 7 years, and still haven't used the $20 worth of diamonds that I bought for it.

A brand new long run of PSA stick down 80 grit aluminum oxide is a bit faster in a long run (glass suppliers sell long pieces of glass as cabinet shelves - that's where they're cheapest) if it doesn't need to be changed, but it becomes an expensive proposition if you have to change the paper a lot. Paper and the shelf to get started are about $40 here or a little more, and then you have to store the shelf somewhere that it won't get hit or fall over (though it's useful for other things, like lapping planes)

[David Weaver]

I have also been paying attention to my grip lately. The more relaxed my grip, the more just the top area between the thumb and forefinger did the pushing.

With a two or three finger grip the triangular area between the lower bones of the thumb and forefinger are what makes contact with the tote.

Thinking about the offset tote had me wondering if it might be an advantage or more comfortable for skewing a plane. Would skewing allow for more work before changing blades?

jtk

I don't know if you can get more work (before sharpening) from skewing, but skewing just a little bit on a wide panel seems more natural and it allows you to take some advantage of the plane's length to keep the flatness of something in check along its width.

And like you're saying, it puts part of the plane handle into the part of your hand that doesn't get hurt and discourages a white knuckled grip.

[Charles Bjorgen]

Coincidentally I just received my auction item that is similar to yours, David. Mine is a 16-inch wood jack plane with a double iron. The iron is marked "Ohio Tool Co." but I can't find any makers marks on the body of the plane itself. Total cost with shipping was under 12 bucks. Unfortunately the tote is broken and seems to have been repaired with what appears to be a nail seated into the base with the head clipped off and the broken part hammered onto the nail. I'll have to see what it will take to do a repair.

I was curious that the fit of the iron and cap iron was very tight in the plane body. Just curious if that is typical of these old woodies. There is some rust on the iron and cap iron that may be the cause of the tightness. Tight is probably a good thing, eh?

Pictures to come if I get this working.

[David Weaver]

Charles, it's almost univeral. They shrink over time, and the iron doesn't, and by the time you get them, you have to really give a tug to get the irons out, and then do some very light fitting to the sides with a chisel or files (or floats if you have them). For the sake of being tidy, try to do as little as possible down near the mouth. The iron just needs to get through there - if you need room for lateral adjustment you can do more relief at the top on both sides than you do on the bottom. You won't need much, but guarantee if you have none and your iron is fairly straight, you'll be fighting trying to get the iron adjusted and find there's nowhere for it to move.

Every one of the planes pictured above had the iron tight in the body except the jointer. The nicest of the three planes there (the english plane with the wards iron) was so tight that I had to literally stand on it and put on rubber palm garden gloves to get enough of a grip on the iron to get it out, and even then it took a while.

It's lucky when they shrink like that if they don't blow out the cheeks (which you'd obviously see, and you'll see in a lot of old planes).

My beloved JT Brown jointer, which isn't pictured here, was another one that was monstrously hard to get the iron out of, and it was only a single iron. I had to work at it a little bit over a couple of days to get the iron out. It was made somewhere between 1820 and 1840 or so, and based on the condition it was in, I believe used very little or possibly none at all.

The second plane pictured above had the handle nailed in by the last owner, too. The head was actually partially sticking out. The nail was so rusty that it brough wood with it on the way out. That's just the risks with this old junk! The handle has come out of every one of them for being dried up, but a little bit if liquid hide glue solves that easily and preserves the ability to do it again in the future.

You can always make another handle for your plane, just try to imitate the original shape as much as possible so that it's comfortable. If you forget a detail on it, it will notify you right away through discomfort in use!!

[Charles Bjorgen]

284484Thanks very much for your input, David. Yes, I did have a lot of trouble removing the double iron. The wedge is also pretty tight too. I think I'll let the parts aclimate in my shop for a bit before I do any wood removal. I think I can repair the tote. Here are some pix:
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[David Weaver]

Yeah, the wedge has seen trimming before, either that or the "fingers" on it were made short from the start. It probably won't move much (i.e., don't expect it to expand a lot), you can relieve the sides any time you want (and little bits off of the outside of the wedge) - you will eventually need to. A little at a time while you're doing is good, and keeping things neat at the top of the mortise is good practice (in case you have to do it to an expensive plane some time in the future).

I have no clue what the odds are on a fix for the handle holding, that's a bigger issue than the rest. I'd probably just make another one.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Michael Dunbar talks about tight wedges in old molding planes, and suggests gripping the wedge in a soft-jawed vise, and then rapping the stock away to release things. I wonder if this approach could be adapted to stuck irons in bench planes?

[Charles Bjorgen]

I was able to separate the broken tote pieces this morning and I was right about the embedded nail. Using a drill press and file I was able to grind down the protruding nail parts. The break seem pretty clean so I might try to epoxy the parts together. I'm also thinking about drilling a hole for a peg much the same way a dentist adds supporting structure to a tooth for a new crown. Alignment might be tricky though.

[David Weaver]

A peg that's even a little loose but filled with expoxy might work fine. Only one side would have to be a little loose to allow for alignment, and i'd think that'd be the bottom. Worst you'd have to do is throw the handle away if it doesn't work out, and you'll have to do that, anyway.

Might be able to spline it, too, but that could be dangerous and the result would be ugly.

[David Weaver]

I dug up a little bit more junk this week on etsy. It's the new place to waste $200 worth of your time to find a plane that's $50 less than it would be somewhere else.

The biggest virtue of it is there is oddball stuff on it sometimes where 10 people on ebay would've caught it before you got there. In this case, a millers falls 10 was listed as an 11 and then the description matched a 9. It was 27 bucks.

A millers falls 10 is the same as a stanley 4 1/2. So I asked to make sure it was a 10 and the seller said it was and I got it two days later.

It was in crap shape, though, so I used a few poor man's tricks on it. First, the handle was broken and poorly reglued. I don't love entirely replacing handles on stanley planes, earlier on buying stuff left and right it was fun to make one but it's not now. These are beech. i could do it, but it's a waste of time, so I stripped the handle and fixed the area where it was glued and now it's not that easy to see that it was a damaged handle.

The front knob was in bad shape, rather than fix it with glue and do the same thing I did with the handle, I did have a handle from a prior bad casting and on it goes. The iron is pitted - still is. Always entertaining to see a resellers attempt at trying to make a pitted iron look good - it had been wire wheeled and there was a spot right in the middle of the back that was bright polished and it was about as big as a dime. I set it aside for now. I might get the pits out of it later just for the sake of having an original iron, and I might not. I put an ohio iron in it, and this ohio iron continues the tradition of being about the most underwhelming plane irons I've ever come across. Those and the thistle brand irons. In this case, the ohio iron is soft AND it chips a lot, but it's OK to fiddle for now.

I did a partial lapping of the sides and bottom, and here's poor man trick #2 - if the japanning on a plane looks a little underwhelming, brush on a single coat of blonde/waxed shellac. It makes the 80% japanned type planes look a lot better.

I still like 4 sized planes better, but when there are 4 1/2s priced like a 4, I'm OK with that.

The last picture is a piece that I kept out of a board that was FAS from my local lumber supplier. They seem to think that's suitable flatsawn stuff - it's not really that hard to plane it into the grain, but it looks good. I needed at least something decent to use the plane on.

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[Steve Voigt]

The iron is pitted - still is. Always entertaining to see a resellers attempt at trying to make a pitted iron look good - it had been wire wheeled and there was a spot right in the middle of the back that was bright polished and it was about as big as a dime.


Man, that's one of my pet peeves. When I"m shopping for vintage tapered irons on le bay, it's gotten to where I only buy them if the whole thing's coated with a dark brown patina that looks like it's been been undisturbed for decades.

Plane looks good; it's nice to see people using those old Miller's Falls planes.

[Charles Bjorgen]

I also picked up a Stanley 4 1/2 yesterday, probably type 16, off Craigslist, for $40. This one is in pretty good shape. The non-bevel side of the iron flattened easily, the wood parts are not broken, and I was able to sharpen the iron fairly quickly although after doing so I noticed a slight chip off one corner. I'll redo that. Reason I got this was to see how well I could get it working. I also own a LN 4 1/2 that I rarely use and might try to sell if the Stanley does the job.

I'm still thinking over the tote repair on the old woodie I wrote about a few days ago. No hurry on that though.

[David Weaver]

The stanley will definitely do the job. If anything, there may be a matter of familiarity needed with it that's already built in to the LN, but I also used to have an LN 4 1/2, and I haven't missed it. This plane is 4 1/2 #8, but I only have two of them left - two now that I've gotten for bargain price. The others have succumbed to the urge to sell off stuff.

[David Weaver]

I also picked up a Stanley 4 1/2 yesterday, probably type 16, off Craigslist, for $40. This one is in pretty good shape. The non-bevel side of the iron flattened easily, the wood parts are not broken, and I was able to sharpen the iron fairly quickly although after doing so I noticed a slight chip off one corner. I'll redo that. Reason I got this was to see how well I could get it working. I also own a LN 4 1/2 that I rarely use and might try to sell if the Stanley does the job.

I'm still thinking over the tote repair on the old woodie I wrote about a few days ago. No hurry on that though. Yeah, no rush on the handle. Accurate dowel in the top and looser hole in the bottom is how I'd do it, with epoxy to join them and not too much clamping pressure. If you get the bug to make one and need quartersawn beech, let me know. I've got quite a bit of it in 5/4 that I intend to use for drawer sides in my kitchen, but I don't know if I can bear to waste it on that.

[David Weaver]

Man, that's one of my pet peeves. When I"m shopping for vintage tapered irons on le bay, it's gotten to where I only buy them if the whole thing's coated with a dark brown patina that looks like it's been been undisturbed for decades.

Plane looks good; it's nice to see people using those old Miller's Falls planes.

Probably 50/50 chance that a vintage plane in disuse will be significantly pitted, especially at the cap iron junction. If it's a woody, probably 80/20 chance that it's pitted, and some of the pitting can be spectacular. In the cheapest plane here that I mentioned belt grinding the pitting off, i think few would've looked at it and even thought of saving it - and before I got a grinder with a hard platen, I would've done the same. It was beyond diamonds and a holder - really a bad surprise.

I've bought quite a few NOS english irons off of ebay, but they are not nearly as cheap as a nice older set. When I do that, I usually buy something that I like because of the name and figure I'll find out something for it later.



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There is so much stuff in the UK that's cheap there and not here, and the smaller things we can still get. Their horrible postage system has completely obliterated sending large stuff unless it's extremely expensive and worth the cost, but I see on the UK post that they will have a new surface mail service beginning end of this month. Their page isn't set up right, and you can't successfully find out what the prices will be. Anything that doesn't fit in their "small packets" designation is outlandish.

[Charles Bjorgen]

Yeah, no rush on the handle. Accurate dowel in the top and looser hole in the bottom is how I'd do it, with epoxy to join them and not too much clamping pressure. If you get the bug to make one and need quartersawn beech, let me know. I've got quite a bit of it in 5/4 that I intend to use for drawer sides in my kitchen, but I don't know if I can bear to waste it on that.

I appreciate the offer of the beech. I like your idea of the loose hole in the bottom. Clamping would definitely be a test. If that fails, I have a couple old transitionals that I'll never use. Might just pirate the totes from those. Wouldn't be a classy repair but it would be easy.

[Charles Bjorgen]

Well, it turns out I liked the Stanley 4 1/2 so much that I immediately sold the Lie-Lielsen. I found a Hock 2 3/8" iron hanging on my tool board and installed that and it works just fine. I thought I had a Type 16 but it seems to be a war time Type 17 with the heavy casting. Can't tell if the wood is rosewood or the stained and varnished hardwood. Needs some cleanup on the sole and sides but it's good. Here's a pic:

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[Chris Griggs]

I'm pretty excited about the woodies I picked up at PATINA this past weekend (a 26" jointer and 22" try). Really glad Dave posted this thread and inspired me to keep and eye out for nice woodies.

I got the 26" Owasso jointer setup last night. I really like it so far.

Took a while to get the massive Butcher brand iron setup (the back needed A LOT of work, as Dave pointed is out that they usually do), but everything else was pretty straight forward. Just little time on the cap iron, smoothing out/opening up the leading edge of the mouth/wear with a float (had some feeding problems initially), and then planing the sole flat with my no 7 and its working great! The 22" try is in even better shape so I expect it will be even easier to setup.

They are both pretty dry so per Georges recommendation I am going to plug the mouth with putty, fill it with raw linseed oil, and let it saturate the planes. Be interesting to see how much weight this adds. I'll try to get a before and after weight on it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbRoNVz32jg

[Steve Voigt]

I'm pretty excited about my 26" woody!

Wow, I would be too! :D

OK, seriously, looks good. Regarding the linseed oil, with all due respect to George, keep in mind that this is an irreversible step. Are you sure you want to do this? I saw your plane at PATINA and did not think it was excessively light.

[Chris Griggs]

Wow, I would be too! :D

OK, seriously, looks good. Regarding the linseed oil, with all due respect to George, keep in mind that this is an irreversible step. Are you sure you want to do this? I saw your plane at PATINA and did not think it was excessively light.

Thanks Steve. :) :) Nope, not sure...more curious. And figure if that's what people did than maybe I'll give it go. You're right its not excessively light, its not excessively heavy either though. These big planes feel, well big, when you just pick them up but in use it feels lighter than I would have thought. I'm not really a fan of HEAVY planes, and would prefer to error on the side of light, but at the same time felt like the wood was really dry a little heavier would be fine...maybe my nice jointer isn't the best thing to experiment with this on though.

Anyone whose done this no how much weight a linseed soak adds? Is this likely to become, excessively heavy? I guess maybe I should leave well enough alone but I have a a dangerous habit of wanting to fix things that ain't broke.

[David Weaver]

I'll tell you by the end of the week. The two cheapie try planes I had at the beginning of this thread are dry, the second one lacks density such that it's surprising how light it is. I don't know if it's the age or what, as I have seen old beech saw handles where the earlywood is pretty bad - mealy and very light. Both of those planes have significant superficial cracks, and I'm curious as to whether or not the oil will help them close at all (for cosmetics).

The jointer has a mouth insert in it that's freshly glued, and I don't think I want to fiddle with that coming out at this point. I'm still hoping for a better double iron long jointer plane.

[Kees Heiden]

That was a fun video to wathc Chris. Always nice to have a view in other ones workshops. Nice plane, and it sure seems to work well. Restoring old woodies can be a pain at times with pitted irons, ill fitting wedges, cracks and all that.

[Chris Griggs]

That was a fun video to wathc Chris. Always nice to have a view in other ones workshops. Nice plane, and it sure seems to work well. Restoring old woodies can be a pain at times with pitted irons, ill fitting wedges, cracks and all that.

I've actually never restored a woody bench plane (only molding planes) before this one. The iron was bad...but everything else was pretty easy. Its not the worst iron I've ever setup, but it's was a lot of work. Fortunately, this and the try plane I just bought were purchased in person, so I was pretty sure that I was getting something that could go to work without TOO much effort. Flattening the sole is definitely a hell of a lot easier than on a metal jointer. Glad you liked the video...always satisfying to get a nice old tool up and running.

[Sean Hughto]

Nice vid, though I think the board was sufficiently jointed by the fourth pass. ;p

Also, you look different without the kittens.

[David Weaver]

What do the kitties get fed? That's something that I'm curious about in a level 5 vegan house! :)

[Chris Griggs]

Nice vid, though I think the board was sufficiently jointed by the fourth pass. ;p

Also, you look different without the kittens.

LOL:)! It's red oak so actually its not sufficiently jointed until there is none left to plane. I wouldn't want to accidentally make a piece of furniture out of it.


What do the kitties get fed?


We have shared our beliefs with the kitties and encouraged them to follow suit, but we also allow them to make their own lifestyle choices and thus far they have declined to become vegans.:)


That's something that I'm curious about in a level 5 vegan house! :)

Actually, our cats eat Wellness brand cat food in either chicken or salmon...or really any high quality cat food...but Wellness is generally what we buy. Cats are obligate carnivores. Unlike most omnivores (e.g. dogs and humans) there is an important amino acid call Taurine that cats can't produce from plant proteins. There are a couple of meat free cat foods out there that source Taurine from ocean plants of some kind, but they are generally only available from pricey online retailers, and their reviews are mixed. Anyway...our cats aren't vegan or vegetarian. I guess we're only Level 2 vegans.:) Probably more detail than you needed, but you sounded pretty curious.

[David Weaver]

So, you ready for me to send your kitties a leather razor strop then? :) I was curious, and I might've asked it before but couldn't remember the answer. I figured since kitties do what kitties do, and you like your kitties, meaty stuff wasn't off limits for them.

[Noah Wagener]

When i get a wooden plane it tends to have lost quite a bit of thickness so the mouth is wide. Does this loss of thickness affect the workings of the plane in any other way? THe abutments are now closer to the mouth and the feet of the wedge hang out over the where the cap iron is bent. I can make the feet shorter and trim the abutments so they end higher but was wondering if this has any negative consequences. Currently the abutments end right in the mouth. Someone told me i really need to resole the plane so to get everything back to how it was designed.

[David Weaver]

If you have a double iron, there's really no problem with it other than starting the plane on small items could get you in the weeds, or if you make the start of the cut on a board and the tail of the plane is hanging over the board a little, it's going to attempt to take a big bite and stop you in your tracks.

All of the american planes that I have, except for one made between the 1820s and 1840 or so have a fairly large mouth, even if they haven't lost much height.

the english plane showed in the beginning of this has a tighter mouth, but there is relief for room inside of the plane - a much more difficult way to make a plane.

[Steve Voigt]

the english plane showed in the beginning of this has a tighter mouth, but there is relief for room inside of the plane - a much more difficult way to make a plane.

I'm not sure what you mean here. Something different than a wear, at about 75°, that transitions to the front ramp?
If you could find time for a quick cell phone pic of the throat, I'd be very interested to see it.

[David Weaver]

I'll take a regular picture of it, trust me, my cell phone isn't that great.

Yeah, I'd normally call it a wear, but it seems like it was cut a little different than a wear, which is just cut straight from the mouth.

[Steve Voigt]

Cool, thanks.

[Noah Wagener]

I was trying to ask if there were other problems besides an open mouth when you thin a plane substantially. Where the abutments for the wedges on most of my planes taper to nothing is right at the mouth. They serve no purpose as the wedge only contacts the cap iron about an inch and a half from the mouth. I can not articulate this. Here is a picture that is hopefully more decipherable.

285140


the wear is to the left, bed to the right.

[Noah Wagener]

i asked someone if i could just shave that abutment off and shorten the feet of the wedge and he recommended thickening the sole instead.

[Steve Voigt]

If the plane is that worn, I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. But yes, the only thing you can do at this point is add on a thick sole--I would say 1/2" - 1 in thickness.
Ideally, you want the abutments to taper to nothing at the same depth where thecap iron starts to curve toward the iron. If the wedge and/or the abutments go past this point, you get clogging.
Somewhere on this site, there's a detailed post by Bob Smalser where he describes resoling woodies.

Edit: it's here:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?8351-Rehabbing-Woodies
He does a transitional, but I think it's still helpful.

[David Weaver]

Well, steve, I must've been seeing something that wasn't there the last time I looked in the mouth to my plane. The wear is "normal", it just goes more cleanly all the way to the edges (laterally) and gives a little more clearance at the bottom before the abutments than some of my other planes.

[Steve Voigt]

That's cool…getting the intersection right between the abutments, the sides, and the wear is definitely the hard part.

[Charles Bjorgen]

Repair of the tote on my $12 woodie went pretty well after I allowed a few days to think over how I would do it. First I marked a 90 degree vertical line between the top of the tote and the part still attached. I then lined up these lines with a 3/8" drill in my drill press to hopefully align the holes in the two parts using a 3/8" dowel. As David suggested, I made the hole in the base of the tote a bit elongated to allow for alignment. The dry fit seemed good so I epoxied it all together. Clamping was impossible so I ran duct tape around the tote and body and hoped. The repair seems solid so I went to work on the tight iron/wedge fit in the body with a chisel. I might do further work on that.

The iron has a slight crown on the non-bevel side making it impossible to achieve a tight fit between it and the cap iron. Lots of chips jamming in that tiny space. I worked on that with an extra coarse diamond stone for quite a while but still don't have it right yet. Wonder how the original owner was able to live with that. I was able to put it together and did get some shavings with the 30 degree bevel. I'll have to learn about adjustments on these woodies. Tapping the back of the plane should move the iron for a lighter cut, right?

A fun project and the woodie certainly has a different feel to it.

[Noah Wagener]

Ideally, you want the abutments to taper to nothing at the same depth where thecap iron starts to curve toward the iron. If the wedge and/or the abutments go past this point, you get clogging.


Thanks Steve. I have tried to ask this question many times with no success. Just to reiterate, chiseling the abutments so they end back up where they are supposed to is not an option?

Charles, I find tapping the back of the plane body to recede the blade loosens the blade as well. I like to adjust the blade forward so i take it back farther than i want and micro adjust forward.

[Charles Bjorgen]

Thanks Steve. I have tried to ask this question many times with no success. Just to reiterate, chiseling the abutments so they end back up where they are supposed to is not an option?

Charles, I find tapping the back of the plane body to recede the blade loosens the blade as well. I like to adjust the blade forward so i take it back farther than i want and micro adjust forward.

Yes, I figured that out. I still have lots of fiddling to do with this plane. Not sure if I'll be a convert away from metal bodied planes though.