Results of Plane Hammer thread

[Moses Yoder]

Reading through the plane hammer thread reminded me that I had left my nice little copper hammer in Pennsylvania when I was at a WoodCentral gathering. Using it for a planing contest. I am on a mini vacation this weekend so instead of doing something productive today I decided to make a plane hammer. I got the materials together; a piece of wood for the head referred to as Texas Ebony by the seller, a brass nut for one side of the head, and a piece of Goncalo Alves for the handle. I started drawing and decided to just make it simple, no extraneous embellishment; the beauty would be in its function. I am really a hack on the lathe. I worked a while to get a round tenon for the nut to thread onto; the final fitting included removing wood with a chisel, pounding the nut on pretty hard and the threading it on, the final fit was pretty tight. I turned the nut round on the lathe with a coarse file, turned the wood to match and then sanded it. I drilled a hole for the handle that came out a little off center (disappointing but still functional) and then turned the handle and wedged it in. I find that in almost all cases I want subtle adjustments on a plane, not a major move. This hammer is heavy for its size and yet with the short handle I think will work well for fine tuning; I might make the same head again with a longer handle for initial adjustment. Here is the hammer shown with the Knight smoother I won at a planing contest and a rule for scale. The hammer is about 5" long, the head 2-1/2" long.

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[allen long]

Moses,

I really like the looks of the brass nut and the ebony. Try using a skew or a large spindle gouge with light passes when trying to turn brass. It is a bit safer than using a file. I may have to steal or riff on your idea for the head.

It strikes me (sorry) with an idea of a hammer that a brass head with a tenon and leather washers (sort of a cross between your hammer head, and chisels that use leather washers). The brass would give it some heft, but the washers would protect the plane body. I may have to experiment with the idea. Although I doubt I will ever buy a wood-bodied plane again after my experience with a primus smoother. Still, most of the tools (mostly chisels) I make or rehab don't get used a lot - so this might fit right in!

Either way, I AM going to have to make a hammer with a wood head and brass - I like the looks of yours that much! I just have to find some ebony . . . although bloodwood would also look pretty stunning . . . .

Many Kind Regards . . . Allen

[Moses Yoder]

Unfortunately I do not have anything suitable to give away, pieces are either too small or too big to give away. I found a nice piece of cocobolo I didn't know I had, will have to come up with something to use that for. Also found a large chunk the seller labeled Lignum Vitae that definitely is not but might make something.

[Winton Applegate]

Nice plane adjusting mallet/hammer ! ! !
Sweet smoother plane ! ! ! !

What plane did you use to win the hand planing contest ?
I would never be any competition for you in a contest; I am stuck out here in the Wild, Wild West and no body round these parts has even heard of a planing contest. So, I wouldn’t even know how to go about competing in one. But I am fascinated with planes and performance.

Thanks for posting your work here.

[Moses Yoder]

In past years at WoodCentral gatherings there were planing competitions. Some very nice prizes were donated. Usually about 6 people in the competition. I entered 3 competitions and came in second in all 3 if I remember right. The board was placed on edge, an 8/4 board plane to 1-3/4" thick or so. The shaving length was measured and thickness was measured at the ends and the center. These figures were entered into an Excel spreadsheet that assigned a value to the shaving based on the combination of thickness and length. The goal was to make a very thin but long shaving; you could not just make a .0001 shaving an inch long and win. My shavings typically measured under a thousandth of an inch. At that time I had a good friend who went by the name of Cooper Suter. He knew I was a bottom feeder due to my financial situation and one time I saw him at a MWTCA meet and he called me over to his truck. In there he had a raggedy 604-1/2 smoother he sold me for $35 if I remember right. It has a huge crack in the cheek and otherwise looks terrible but I took it home and put a Hock iron into it. It is my go to smoother and when the competition came up I had no better choice. I tuned it a bit then, flattened the sole some, learned to lateral adjust with a hammer instead of the lever, and ran some test shavings all under a thousandth, like .0008. The LN and LV bevel up low angle jack planes can beat that for $250 or whatever but I was pretty proud. The advantage to those plane is that you can adjust the cut microscopically by turning the lever cap screw. One person did better with a standard #4 with a Stanley blade and that was Warren out in Pennsylvania, I am not sure where he is from. At any rate, hats off to Warren. We always had nice prizes donated by people such as Lie Valley, Lie Nielsen, and Steve Knight. I see there are still Knight smoothers on the bay but he is apparently no longer active in the forums.

[Winton Applegate]

Moses,
Nice going.
Nice story.
I googled 604 1/2 because I was too lazy to get off the couch and look in one of my plane books . . .
The first thread that looked like a good one I clicked and there you were on Wood Central back in 2005.

No photo though, I still had to keep looking to see what we are talking about. Found it on some other guy's site who was banging on about how an infill could show the 604 1/2 how it was done.

David abandoned the infils for the bedrocks so there we are.

Any photos you can put up ?
The big crack makes it sound like a ZEN plane. You know . . . their most prized tea ceremony cups leak or have a crack and have filled in over the decades of use, (or centuries of use).

ZEN hand planing ceremony, could be a whole new branch of ZEN.

[Winton Applegate]

PS: what kind of wood ?
That would (wood) be the only way I could win, is if they were planing some bubinga etc.

Here are a couple of curls off the floor; cambered blade and thicker.


http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/IMG_2571_zps99739c5f.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/IMG_2571_zps99739c5f.jpg.html)


Here are some wider ones from long ago, very thin finishing curls some were the length of the table.
Not sure how thin.
Though undoubtedly thinner than .0008.


I’M KIDDING ! ! !


Bubinga


http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/d12916b6-cac5-4da5-870e-47f4c43c1f19_zps36b261dc.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/d12916b6-cac5-4da5-870e-47f4c43c1f19_zps36b261dc.jpg.html)

http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/8d164b21-3cdd-4afe-a0ef-5906959494cc_zps64b34e3a.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/8d164b21-3cdd-4afe-a0ef-5906959494cc_zps64b34e3a.jpg.html)

[Winton Applegate]

At the risk of being TOTALLY BORING and obtuse . . .
I think they should add one more parameter to that spread sheet.

Are you ready ?
Ta Daaaaaa ! :

Quantity of shavings before chatter. Chatter is the cut off.

How would one measure quantity ? Number of curls ?
By weight ? Nah . . . yes . . . no . . . I don't know.

[Moses Yoder]

We generally use maple for planing contests, a medium hard wood to plane. I am duly impressed with your shavings. I save mine for starting fires. I am guessing you would be a fiersome opponent from the looks of things. Your very name strikes fear into the heart of the most sturdy. I have always wondered what kind of name that is. Here is a picture of my 604-1/2 with a LN iron #102 for scale, along with a fountain pen I turned and my drink for the evening, an iced sun tea. You can see the crack in the cheek of the plane above the center of the pen. The plane has a 2-3/8" Hock iron and is about 10" long. I think for practical use the Bedrock is hard to beat. It is quickly set up, very robotic, no muss no fuss. A nice infill or coffin smoother is kind of romantic you know after you take an afternoon break with tea and dumplings but if you need to get something done it is hard to beat the Bedrock.

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[Winton Applegate]

I don’t know there Moses . . . I turned up the brightness on my iPad, then I turned it ALLLLL the way up AND enlarged the photo real big like . . . then I washed off some of the pop corn butter and chocolate smears off the iPad screen . . .
I still don’t see that crack.
Sure is a big O smoother plane though.


Fearsome name

Ha, ha, ha,
I like your humor.
Nahhhh . . . though it is one of my given names I don’t go by it except here in the Mill. People here keep trying to get me to change it to Winston but I am not a Winston and to even remotely pull that one off I would have to start smoking a pipe and I got all the cigarette and pipe smoke that I need for a life time from hanging around my Dad so I guess I will have to keep going by Winton here.

[I tried to go by my main title (Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wowbagger_the_Infinitely_Prolonged#Wowbagger.2C_th e_Infinitely_Prolonged)) here on SawMill but the moderator dudes wouldn’t believe it was really me . . . or some thin’.

annnyway
I never liked Winton until I came to appreciate a gentleman and artist who now happens to be the director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. (I am not pretending to know him and have never met him but have seen many interviews, teaching videos, music videos and concerts.)

Every time, I am satisfied he is a good person and takes his work and his audience seriously (especially when he is kidding around and entertaining them but all the while teaching them something important).

Wynton Marsalis

The man gets around :
Classical
Jazz (http://www.amazon.com/Black-Codes-Wynton-Marsalis/dp/B0012GMZHM/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1400621653&sr=1-1&keywords=black+codes+from+the+underground)
and more JAZZ (http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Time-Vol-Resolution-Romance/dp/B00136Q7P2/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1400621796&sr=1-2&keywords=wynton+standards) (that's his Dad with him. Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT)
and
Blues (http://www.amazon.com/Wynton-Marsalis-Eric-Clapton-Blues/dp/B005DZMODI/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1400621719&sr=1-3&keywords=wynton)

Speak of the devil a couple of tracks from this Wynton album just came up on my play list as I type this
http://www.amazon.com/Baroque-Music-Trumpets-Wynton-Marsalis/dp/B00077F95W/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1400618526&sr=1-1&keywords=wynton+marsalis+telemann (http://www.amazon.com/Baroque-Music-Trumpets-Wynton-Marsalis/dp/B00077F95W/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1400618526&sr=1-1&keywords=wynton+marsalis+telemann)

His Dad, a formidable teacher and pianist says :
"Yah Wynton’s brother Branford got most of the natural talent but Wynton works hard and does alright."

Ha, HA, HA !
Another funny man.


What kind of name that is :
As far as I can tell there was a guy named Winton who came out with a car some time in the fifties, also called a Winton, and so parents got a little caught up in it all and went to calling their kids Winton. Poor kids.

Other than that I have no idea.


fountain pen
Ahhhhh . . . so you are a fountain pen man, me too ! I just love to see the wet ink come off the pen and sit on the paper . Heck people are forgetting or not being taught how to write cursive.

As I have said before, if society keeps digressing back into the dark ages we are one or two steps away from living out doors and chasing down our dinner with a rock for a weapon.

What next ? I suppose people will stop carrying cotton pocket handkerchiefs. When you see that (or the lack there of) the end is nigh.


http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/IMG_2572_zpsfffefa05.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/IMG_2572_zpsfffefa05.jpg.html)



Bevel down with a chip breaker is quickly set up
. . . well now I KNOW you are fooling with me. You know how I struggle with them : first the screw that only has two thread falls off and gets lost in the shavings under the bench, then the chip breaker slides over the freshly sharpened edge and fouls that up, I won’t go on and on about the blade advance adjuster which makes me want to stop and pull it out of the plane and bang it into something with out all the slop or replace it with a Norris and be done with it . . . no I better not get started on all that.

Ha, ha,
Quick, robotic, no muss no fuss
nooooo those aren’t thoughts that
come to MY mind when dealing with the things

So . . . from the very beginning you have bested me and shown me I haven’t a chance in a duel with you and at this point I am just trying to get my sword out of this dog gone . . . yank. . . tug . . . tug. . . . scabbard !

Here’s to wishing you a romantic afternoon !

Sincerely,

Bowerick Wowbagger

[Mike Holbrook]

Moses,
Steve Knight closed up his plane making operation a few years ago. I bought up some left over parts he had and talked him into routing a few body parts for me with his CNC router. I think I got the last of his plane parts, although he might have decided to make more at some point. His old web site was closed down right after I bought those parts to make a few planes. The smoother with the plane hammer looks like one of Steve's older plane designs. I have a Knight smoother and a jack that are similar which I bought from a Creeker.