What to look for in old wooden planes?

[Jon Toebbe]

I am a novice when it comes to hand-planing, and recently purchased a Bailey #4 smoothing plane from Ebay. When it arrived, I discovered the rust to be much more significant than I was led to believe -- one of the frog bedding screws sheared off in a shower of reddish flakes under moderate screwdriver pressure. In short, even soaked in penetrating oil and attacked with old toothbrushes and a Dremel wire wheel, the frog and cutter depth adjustment are frozen.

I complained to the seller, who apologized profusely and offered me a refund if I mailed it back, a half-refund if I kept it or another plane. Intrigued, I asked her about what lay behind door number three. Evidently, she has some old, wooden planes from England and is willing to send me one to make things right.

I know just enough about metal-bodied planes to bid on Ebay (in other words: a little bit more than nothing), but know absolutely nothing about wooden planes. She going to email me some photos from which to pick and choose, and I don't have any idea what to look for. Can somebody please point me to some useful old wooden plane resources?

Many thanks,
Jon

[Richard Gillespie]

Jon;

I'm not an expert by any means. However, in your write up you left us hanging as to what type of wooden plane you're being offered.

There is a wide range of wooden body planes in existence. Ones that come quickly to mind are smoothers, molders, plow, dado, scrub, jack, and jointers. Beyond that, there were many specialty planes produced for various purposes.

In general, you want the wood body to be free of large checks or any cracks. You also want the original iron and chip breaker (if any) with the original wedge. Beyond that, you get into issues of, are you going to use the plane and how much tune up will it require for use?

[Tom Stovell]

Jon,
Ask to get a look at the mouth of the wooden planes. Most around here are too wide to be real effective tools. You can always (usually) fix this with a new block of wood let into the sole but if you are trying to make a 'bad buy, good' I doubt you want to go to the trouble when there are usable tools out there.

Tom

[Jon Toebbe]

I'm not an expert by any means. However, in your write up you left us hanging as to what type of wooden plane you're being offered.
Well, she hasn't emailed me any photos or other details, so I don't actually know. I asked her specifically about smoothers, but she doesn't seem to be too knowledgeable about planes (which is why her listing said "some rust" instead of "all moving parts rusted together"). I'll write with more details as I learn them.


Beyond that, you get into issues of, are you going to use the plane and how much tune up will it require for use?
Definitely a user. I'm not interested in, nor is she likely to offer me something highly collectible. If I can get a decent, useable wooden smoother I'll consider myself very lucky. With metal-bodied planes, I know (broadly speaking) what to look for in order to get something I can fettle. I'm clueless when it comes to woodies.


Ask to get a look at the mouth of the wooden planes. Most around here are too wide to be real effective tools.
How wide is too wide? Should it be as small an opening as a metal-bodied plane, or is wider acceptable in a wooden plane?

Are there any old "name brands" I should look out for (positive and negative)? She gets most of her auction items from England, so they'll likely be English planes, if that helps.

Thanks for the help,
Jon

[Richard Gillespie]

Jon;

I sent you a PM that gives you a URL for an English woodworking forum. I think that if you post a question on their hand tool forum you'll get a reference to the better quality English wooden planes.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Jon,

Graham Blackburn's book "Traditional Woodworking Handtools" Has a lot of information on wooden planes, types, use and restoraion. Check out the library and you woodworking friends to see if they have it.