Sb #5

[Jerry Thompson]

I am getting ready to slightly widen the mouth of this plane to accommodate a thicker Hock blade. I assume one would file the sloping edge closest to the iron.
I have safety files and only plan on taking off a little at a time and testing for desired opening until I am satisfied.
Any other pointers will be appreciated.

jerry

[george wilson]

You file the edge IN FRONT of the cutting edge of the iron.

BUT,don't forget that on Stanley type planes,the FROG ( the angled piece that the blade rests upon) can be loosened and moved back. You may not have to file at all. So,be careful. Once you remove the metal,it cannot be replaced.

I am not sure what you mean by "The sloping edge closest to the iron".

[Jerry Thompson]

Yes I know about the frog movement but all of the way back I cannot get a very thick shaving. By the sloping edge I mean the one closest to the iron. It is angled the on toward the front of the plane body is vertical.

[John Vernier]

File the front, vertical edge. You will find it much easier to do accurately. On an older, well-used plane, this edge can often benefit from being "crisped up" in any case.

[Jim Koepke]

Filing the front of the mouth is an easier task than filing the back of the mouth.

With that said, on most planes the frog can move far enough back to inhibit the blade from entering the mouth. If it is a Stanley/Bailey plane before a type 9 I see no reason to not remove material from the back of the mouth.

The angle of this edge should be the same as the frog. This angle is easy to maintain with some tape on the frog to protect it.

It helps to scribe a line on the sole to help keep square and to gauge progress.

Either way you decide to go, you should remove very little metal before checking for fit. The cast iron cuts fast.

jtk

[Jerry Thompson]

Well what I did worked. I had scribed a mark and filed to it. This was from the back part of the mouth the one with the angle. I only went to the scribe mark. I do no know how much came off but when I reinstalled everything I could take a nice thick shaving and it curled right up nice as pie.
Before with the frog all of the way back I could only take a very thin finishing type cut without the shaving jamming between the mouth and the blade/CB.
At any rate it does the job and thanks for the input.

[Patrick Chase]

Noooooo! Your plane is a relic passed down through the generations from a long-lost civilization of woodworking Gods! Don't modify it. For that matter, don't plane anything with it. (in case it isn't obvious, I am not being serious here. It's a tool, to be modified as needed to improve its utility as such).

With that out of the way...


Filing the front of the mouth is an easier task than filing the back of the mouth.

With that said, on most planes the frog can move far enough back to inhibit the blade from entering the mouth. If it is a Stanley/Bailey plane before a type 9 I see no reason to not remove material from the back of the mouth.

The angle of this edge should be the same as the frog. This angle is easy to maintain with some tape on the frog to protect it.

It helps to scribe a line on the sole to help keep square and to gauge progress.

Either way you decide to go, you should remove very little metal before checking for fit. The cast iron cuts fast.

jtk

This is right IMO.

I would add that it depends on what you want to give up. If you remove too much material from the front then you lose the ability to close the mouth all the way down with a standard blade. If you remove from the back then you'll force yourself to use a wider mouth when the plane is set up with the frog in line with the sole.

Your plane will realistically never see another stock blade again, so you should probably start by removing metal from the front, but don't remove so much that you can't close down all the way with your Hock blade. If you need to remove more after that then consider working the back edge, depending on how you weight the tradeoffs outlined above.

[Jerry Thompson]

At the moment it is doing what I want it to do. I took off a bunch of cherry to flatten on side so I could run it through the planer. That came out great. Long story short: I now have a piece of cherry 1 7/8'' thick, 11'' wide and 28'' long. I am going to let it distress for a week or so in my hidey spot in the house. Then I will re saw it down the middle and let it be able to do what ever it wants to do then I will dimension it slightly oversize and wait again then have at it.
The piece has been in my non-climate controlled shop in FL for 3 years so I am acting on past experience.
I had some panels that I edge jointed and they looked great. I left them in the shop overnight and they would have made great Pirate's chest lids. I am not going to go down that road again.
Thanks everyone.