Wood Stock Plow Planes

[ken hatch]

Several days ago Ralph over at Accidental Woodworker posted about his Record 44 troubles and I mentioned wood stock plows in a comment. Our conversation hooked my inter tool collector that I had defeated a few years ago. It came back in spades.


Right now I have three new plows to go along with the old work horse Sandusky and three more in transit plus two with bids out that I expect will be mine in a couple of days. That is the bad news, the good is all but two cost about the same or less that the shipping to get 'em to Tucson. Here are a couple of less that $25 USD + postage plow planes. Both are wedge arm, I guess that makes them cheaper but truth is for some uses I like the wedge arm plows more than screw arm plows. Wedge arms are a little easier and quicker to set but are also easier to knock out of adjustment.

377957

The plow on the left will eventually need one of the arm wedges replaced and it came with an iron that is much thinner than my Marple irons. I adjusted the wedge and the skate to work with the thicker Marple irons and it works like a champ.


The plow on the right needed a little more work. Its wedge didn't fit. I'm sure there may be a plow with a wedge less than 5/8" wide but I haven't seen one. This one's wedge couldn't have been over 1/2" wide. Needless to say it would not secure the iron. It's arm wedges were also funky in one of the wedges wasn't wide enough to wedge and it had a stick to help it hold and the other was not the correct shape for an arm wedge. Bottom line to get the plane to work properly I had to make a new cutter wedge and two new arm wedges. All three wedges were made from some Cherry scraps.


Both planes are now good users.

ken

[Jim Koepke]

My wedge arm plow was bought from a display of plow planes at a Cost Plus store, iirc, for about $10 almost 50 years ago. It gets used occasionally. Most of the time my thoughts turn to selling it and the 2 or 3 blades that have been acquired over the years. Mostly though my memories go back to how this is actually my first plane purchased, bought years before my first woodworking project. It was meant to be a decorator piece at the time.

jtk

[ken hatch]

My wedge arm plow was bought from a display of plow planes at a Cost Plus store, iirc, for about $10 almost 50 years ago. It gets used occasionally. Most of the time my thoughts turn to selling it and the 2 or 3 blades that have been acquired over the years. Mostly though my memories go back to how this is actually my first plane purchased, bought years before my first woodworking project. It was meant to be a decorator piece at the time.

jtk

Jim,

My question of course is did it work out of the box? Your Cost Plus is a lot more interesting than my Cost Plus's have been :).

ken

[Jim Koepke]

Jim,

My question of course is did it work out of the box? Your Cost Plus is a lot more interesting than my Cost Plus's have been :).

ken

It was a little rough. After picking through all that were on display my choice was to pick the one that looked to be the best.

My best memory is of it being a Cost Plus. It could have been some other store. My recollection is this one was in Marin County near San Rafael. There was another Cost Plus over on my side of the bay that didn't have as nice of a selection for many things. At the time, remember this was ~50 years ago, my knowledge of woodworking wasn't advanced enough to drive nails without bending half of them.

jtk

[ken hatch]

It was a little rough. After picking through all that were on display my choice was to pick the one that looked to be the best.

My best memory is of it being a Cost Plus. It could have been some other store. My recollection is this one was in Marin County near San Rafael. There was another Cost Plus over on my side of the bay that didn't have as nice of a selection for many things. At the time, remember this was ~50 years ago, my knowledge of woodworking wasn't advanced enough to drive nails without bending half of them.

jtk

Jim,

BTDT, and sometimes still there :).

What got me started was a friend stated one of the reasons he didn't try a wood plow was all were too expensive and most didn't have irons. That got me started on a quest just to see what it takes to get a usable wood plow and cutters. What I'm finding is price has little to do with usability and looks has even less effect. Bottom line, some of the best users have been the cheapest often under $25 USD. All require a little fiddling but most not more than making and fitting a new wedge. I have two more coming, one pretty high dollar, the other in the under $25USD range. It's a crap shoot which will require the most work and end up being the most useable.

I was very lucky in my first wood plow was my Sandusky and it has worked beautifully from the get go. I'm not sure what I would have done if it had been a less than good plow.

BTW, when I finish testing I expect I'll keep one or two and sell the expensive ones and give the cheep ones away. The plows that can't be saved will go in the burn pile.

ken

[Jim Koepke]

Jim,

BTDT, and sometimes still there :).

What got me started was a friend stated one of the reasons he didn't try a wood plow was all were too expensive and most didn't have irons. That got me started on a quest just to see what it takes to get a usable wood plow and cutters. What I'm finding is price has little to do with usability and looks has even less effect. Bottom line, some of the best users have been the cheapest often under $25 USD. All require a little fiddling but most not more than making and fitting a new wedge. I have two more coming, one pretty high dollar, the other in the under $25USD range. It's a crap shoot which will require the most work and end up being the most useable.

I was very lucky in my first wood plow was my Sandusky and it has worked beautifully from the get go. I'm not sure what I would have done if it had been a less than good plow.

BTW, when I finish testing I expect I'll keep one or two and sell the expensive ones and give the cheep ones away. The plows that can't be saved will go in the burn pile.

ken

Reading a section of Audels Carpenters and Builders Guide cured me of bending nails unless one hits a knot or other obstruction. My recollection was the most important tip on driving nails was to keep your elbow in the same plane as the head of the nail. That will help control the angle of the hammer's head striking the nail's head.

To me that one piece of information made the cost of the 4 volume set of books, $12, worth it.

Other than parts scavenging, why not give the plows that can't be saved to folks who want to use them as decorations in their homes or places of business?

jtk