Wood planes, dry environment, tight blades?

[Tony Wilkins]

I have an Old Town coffin smoother and an Ohio tool jointer in wood stock planes. I got them while I was stationed in Kansas but now I’m back In West Texas. It is DRY here and the blades in both are very tight. I worked on the blades a bit to ‘narrow’ them but I’m afraid it time to work on the wooden stocks to ease them. When I say ‘afraid ‘ it is an apt choice of words.

any tips before I take tool to wood on these planes I enjoy so much? What tool would you use! (I’ve got rasps, some small files i use on my models, and of course chisels)

help me obi wan (I mean saw mill creek)!

[Bob Glenn]

If it were me, I'd take the time to file the edges of the blade rather than mess with the body of the plane. Is it a single blade or one with a chip breaker? You may have to narrow both and also the wedge. Go cautiously though, your next tour of duty may be in Georgia! Oh, and thank you for being a part of our military forces. Bob

[ernest dubois]

It's not computing. If you have taken the wood from a place of relative high humidity in comparison to a place where the humidity is lower, as you imply, the opposite reaction could be expected as the wood gets drier at the exposed surfaces and contracts, the blad loosening.

[Tony Wilkins]

If it were me, I'd take the time to file the edges of the blade rather than mess with the body of the plane. Is it a single blade or one with a chip breaker? You may have to narrow both and also the wedge. Go cautiously though, your next tour of duty may be in Georgia! Oh, and thank you for being a part of our military forces. Bob

Thanks for your reply Bob. I’m out now - medically retired- so no more moves thank heavens.

i started with the blades (smoother is single, jointer has chip breaker). I would like that road better. I started with my coarse water stone and 1000 grit diamond plate but didn’t make enough head way. File maybe? Sand paper?

[ken hatch]

It's not computing. If you have taken the wood from a place of relative high humidity in comparison to a place where the humidity is lower, as you imply, the opposite reaction could be expected as the wood gets drier at the exposed surfaces and contracts, the blad loosening.

Ernest,

As the wood dries, the mortise shrinks. Happens every time I get a new plane from Philly Planes or Steve Voigt. usually takes 6 months to a year for them to settle in. I keep the cutter and wedge stored very lose for the first six months or so.

ken

[ernest dubois]

Ernest,

As the wood dries, the mortise shrinks. Happens every time I get a new plane from Philly Planes or Steve Voigt. usually takes 6 months to a year for them to settle in. I keep the cutter and wedge stored very lose for the first six months or so.

kenThis was my point in specifying that all the exposed surfaces will contract, also those in the opening for the blade.
I have also had blades that become stuck, and can think of one rabbit plane from Ulmia in particular, but it happens with the seasonal change from dry going in to humid.

This idea of letting the plane acclimatize is a good one and maybe applies here.

[Jim Koepke]

Some folks loosen the blade and wedge before putting a wooden plane away for the day.

Interesting aspect of wood movement with wood planes and socket chisels. Over the years only one or two of my socket chisels have had loose handles from changes in the weather. This year it seems a lot more have succumbed to humidity changes. It seems this last years changes had more rapid back and forth changes than in the past.

Many of my wood bodied planes have also shown evidence of change between use.

jtk

[Tony Wilkins]

Some folks loosen the blade and wedge before putting a wooden plane away for the day.

Interesting aspect of wood movement with wood planes and socket chisels. Over the years only one or two of my socket chisels have had loose handles from changes in the weather. This year it seems a lot more have succumbed to humidity changes. It seems this last years changes had more rapid back and forth changes than in the past.

Many of my wood bodied planes have also shown evidence of change between use.

jtk

theyve actually had a couple of years to acclimate. I stored the blades out on both but a few months ago I started to work on the smoother blade and left it in. It (the smoother) got to a tight but workable point when I worked on the blade but it must have gotten just a little drier since.

so, should I take a file to the Ohio blade and chip breaker to see if I can get it to work?

FWIW Lubbock gets and annual average of less than 18” of precipitation a year and we’re currently in a drought.

[Jim Koepke]

theyve actually had a couple of years to acclimate. I stored the blades out on both but a few months ago I started to work on the smoother blade and left it in. It (the smoother) got to a tight but workable point when I worked on the blade but it must have gotten just a little drier since.

so, should I take a file to the Ohio blade and chip breaker to see if I can get it to work?

FWIW Lubbock gets and annual average of less than 18” of precipitation a year and we’re currently in a drought.

My approach would be to see if it is sticking over the full area of the blade's edge or just in a few places. If the sticking is uniform over the blade's edge then remove material from the blade. If there is only one or two tight spots in the plane those would be addressed.

Remember to remove equal amounts from both sides of the blade if that is the avenue taken.

jtk

[Bob Glenn]

File then sandpaper or stones.

[Patrick Chase]

As the wood dries, the mortise shrinks. Happens every time I get a new plane from Philly Planes or Steve Voigt. usually takes 6 months to a year for them to settle in. I keep the cutter and wedge stored very lose for the first six months or so.

Beech has very high tangential:radial shrink ratios, over 2:1. This is so because of the medullary ray structure in the radial direction, which tends to limit shrink along that axis and thereby increases the T:R ratio. As a consequence there are two different "blade sticking" modes, and I think that people are confusing them in this thread:


If the blade is fit tightly in the lateral (side to side) direction, then low humidity can cause sticking when the entire plane body shrinks around the iron. The wood's tangential axis is side-to-side w.r.t. the plane, which means that you get worst-case shrink along that direction. This is the mode that Ken and a couple others are referencing, and that appears to be afflicting the OP.
If the wedge is quartersawn (tangential axis aligned vertically) as it often is, then it will tend to expand more than the body in the vertical axis (radial axis of the body, tangential axis of the wedge) when humidity increases. This leads to "over-wedging" and sticking. This is the mode that some other folks are referencing. While fascinating from a design/tradeoff perspective, it probably isn't relevant to the OP.

I think that this thread becomes a lot more clear when you realize that it's basically two separate conversations about completely different phenomena.

[Don McConnell]

Hi Tony,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with the smoothing plane. The best course of action in a case like this, in my opinion, is to narrow the blade slightly rather than remove wood from the cheeks of the wedge-ways. Filing might work on older laminated irons, but will be fairly useless on one of our irons, which is hardened O-1 steel throughout its length and thickness. And I think using stones or abrasive papers will mostly be a test of your patience. Though not without risk, the more effective approach is to remove the required material through careful grinding. Yes, there is the possibility of overheating, but a light touch and properly maintained grinding medium can keep the risk at a minimum.

If you don't have the equipment or inclination, we'd be happy to take care of this if you'd be willing to ship your plane back to us. Feel free to contact us through our web-site if you wish to go this route.

Don McConnell
Old Street Tool, Inc.
Eureka Springs, AR

[Jim Koepke]

Now that is an offer that is hard to refuse.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

Now that is an offer that is hard to refuse.

jtk

A top-notch vendor standing behind their product. Obviously the OP meant "Old Street" when he wrote "Old Town".

[Tony Wilkins]

A top-notch vendor standing behind their product. Obviously the OP meant "Old Street" when he wrote "Old Town".

yep, did mistype, meant Old Street


Hi Tony,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with the smoothing plane. The best course of action in a case like this, in my opinion, is to narrow the blade slightly rather than remove wood from the cheeks of the wedge-ways. Filing might work on older laminated irons, but will be fairly useless on one of our irons, which is hardened O-1 steel throughout its length and thickness. And I think using stones or abrasive papers will mostly be a test of your patience. Though not without risk, the more effective approach is to remove the required material through careful grinding. Yes, there is the possibility of overheating, but a light touch and properly maintained grinding medium can keep the risk at a minimum.

If you don't have the equipment or inclination, we'd be happy to take care of this if you'd be willing to ship your plane back to us. Feel free to contact us through our web-site if you wish to go this route.

Don McConnell
Old Street Tool, Inc.
Eureka Springs, AR

Thanks Don. Do not have a grinder so I might have to take you up on that. Dumb question though, won’t the humidity there in Arkansas affect what needs to be done to adjust it?

[Don McConnell]

Hi Tony,

Not a dumb question at all. I'd already thought about it and would recommend taking the iron and wedge out of the plane and placing the body of the plane, and the wedge, in a sealable plastic bag. (Maybe with a desiccant?) Upon arrival, if we take the plane body and wedge out of the bag only briefly as needed and commence work on the iron right away, we should be able to make the necessary adjustment before things change enough to be a problem.

Don McConnell
Old Street Tool, Inc.
Eureka Springs, AR

[Christian Setla]

Plane makers often use planemaker's floats. Having said that, for a one off job, I'd be reaching for my files. If I were into wooden planes and liked making them... I'd probably order some floats from Lie-Nielson as they have a nice selection, but there are other sources too.

The trick is to keep flat areas flat. It's easy to get them out of flat. If you are used to doing accurate file work, you'll be fine with just files.

A bit of lamp black on the metal bits will show where it's tight (a felt marker can substitute for lamp black or layout dye).