Re-purpose old wooden jointer planes.

[Richard Hutchings]

I have a couple that just sit on the drain pipe in my basement. They both work but I don't use them and prefer my metal planes. I was thinking of cutting up the blades for plow and molding planes someday because they are already tapered and would be easy to use.

There's also a bunch of real nice beach for making smaller planes and handles. I feel like it's almost sacrilegious to do this but, there are millions of these out there and I think I could make better use out of the materials. You can't get more than $20 for these things so they aren't worth selling and they are much more valuable as stock to me.

What do you think? I'm not asking for permission, I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it someday. Just curious about how everyone feels about this.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

To me its not as much of a sacrilege as painting a farm science on a handsaw. I have seen nice lamps made out of an old wooden plane. I just inherited an old beech plane and will give it a try before I set it on a pipe or shelf. Cutting it up would be a little sad but I only have the one. I also have a new to me Beech spokeshave. I need to find my way back to the thread about those. I really want to put it into use.

[David Carroll]

A few (probably 10) years ago I won a bid (I think it was Brown Auctions) for an "opportunity box" of old plane bodies and irons. Most were beyond rehabbing. I did make a smooth plane with a convex sole for a project, but the rest of the beech wood I used to make marking gauges, and wedges for planes where they were missing and in one case patch wood to close the mouth of an old family plane that the mouth had opened due to repeated flattenings.

If the plane is not rare and is otherwise in poor condition, I'd say go for it!

DC

[Tony Wilkins]

If they work I’d say sell them. Seems a shame to cut them up when their is so many no -working ones out there to cut up instead. Then again, I’m a pack rat and sometimes use wooden planes.

[Reed Gray]

I have a couple that are laying around, and they have deteriorated to the point that they are not worth much more than fire wood. I want to repurpose the blades on them and make a couple of wood hand planes. Biggest problem I have with an old Stanley Bailey combination plane is that the blade is so thin. Not too difficult to fix with a new blade, and probably a new chip breaker as well.

robo hippy

[Cameron Wood]

At a point in the late 1800s, wood planes- mostly moulding plane I believe, were sold by the barrel for firewood.

[Mike Henderson]

There used to be a market for the irons, and chip breakers, to people who were making wooden planes. I don't know how that market is now. Some of those old irons were nice - thick and took a good edge.

Mike

[Richard Hutchings]

If the market for the irons is better than the planes, I may try to sell them. The 1 I have is thick and tapered. This is why I think it will make fantastic blades for DIY molding planes.

[Rafael Herrera]

Irons made in England were very good, since in the USA the tool steel industry in the USA didn't take off until the late 19th century.

What are the brands of the irons you have?

There are a lot of tapered plane irons for sale on ebay. Typical prices seem to be in the $10-$45 range plus shipping and tax. Their monetary value is low, but it does not mean these irons are not good, in fact they are very good, there's is just not a demand for them. A wooden jack plane, for example, is so much productive than a metal jack, but not very many people take the trouble to learn how to use them.

Cutting these irons down to make moulding plane irons might not be easy.

Cutting them in half and turning them into marking knives or rabbet plane irons is quick and easy.

Rafael

[Richard Hutchings]

Irons made in England were very good, since in the USA the tool steel industry in the USA didn't take off until the late 19th century.

What are the brands of the irons you have?

There are a lot of tapered plane irons for sale on ebay. Typical prices seem to be in the $10-$45 range plus shipping and tax. Their monetary value is low, but it does not mean these irons are not good, in fact they are very good, there's is just not a demand for them. A wooden jack plane, for example, is so much productive than a metal jack, but not very many people take the trouble to learn how to use them.

Cutting these irons down to make moulding plane irons might not be easy.

Cutting them in half and turning them into marking knives or rabbet plane irons is quick and easy.

Rafael

I don't understand why it would be any more difficult to make molding blades . I have never made one so there's that. At least the tapering is done for me, that's big.

[Rafael Herrera]

I don't understand why it would be any more difficult to make molding blades . I have never made one so there's that. At least the tapering is done for me, that's big.

These are just suppositions and observations.

Since they are in their hardened state, cutting them and re-profiling them might not be easy. You could anneal them to be able to use a hack saw and files to cut them and re-profile them.

Most moulding irons I've seen are slightly thinner than plane irons, but that might not be a big deal.

On the plane irons, the laminated steel extends all the way up to the bottom of the slot (see the discoloration? in the picture that's over 2.5 in long) You'd have to use a angle grinder to cut that if it remains hardened.

Only the right side of the iron would be usable for a moulding iron, see the profiles in the picture. The left side could be used for a rabbet or dado plane. The reason for this is that these are laminated irons, they can't be flipped.

I think the most difficult part of a project like this is that if you anneal the irons and then re-harden them, then to get the irons properly hardened again might be tricky. The steel is cast steel, and I believe they were water hardened. Will it matter if they are oil hardened? I don't know. Also, moulding irons are not heat treated as hard as a plane iron, a file will bite into them.

Nothing above is insurmountable, but it may require a lot of effort.

In the meantime, iron blanks are available through some tool makers like Red Rose Repros (https://redrosereproductions.com/tapered-molding-plane-irons/) and Lie Nielsen (https://www.lie-nielsen.com/products/molding-plane-iron-blank-2).

Rafael

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[Rafael Herrera]

I'm curious why you don't use the planes. Do they work poorly?

I do most of my jointing using a no.7 sized plane, but I have used a 26" Ohio Tools wood bodied jointer on other projects.

I've been thinking of getting a smooth bottom no. 8 plane at some point in the future, but more out of curiosity than disappointment on my jointer.

I'm not a great fan of heavy planes and don't want to struggle like the guy in this video (https://youtu.be/nu91nt15F8U&t=310)

[Richard Hutchings]

I used them a couple of times. I prefer my metal ones, that's all. I never do so much planing with a jointer where weight is an issue. I can get a lot of useful stuff out all the parts and it's all paid for, which is nice. Plus where else am I going to find wood of this quality? The shrinkage is done.

[Jim Koepke]

Cutting these irons down to make moulding plane irons might not be easy.

They can be cut with a Dremel and one of the many cutoff wheels.

jtk