bevel up in planes meant for bevel down

[Ron foley]

At a garage sale this weekend a man gave me 5 hand planes. {stanley No.2 a No. 4 a Sargent 3416 and a busted stanley 62. there is a skewed wooden rabbet plane. None of these planes have seen use in a looong time. the puzzling fact about the four metal planes was that the cutters were installed bevel up. understanding the 62 would be correct BUT the other three IMO would make the cutting angle about 60 plus degrees. that would put them into more of a scrapping action rather than cutting. It is a mystery as to why someone would use them in this manner. Any ideas????. Sorry have no pictures as I have disassembled each for a cleaning.

[David Carroll]

I have seen this as well at garage sales. (We call them 'tag sales' here in CT). I always have chalked it up to folks that have never used a plane being curious, taking them apart and not understanding how they go back together.

DC

[Jimmy Harris]

That would be my guess. A lot of old tools are sold by family members and antique dealers who have no idea how to use these tools. But they think they can get more for them if they clean them up a bit, which means taking them apart. I see planes all of the time in antique stores that are missing parts and completely unusable, but listed at the same price as another plane right next to it that has all of the parts. And that says to me that the seller doesn't really understand how these things work.

[steven c newman]

Look familiar?
518138

[Jim Koepke]

As others have said, someone took it apart and put it back together wrong.

A #2 is a rare find out rust hunting. A nice plane when doing smaller work or working with youngsters. Though I'm not sure if you want a child trying out a plane that trends a bit over $200 on the 'bay.

jtk

[Ron foley]

I already had a really nice # 2 But they were gifts Couldn't turn them down. All but one will clean up and make good users

[Rob Luter]

At a garage sale this weekend a man gave me 5 hand planes. {stanley No.2 a No. 4 a Sargent 3416 and a busted stanley 62. there is a skewed wooden rabbet plane. None of these planes have seen use in a looong time. the puzzling fact about the four metal planes was that the cutters were installed bevel up. understanding the 62 would be correct BUT the other three IMO would make the cutting angle about 60 plus degrees. that would put them into more of a scraping action rather than cutting. It is a mystery as to why someone would use them in this manner. Any ideas????. Sorry have no pictures as I have disassembled each for a cleaning.


As odd as it sounds, I read an article a few years back that spoke of creating a scraper plane doing just that. As I recall the author converted a beater #4 and made a dedicated scraper by grinding a 45° angle on the iron. The result was a 90° iron to workpiece condition. I've never tried it.

[Ron foley]

Rob just for grins and giggles I put a sharp blade bevel up in a number 4 set it to a fine setting and tried scraping a rough cut oak board. It works pretty well. In a few strokes the board was acceptable.

[steven c newman]

Have seen a few planes come through the Rehab Shop..that looked like the old Owner was using the chipbreaker as the cutter....on TOP of the bevel, BTW..

[Frederick Skelly]

I already had a really nice # 2 But they were gifts Couldn't turn them down. All but one will clean up and make good users

You could put the #2 up for sale here. Someone will scoop it up!

[Jimmy Harris]

Rob just for grins and giggles I put a sharp blade bevel up in a number 4 set it to a fine setting and tried scraping a rough cut oak board. It works pretty well. In a few strokes the board was acceptable.
If the blade is sharp enough, it'll probably work fine.

When I bought my first spokeshave (Stanley 51), the blade came bevel up, and I didn't know that was wrong. So I used it like that for a while. I worked okay, but when I figured out the error, it worked even better. Though, it does clog up more often now, which might have been why it came with the bevel up. I probably should file the mouth open a bit more, but I might just buy another 51 one day and save that one for fine work where I'm worried about tear out.