Question about my scrub plane

[Brian Hale]

I recently won a well used Stanley #40 on ebay. My question is about the blade; When it's installed and the levercap is snugged up, the back of the blade actually rests on the tote and doesn't make contact with the "frog" surface.

I'm guessing the handle might have come from another Type #40? The blade is flat.

I'm tempted to sand about 3/16" off the top of the handle. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Brian :)

[Eddie Darby]

Sand it off the bottom of the handle and not the top.

[Terry Beadle]

Hello! Either you shorten the blade or you take a tad off the tote. The blade must be on the frog. You could bend the blade but I wouldn't recommend it. If this is a user, I would just take a tad off the tote.

The blade is more valuable than the inside tip of the tote.

Dem's my 2 cents.

[David Weaver]

Post your thoughts once you get to use it. I just bought the LV version because I didn't have the patience to wait for the 40 1/2s on ebay to end, and I haven't gotten it out of the box yet. Being one of the LN/Stanley faithful, I was a little nervous about buying my first LV plane, but having just peeked in the box, it looks decent.

A friend and I are building the blanket chest with legs that was in FWW and we found out that his 20" Delta planer took enormous tearout out of the highly figured maple we got - and I mean hideous amounts. We're hoping to use a scrub plane to thickness the boards after having tried using bench planes to do it - that's an exercise in trying to do something a tool wasn't designed for.

I'm also hoping I can avoid buying a wide bed power jointer, which I don't have space for.

The more I learn, the more I like hand tools. I never even heard of a purpose-built scrub plane until a week ago, and I thought I'd be ruining one of my #4s or something to make one.

[Maurice Metzger]

Brian, are you sure that's a tote from a scrub? On mine the top slopes downward more:

63462

Maurice

[Mike Henderson]

That looks like a replacement handle. You probably know this, but most of the scrub plane totes were beech except the really late ones (just before WWII models). And as Maurice points out, the shape of the tote is a bit different than the bench planes.

Something that's a bit more work is to make a new tote from Beech or Cherry. You could use the existing tote as a guide but just shape the top a bit different.

It always irks me when an eBay seller doesn't mention, or provide pictures of, significant issues such as that handle and the fit to the blade. I would contact the seller, point out the problem, and ask for a few bucks rebate because of the lack of disclosure. Bidders would have bid less if they had known about the problem.

Mike

[Brian Hale]

Thanks guys!

I had read somewhere that almost all scrubs had beech (or some other light colored wood) for the knob and tote but it didn't register in my feeble mind at the time i was bidding and since i'm looking for a user, the authenticity isn't important to me. However, after scrubbing with some heavy duty scotchbrite it appears but the knob and tote are rosewood or something similar. Since i'm going to sand off the top of the tote i'll strip both and see what they look like.

The tote is a dead ringer for the ones on my 4's

FWIW, it only takes about 3/4 of a turn of the screw to get the blade to sit on the frog so it won't take much tote sanding to set things straight.

As a side note, the casting says C261 inside the frog and the lever cap says 12 in one of the recesses. It's a later version with the "T" shaped cross rib. The blade is a tad over 6" long.

This is my first scrub so I'll clean it up a bit and put it to good use. There's only about 40% japanning left and the sides are pitted but the sole is quite flat and smooth. It ain't pretty. You should have seen the look on LOML face when i showed it to her....:eek:

Brian :)

[Bill Houghton]

A lot of hand tool purists argue that they're carpenter's tools (this statement made while looking down the nose), but I find mine unbelievably great for removing material from the surface or at times edge of a board. Starting at an angle to the grain and working with short, choppy strokes, you can waste away more stock than power tools, in many cases; as you get closer, move more in line with the grain and go to longer strokes.

Another tool that, with a little attention, becomes intuitive in its use; although you can get carried away and over-thin the wood (DAMHIKT but it was a painful experience).