Jim Koepke
12-02-2007, 2:21 PM
I am fairly new to the Creek, but have been sliding down the slope for a while.
My interests in woodworking started a few years ago when some chairs were wanted for our back yard. Not liking what was available through the local merchants sent me on a mission to figure out how to build my own. A trip to the library produced a book from 1937 by a high school shop teacher that had a working drawing for an Adirondack chair.
At the time, income was low ambition was high. The first one was made from wood scavenged from old pallets. A few were made this way then I started buying wood from the local big box. Made some for friends and even sold a few.
This was before any knowledge of the slippery slope.
Fast forward to the present.
I have owned a few Stanley #4 planes. Most of them I have just sharpened the blade and used it a little and sold or left on the shelf waiting to sell. For the last couple of years a #3 has been more to my liking.
I have bought a few planes for parts. It is often cheaper to buy a broken plane or what looks like a bucket of rust than it is to buy just the part. A broken base can come in handy at times when working on handles, knobs and other parts. A few of these have been cut down and filed smooth so they can be used in a vice with a mounted handle or frog. One of the parts planes that came my way was in pretty poor shape. The wood was good, but the sole looked like it had been stored in a shallow pool of water.
An interesting demonstration can be shown here. Items will look different when photographed under incandescent & fluorescent lights than when a flash is used. Some blades I sold on eBay were all shown with a flash except for one that had a stain that showed up more with room lighting. So it was listed without the flash picture to show the stain. The pictures below are of a #4 bought with another plane for about $15 including shipping. The first is using a flash, the second with just room lights.
[See the attachments]
The blade was clean, the ugly stuff there is most likely a reflection.
The sole was pitted so deep a belt sander had to be used to get to good metal.
[See the attachments]
After that, lapping the sole was fairly easy. A friend gave me a piece of granite left over from a kitchen remodel and setting it up with some sand paper was easy.
[See the attachments]
Here it is shown held by my bench vise and a couple of strips of wood.
The frog also had fettling to be done. After a while, things started to come together.
[See the attachments]
Nice fluffy curls of shavings spilling from the mouth are a pleasure to behold. Even the little woman was impressed how translucent they were and was amazed at being able to see through them.
The plane was tested on end grain and made me a believer in the usefulness of a #4.
I still like my #3. Somehow though using a plane that one has done some work on to bring it back from the scrap heap produces a different kind of satisfaction than provided by a plane that came out of the box well tuned.
A post here on SMC gave me the idea of trying a different angle on a blade. Having a few spare blades to try, one with a rough grind at a steep angle was used to sharpen a bevel at 25 degrees. This was a Stanley blade with a V logo. I was surprised to find it was of laminated construction. The jury is still out on this. One thing that was a little amusing though is the blade chirps like a bird going over some woods.
With both feet firmly sliding down the slope...
Jim
My interests in woodworking started a few years ago when some chairs were wanted for our back yard. Not liking what was available through the local merchants sent me on a mission to figure out how to build my own. A trip to the library produced a book from 1937 by a high school shop teacher that had a working drawing for an Adirondack chair.
At the time, income was low ambition was high. The first one was made from wood scavenged from old pallets. A few were made this way then I started buying wood from the local big box. Made some for friends and even sold a few.
This was before any knowledge of the slippery slope.
Fast forward to the present.
I have owned a few Stanley #4 planes. Most of them I have just sharpened the blade and used it a little and sold or left on the shelf waiting to sell. For the last couple of years a #3 has been more to my liking.
I have bought a few planes for parts. It is often cheaper to buy a broken plane or what looks like a bucket of rust than it is to buy just the part. A broken base can come in handy at times when working on handles, knobs and other parts. A few of these have been cut down and filed smooth so they can be used in a vice with a mounted handle or frog. One of the parts planes that came my way was in pretty poor shape. The wood was good, but the sole looked like it had been stored in a shallow pool of water.
An interesting demonstration can be shown here. Items will look different when photographed under incandescent & fluorescent lights than when a flash is used. Some blades I sold on eBay were all shown with a flash except for one that had a stain that showed up more with room lighting. So it was listed without the flash picture to show the stain. The pictures below are of a #4 bought with another plane for about $15 including shipping. The first is using a flash, the second with just room lights.
[See the attachments]
The blade was clean, the ugly stuff there is most likely a reflection.
The sole was pitted so deep a belt sander had to be used to get to good metal.
[See the attachments]
After that, lapping the sole was fairly easy. A friend gave me a piece of granite left over from a kitchen remodel and setting it up with some sand paper was easy.
[See the attachments]
Here it is shown held by my bench vise and a couple of strips of wood.
The frog also had fettling to be done. After a while, things started to come together.
[See the attachments]
Nice fluffy curls of shavings spilling from the mouth are a pleasure to behold. Even the little woman was impressed how translucent they were and was amazed at being able to see through them.
The plane was tested on end grain and made me a believer in the usefulness of a #4.
I still like my #3. Somehow though using a plane that one has done some work on to bring it back from the scrap heap produces a different kind of satisfaction than provided by a plane that came out of the box well tuned.
A post here on SMC gave me the idea of trying a different angle on a blade. Having a few spare blades to try, one with a rough grind at a steep angle was used to sharpen a bevel at 25 degrees. This was a Stanley blade with a V logo. I was surprised to find it was of laminated construction. The jury is still out on this. One thing that was a little amusing though is the blade chirps like a bird going over some woods.
With both feet firmly sliding down the slope...
Jim