Question for wooden plane users

[Mike Henderson]

I have a continuing interest in how our ancestors did various techniques of woodworking. Although I own an LV medium shoulder plane, I purchased the skew shoulder plane in the picture below. I bought it off eBay and did not pay much - apparently, they're pretty common.

The iron is laminated and had never had the back flattened - and it was really convex. Took a lot of work to get it sharpened.

But my question has to do with the thickness of the plane. The width of the iron, on the skew, is 3/4". But the thickness of the plane is 11/16". This leaves the blade sticking out on both sides quite a bit (quite a bit for a shoulder plane). It looks to me like the body has been sanded.

Was the original thickness of the plane 3/4"? Or did wooden shoulder planes have the blade sticking out on the sides that much? If the original size was 3/4", I may try to laminate the body with veneer to bring it back to the proper thickness.

Mike

[Just an added comment. It's difficult to sharpen the iron properly on the skew. There's very little lateral adjustment possible so the angle on the iron has to be exactly right or it cuts too much on one side. It's also difficult to adjust the iron to get the right amount of blade exposure to get a cut that's not to agressive and not too small. The LV medium shoulder plane is a LOT easier to use.]

[Robert Rozaieski]

It could be that the iron is not original to the plane, but more likely it's correct. I have a 2" skew rabbet and it is the same way. I just make the iron flush to the appropriate side when in use. A couple mallet taps makes it right. I think you might be expecting the plane to do something it was not designed to do though if you plane to use it as a shoulder plane. According to the literature I've read (Nicholson for example) these planes were used to clean up a rabbet which was sunk with another plane like the moving fillester or sash fillester.

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I think you might be disappointed if you try to use it as a shoulder plane. Shoulders would likely have just been pared with a chisel if they needed adjusting.

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks, Robert. I'll try it next time I do some M&T and see how it works. You may be right, however, that a chisel will work better.

Mike

[Dave Anderson NH]

One thing you might note Mike is that the irons were often convex, that is to say bowed slightly. This often had to do with the maker's perception that tapping the wedge tight would remove the top to bottom camber and make a tighter fit. Whether it really made a difference in actual use is a bit moot if the wedge fit properly. Bob is right, the irons were almost always a slight bit wider than the body of the stock. But the difference you cite is probalby due to both shrinkage of the stock and the sanding. A 1/32 to 1/16 difference is all that I've ever seen.

[Mike Henderson]

One thing you might note Mike is that the irons were often convex, that is to say bowed slightly. This often had to do with the maker's perception that tapping the wedge tight would remove the top to bottom camber and make a tighter fit. Whether it really made a difference in actual use is a bit moot if the wedge fit properly. Bob is right, the irons were almost always a slight bit wider than the body of the stock. But the difference you cite is probalby due to both shrinkage of the stock and the sanding. A 1/32 to 1/16 difference is all that I've ever seen.
That's a very interesting observation, Dave, about the convex back of the iron. I would have never thought of that but it makes sense. The other side of the iron (the bevel side) was flat.

I may put a veneer on each side to see how it works. I could always take some off the iron (to narrow it down) but I just don't want to do that.

I'll choose a veneer that I think looks good on the plane (dresses it up).

Mike

[James Mittlefehldt]

One thing I have used one of these planes for was a rabbet in the end of a board ie cross grain. I marked out the depth I needed, sawed ro that depth, to establish the rabbet, then used a mortise chisel to rough chop the wood not needed. Then cleaned it up with the skewed rabbet to the line, it took almost less time than it took me to type this. ( I do type slow however)

[Larry Williams]

Mike,

The size of your skewed rabbet plane is very likely stamped on the heel. At any rate, you want the iron just slightly wider than the body of the plane. You also want the tang of the iron centered on the bit so you'll have to grind both sides of the iron. I wouldn't go more than four or five thousandths bigger on both sides. You'll have to make sure you maintain clearance on the sides, especially the one that's on the side of the pointed side of the iron. You also want to avoid too much relief because that will make the side of the plane a scraper and you'll drift into and past your lines rather than work to them.

To make sharpening very easy, scribe iron from the sole of the plane once you have everything centered and ground to width. Grind to your scribe line at 90º to the face of the iron. I like to mark that flat to make grinding it away easy. I use red machinists layout fluid for both scribing the iron and marking the flat.

[Mike Henderson]

Mike,

The size of your skewed rabbet plane is very likely stamped on the heel. At any rate, you want the iron just slightly wider than the body of the plane. You also want the tang of the iron centered on the bit so you'll have to grind both sides of the iron. I wouldn't go more than four or five thousandths bigger on both sides. You'll have to make sure you maintain clearance on the sides, especially the one that's on the side of the pointed side of the iron. You also want to avoid too much relief because that will make the side of the plane a scraper and you'll drift into and past your lines rather than work to them.

To make sharpening very easy, scribe iron from the sole of the plane once you have everything centered and ground to width. Grind to your scribe line at 90º to the face of the iron. I like to mark that flat to make grinding it away easy. I use red machinists layout fluid for both scribing the iron and marking the flat.
Larry - thank you for the suggestions. I'm going to try to widen the body first before taking any off the iron. The body is fairly easy to adjust but once I take any off the iron, it's gone forever.

I have done what you suggest -scribe the iron from the body of the plane - but I haven't used that red machinist layout fluid. I'll get some and try it.

Thanks again for your suggestions and help.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

I glued a piece of veneer to each side and the blade fits much better. It's just a tiny bit wider than the body now. If I find I need the blade to stick out a bit more, I can sand the veneer down a bit. I used some olive ash veneer that I had around the shop.

I'll work with it a while and see how it works out - and I'll let you know the result. I still find it hard to adjust for depth but maybe I'll get better as I work with it.

Mike

[harry strasil]

I think most people don't use woodies because they have trouble adjusting the irons for depth of cut from proud to scant. Once you make up your mind that its not an iron plane and just use a small wooden mallet to rap the front end to make the iron proud and rap the back end to withdraw the iron some (it doesn't take much of a rap) and remembering to keep the thumb or a finger of your off hand on the wedge when withdrawing the iron, its relatively simple and really quick to adjust the iron for depth.

[Mike Henderson]

I think most people don't use woodies because they have trouble adjusting the irons for depth of cut from proud to scant. Once you make up your mind that its not an iron plane and just use a small wooden mallet to rap the front end to make the iron proud and rap the back end to withdraw the iron some (it doesn't take much of a rap) and remembering to keep the thumb or a finger of your off hand on the wedge when withdrawing the iron, its relatively simple and really quick to adjust the iron for depth.
Yep, I understand the theory (and process) but I still have problems getting the precise depth adjustment I want. Maybe with more experience...

Mike

[Joe Cunningham]

One thing I have used one of these planes for was a rabbet in the end of a board ie cross grain. I marked out the depth I needed, sawed ro that depth, to establish the rabbet, then used a mortise chisel to rough chop the wood not needed. Then cleaned it up with the skewed rabbet to the line, it took almost less time than it took me to type this. ( I do type slow however)

That's a good technique to keep in mind. I've been using my moving filister with a batten as a guide--the filister has a rather useless fence. I can rough out a rabbet pretty quick with that technique, but it doesn't seem to work quite as well on end grain.