Boxing on a beading plane.

Picked up a beading plane the other day for 10 or 12 dollars. I think it's half-inch, I'd have to look again. A little bigger than I like, but what the hey.

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Attachment 275482

It's not the nicest example of the form, being a later Auburn-made tool, but it was cheap, the iron was in good shape, everything fit, and the stock was dead straight, without loose boxing, and the profile was still in good condition, so it's a lot more than I can say for a lot of the molders I find "in the wild".

The only quibble is a small piece of boxing missing towards the end of the plane - at first I though maybe part of it had slid, but everything's still firm, and looks to be in it's original places, mating up nicely with the mouth opening and the back of the plane. Maybe it did, or someone repaired it, I don't know.

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Attachment 275484

Question is, is it worth even trying to replace this little missing sliver of wood? I can't imagine it'd make a huge difference in use, so my instinct is to leave it, but I don't know if this is one of those "stitch in time saves nine" things where I'm inviting further damage in use. If it is something I should replace, what would be the best way to go about doing so? I suppose the piece is small enough, I could probably get a chip of boxwood from a chisel handle - I've got one that could use a little reshaping around a chip as it is. I've got some rosewood and ebony kicking around too, if the only requirement here is "hard".

Joshua,
I assume the plane performs well as is? If so, then don't mess with it. The small missing piece of boxing will not affect the function unless the piece ahead gets out of line with piece behind.
The grain in boxing runs almost perpendicular to the grain in the stock (body), the gap is most likely due to shrinkage.
Again, if it performs well, leave it be.
Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mike holden

Joshua,
I assume the plane performs well as is? If so, then don't mess with it. The small missing piece of boxing will not affect the function unless the piece ahead gets out of line with piece behind.
The grain in boxing runs almost perpendicular to the grain in the stock (body), the gap is most likely due to shrinkage.
Again, if it performs well, leave it be.
Mike

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I concur with Mike. Don't fix it if works well. You're just asking for trouble.

Okay, thanks guys. That was my gut feeling, but I guess I needed some confirmation from some folks with more experience in these matters!

No idea if it works - iron needs some honing, and the wedge might need a little fettling, it seems to grab the iron a little looser than I like. Looks like the iron beds well to the plane body, so I'll see. I haven't really given it much of a look at all since I picked it up.