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Thread: Every thing that you ever wanted to know about molding planes but were afraid to ask!

  1. #1
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    Every thing that you ever wanted to know about molding planes but were afraid to ask!

    I have decided to start this thread to become educated about molding planes. Please chime in with any information that you feel is helpful. Makes,profiles,sharpening,using,good bad and ugly
    *******************************etc.

    Thanks
    Mark

  2. #2
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    Molding plane beginners would be very well educated by the 4 Clark & Williams DVDs available from Lie-Nielsen. There is no easier way to gain such a wealth of historically correct information on the use, design, sharpening, and manufacture of molding planes.

    Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes - Larry Williams
    Sharpening Profiled Hand Tools - Larry Williams
    Traditional Molding Techniques: The Basics - Don McConnell
    Traditional Molding Techniques: Cornice Moldings - Don McConnell

    Classic Plane Making Volume 1 Hollows and Rounds DVD by ALP Productions with Tod Herrli
    Special Planes British import DVD by Jim Kingshott is finally available in the US.
    Beading With Scratch Stock, Molding Plane, and Router, by Garrett Hack is an out of print VHS tape from Taunton Press. Not yet on DVD.

    If you are too cheap to buy a DVD then you could always search YouTube.
    One YouTube user named fugazi42 has 13 videos demonstrating wooden planes in use with historical background.
    Taunton Press has a Fine Woodworking online 8 video series on planes which includes Wooden Molding Planes with Philip C. Lowe.
    They also printed a lot of articles over the years which you can read online by becoming a member or coughing up a few bucks. Some of them are free and some also include video.
    Clark & Williams have a series of free articles on their web site.

    Books:
    Making Traditional Wooden Planes By John M. Whelan is available from Astragal Press.
    A Guide To The Makers of American Wooden Planes, 4th Edition by Emil and Martyl Pollak
    The Wooden Plane: Its History, Form & Function By John M. Whelan
    Planemakers of Western Pennsylvania and Environs by Charles W. Prine, Jr.
    Christopher Gabriel and the Tool Trade in 18th Century London for historical background.
    A Field Guide to the Makers of American Wooden Planes by Thomas L. Elliott for collectors to ID makers marks.
    Wooden Planes And How To Make Them by David G. Perch and Robert S. Lee
    British Planemakers from 1700 By Jane & Mark Rees
    There are of course lots and lots of other wooden plane books that deal with Bench planes, not specifically molding planes.

    Google has archived many magazines with reference to molding planes. There are books and photos too + + +
    Old Tools Archive has a search feature which you can use to look up old threads about moldings planes. Keep in mind that there are 2 common spellings: Molding and Moulding.

    We have 2 US molding plane manufacturers active now - Clark & Williams + M.S. Bickford.
    Both making traditional 18th Century British designs. We also have Plane makers floats available for the first time in generations thanks to Clark & Williams initial research and machine investment coupled with the continued manufacture by Lie-Nielsen.

    There are also new wooden planes available from other sources such as Philly Planes.

    Woodworking Magazine Blog: M.S. Bickford's British Moulding Planes with video.
    Woodworking Magazine Blog: Sticking Boards
    Lost Art Press Blog: Sticking a Moulding
    Dan's Wood Shop Blog: Sticking Board & Replacing a Moulding Plane Wedge
    Tom Fidgen: Mouldings and Miters + Making Mouldings and Shaping Wood + Mouldings and Miters and More
    18th Century Joiner and Planemaker
    Our Workshop
    WIA 71 Moulding Planes w/ McConnell & Williams
    Wood Moulding Plane Setup & Part II
    Old House Blog: Making Moldings the Old-Fashioned Way
    How To Differentiate 18th Century Planes From Later Examples

    And of course if you want to start collecting antique molding planes there are more sources for auctions and direct sales than ever before thanks to the Internet. I will not be posting links to these sites as they are very easy to find with a basic search.

    In short there is more quality information about molding planes available now than there has ever been before. It is in your best interest to support these efforts to make such information available.

    One more link for an awesome book.
    Making Houses, Crafting Capitalism By Donna J. Rilling is a history book about the building boom in Philadelphia during the first 60 years after the American revolution. There is a chapter about the winter piece work of making window sashes and doors with wooden molding planes. All carpenters and builders of that time period spent the winter indoors with a stash of pine and a work bench. The chapter is called Window Sashes & Sundry Other Light Things: The Production of Carpentry Work.


    Speaking of Moldings, you may wish to read a few books that I scanned for online republication several years ago:

    Art of Mitring aka How to Join Mouldings By Owen Maginnis (1892) - one of the cheap ($1) carpenter books of the era and an obscure title.

    Theory of Mouldings By C. Howard Walker (which is back in print from W.W. Norton) - arguably the most important book ever written on moulding design, history, and application. This is based on lectures given while the author was the professor of architecture at MIT during the 1890s and was only printed one time as a book in 1926.

    btw if any of you were born in the 80's or 90's you may not have gotten the Woody Allen pun in the thread title.
    Last edited by Jeff Burks; 04-30-2010 at 5:11 PM.

  3. #3
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    I have the Book "Making Traditional Wooden Planes" It has a lot of good info in it. I should dig it out and read it again.

    Beyond that I have not spent a lot of time using moulding planes. I would like to become proficient and build a good collection of them, but there are other things higher on my list.
    Andrew Gibson
    Program Manger and Resident Instructor
    Florida School Of Woodwork

  4. #4
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    Wow Jeff, what a great collection of resources on the subject. Thanks for putting it together.

    I've only started browsing through some of them but what struck me as I was reading the American Woodworker articles from 1990 by Mike Dunbar was how comprehensive the articles were. Fifteen pages spread over 2 issues! Compare that with the normally 3 or 4 page pieces in any of today's WW mags.

    Thanks again
    Jim B

  5. #5
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    Should this thread be added to the Stickys?
    Andrew Gibson
    Program Manger and Resident Instructor
    Florida School Of Woodwork

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Burks View Post

    btw if any of you were born in the 80's or 90's you may not have gotten the Woody Allen pun in the thread title.
    Just so long as we don't need to wear little white body suits as we stand around waiting for something to happen...

    Great collection of links by the way!
    Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Burks View Post
    Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes - Larry Williams
    Sharpening Profiled Hand Tools - Larry Williams
    Traditional Molding Techniques: The Basics - Don McConnell

    Making Traditional Wooden Planes By John M. Whelan is available from Astragal Press.
    The Wooden Plane: Its History, Form & Function By John M. Whelan

    We also have Plane makers floats available for the first time in generations thanks to Clark & Williams initial research and machine investment coupled with the continued manufacture by Lie-Nielsen.
    I have the above items Jeff listed. These DVDs are awesome! Whelan used cherry and applewood for a bunch of his planes, so I have some green applewood blanks seasoning in the basement. They should be ready in, oh, 4 years!

    So the next question I have in the meantime, can anybody recommend sources for quartersawn beech blanks in the US? A little local research has come up empty, so I assume I'll have to mail order them.

  8. #8
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    Thanks Jeff and everyone for the great responses. I am a little overwhelmed for now but will catch up on the reading later.

    I keep running into these old wooden planes at antique stores and flea markets, so I think I'll pick up a few on the cheap side and explore.


    Mark

  9. #9
    For a quick, non-overwhelming introduction to the subject to see what you can accomplish and whet your appetite, click on the Tom Fidgen blog posts that Jeff listed.

    Then get a copy of the Don McConnell DVD he listed, "Traditional Molding Techniques: The Basics". If you're going to spend any money on planes, this is a very worthwhile $25 investment. This is very watchable.

    From there you can dive into the rest of the pile.
    Steve, mostly hand tools. Click on my name above and click on "Visit Homepage" to see my woodworking blog.

  10. #10
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    My Connecticut Compatriot Jeff said:

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Burks View Post
    One YouTube user named fugazi42 has 13 videos demonstrating wooden planes in use with historical background.
    Hey, someone found my videos, excellent! I put those up a while back when I was experimenting with selling "pre-tuned" wooden molding planes. I made the YouTube videos to show that the planes in use and to give some background on them. I decided to leave the videos up after I sold the planes just in case anyone found them useful.

    I'll echo the other responses and highly recommend the Lie-Nielsen DVDs. Don and Larry are probably the two foremost experts on building and using molding planes. Buying the DVDs and getting to watch them over and over as you work along side them is almost priceless. Good stuff!

    Good luck in your adventures with molding planes! They are a lot of fun.

    Josh

  11. #11
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    Seve asks:
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Branam View Post
    So the next question I have in the meantime, can anybody recommend sources for quartersawn beech blanks in the US? A little local research has come up empty, so I assume I'll have to mail order them.
    Finding beech at all in a lumber yard is very difficult. It is not considered a commercially desirable hardwood. I've seen steamed European beech at a high-end lumber yard around here, but that's the closest I've come. Other guys use quartersawn cherry which has similar properties, but it too is difficult (and expensive) to find in the proper thicknesses. You could buy 16/4 flat-sawn cherry and rip out plane blanks, but it's not cheap.

    A while ago I bought a beech log and had it quartersawn with the intention of using it for planes. Long story short, it got ruined during the drying process and wound up as firewood. This past winter I dropped a large beech on my firewood lot and rived out some quartered plane blanks of all shapes and sizes. I'll probably wind up selling some when they are dry. This won't be of any immediate help to you since they will probably take at least a couple of years to finish seasoning There's another guy in RI who's cutting plane billets as well. He's experimenting with black birch and has had good success so far. It seems to season faster and with less distortion than beech.



    Pile of plane blanks

    Josh in CT

  12. #12
    Josh, those videos are outstanding! I watched every one. An even better deal than Don McConnell's DVD!

    So maybe in a few years I'll be getting in touch to see if you want to do some horse-trading, apple for beech!

    You mentioned your other beech got ruined during drying, what happened to it? Might be a useful cautionary tale for others.
    Steve, mostly hand tools. Click on my name above and click on "Visit Homepage" to see my woodworking blog.

  13. #13
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    In my haste to copy in the links the other day I mistakenly used the wrong floats page from Lie-Nielsen. They apparently now have joinery floats as well as the Planemakers Floats I meant to link to. I should also point out that they sell tapered iron blanks for those of you making your own planes or replacing a missing or worn out iron.

  14. #14
    Old thread, but good list. One book I like is York County Moldings From Historic Interiors. It is a full size catalog of molding profiles in York houses through the centuries. Once one has the planes this book provides some interesting ideas for their use.

    http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...096,46108&ap=2

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