Use wooden jack plane

[Randy Cummings]

I am just starting to use hand tools. I bought this 16" wooden plane a few years back. It was made by "Whittier & Spear." It seems to be in pretty good condition, see photos. The throat seems a bit small (1/16") for a jack plane. Being new to woodworking, are there any precautions I should take so as not to turn it into firewood. I am planning to put it back to work as a jack plane. It's been fine for 130 or so years, I don't want to be the one to ruin it.

- Thanks.

[Jim Koepke]

Randy,

Welcome to the Creek. Your location isn't shown in your profile. You may live near another member who is willing to help you get this plane back in service.

To me it looks like it may only need a bit of de-rusting and sharpening of the blade. There appears to be a small crack in the sole. That shouldn't keep a good plane down.

jtk

[Bill Haumann]

From those photos, looks pretty good to me as well.
Sharpen the iron, wax the sole, and put it to work. I would see how it does ejecting shavings before I did anything with the throat.

[Randy Cummings]

Jim,

Thanks for the reply, sorry about the local, I live near Old Saybrook, CT.

For the de-rusting, would you go with mineral spirits and fine sandpaper?

Also I checked the sole with a straight edge. It is very flat. Is there any need to joint it? If so, would you go heal to toe? It seems to me going toe to heal would catch and tear at the mouth.

Also checked the sides and they are not exactly square to the sole. Would you bring them into square? My understanding is a jack plane is for rough stock removal and doesn't need surgical precision for tolerances.

-Randy

[Randy Cummings]

Bill,

Will do with the throat. I'd hate to open it up prematurely. The more use it gets, it'll open anyway I guess. Should I use parafin wax on the sole?

-Randy

[george wilson]

I'd give the plane a good,slathered on coat of tung oil(not tung oil varnish,pour tung oil) Let the oil soak in for a day and rag off the excess. DO NOT put the oily rags in a trash can inside your shop. I saw the trash can in the cabinet shop in Williamsburg start to smoke!! Some clown put oily rags in it, The place would have gone up like a tender box. The pure tung oil we used took about 4 days to dry. We used tung oil because it doesn't allow mold to grow on it. Some of our tool users,like the housewrights,stored their tools in unheated sheds. If you keep your tools indoors in a reasonably heated shop,you can use linseed oil.

Any idea what the white stuff on your plane is? Plaster or something. Rub it off when applying the oil and it'll look a lot better.

Evaporust takes rust off well. Everyone recommends it.

[David Weaver]

I agree with everyone else. That appears to be a better made plane than a lot of the sloppy planes that have wide open mouths (though the sloppy planes are fine if they have a double iron, but bad news with a single iron). The's plenty of gap there for a jack plane, no need to make any physical changes unless you find in use that it doesn't feed well or something.

[Bill Haumann]

I use beeswax because I have some, but it's just to help the plane glide, not a finish, paraffin is fine.
If you intend to use it as a foreplane for dimensioning stock from rough, I can't see how the sides being square would matter and all you need for the sole is reasonably flat.
If you're going to use sandpaper for the rust, my preference is to stay away from mineral spirits simply due to the fumes. Simple Green (Matt Cianci's recommendation for sawplates), sandpaper, and elbow grease will handle a lot of surface rust, if you want to soak, evaporust or vinegar work.

[Chris Hachet]

Looks like a nice vintage plane, I have a few like it that I have used for about 25 years now and they work fantastic when you get them going....

[Terry Beadle]

Welcome!

Regarding the question as to the sole needing jointing...definitely not. The rule on jack planes is if you look at it and it looks flat just by eye, then it's good to go as long as you own the plane. Reference: Christofer Schwartz and Charles Chatsworth.

The 1/16 th opening should be fine as you will be wanting to set the blade for a 4 ~ 6 thou shaving. 1/16 th is .0625 or 62 thou. So that's lots of room. Occasionally you might want to take a thicker shaving if you are using it like a scrub plane but even so you still have lots of room in the mouth.

The picture shows a small chip on the cutting edge of the blade ( unless my eyes decieve me ...hoot! ) I'd start with a flattening the bottom of the blade and polish it up to 3 ~ 6 thousand grit. Then I'd form a 25 degree bevel on your roughest stone ( 120 grit to 220 grit ) or using 100 grit sand paper ( wet dry ) and some lubricant. Then put a micro bevel of about 3 degrees with your highest grit stone ( 6000 to 10000 ). If you don't have stones, then read the articles on line about using sand paper on a granite or flat surface called scary sharp.

Get some green rouge from Lee Valley or Highland hardware or ( whom ever ) in a stick. Costs about $10. That will give you a good stropping compound to keep the blade readdy freddie whilst you work. That stropping compound is in the sub 1 micron level so it's really all you need for a wood working edges in chisels and plane blades.

All the above advice is free and priced right ! Hoot!

Enjoy the shavings!

[Jim Matthews]

I'm with Terry and others on this; do the simple obvious things first.

You'll need a sharp iron, regardless.
If that doesn't do the trick on it's own, try the next simple step.

Wax the sole (I like Hockey Stick wax, but it's just paraffin in a round puck shape) - there's a great deal of surface at play.
Get a hammer that won't leave marks from adjusting the depth of the iron.

An auto parts supplier should have body hammers with plastic faces.

[Tony Shea]

Priority #1 is getting that blade tuned up. It seems to be pretty heavily rusted. I bet you find a bit of pitting but hopefully will not get into the edge. If so you may need to grind past the point of any pitting to get and keep the blade sharp. I also am not a big fan of using mineral spirits but if you don't mind it then by all means feel free as it does work well but water would also work fine. Be sure to oil the blade after is all. Flatten the first inch or so of the blade back and grind the bevel with a decent camber. Hone the blade as sharp as you can get it and put the plane to work and see how it acts. The blade is always the first step in figuring out if a plane is going to function ok or not. If it doesn't work as expected with a sharp blade then you'll need to diagnose the issue from there. Sometimes the issues are obvious but other times it can be a mystery. If you need help diagnosing posting a question here will be a great start.

The plane looks very nice and in great condition as a good jack/scrub plane. I have been looking for something similar for years and just can't come across something in good enough condition and at the right price for me to pick up. I'd love to use a wooden jack plane as the weight, or lack there of, compared to a Stanley #5 would be helpful during long planing sessions.

The first picture had me thinking that it potentially was made of apple. But after seeing the sole I believe it to be the more typical beech which is perfectly fine. I just love the looks and idea of old apple wood tools and handles. Wish there was more apple around to make my own planes out of. But your plane looks very well quatered as well which is very nice to see. All around a nicely made plane and would be great in anyone's shop. I am a bit jealous.

As George mentioned some sort of drenching of oil would be helpful for an old dry plane like that. It would help stabilize it somewhat and would let the plane glide much better without having to constantly wax the sole. But after truing the bottom a time or two then the oil will probably not be much help on the sole but it may be a long while before any truing of the sole needs to take place.

[Jack Curtis]

I agree with everyone else. That appears to be a better made plane than a lot of the sloppy planes that have wide open mouths (though the sloppy planes are fine if they have a double iron, but bad news with a single iron). The's plenty of gap there for a jack plane, no need to make any physical changes unless you find in use that it doesn't feed well or something.

I have a couple of old boxwood smoothers with very wide mouths, they make you want to gag just looking at them. However, every now and then I've come across a piece of wood, say goncoloalves (sp?), where the gapers were the only smoother that would even begin to work. So I've revised my knee jerk reaction.

[Randy Cummings]

Thanks to everyone for the great information. It's great that so many people are as passionate about these old tools and helping newbies like me sort everything out.

Looks like my first priority will be getting the iron squared away. I didn't think much about how much pitting may be on the iron. I'll tend to that first. I'll post updates as I progress.

To answer George's question about the white streak on the sole, it looks to me like white paint. It was there when I bought it. I don't remember what I paid, but it was less than $20. At the time I didn't know anything about wooden planes, I just knew that I wanted to work wood with them. I'm finally getting around to doing it.

For the next two weeks I'll work on this and get ready for my first woodworking class, building an "Anarchist's Tool Chest" with Chris Schwarz. Then I'll have a nice home for this plane and hopefully many others.