First vintage plane

[Assaf Oppenheimer]

Hi all,

I figured I would share a good experience I had with a fellow creeker.
I live in Israel, a country rich in history and poor in decent handplanes. the first one I ever got was a British 4-1/2 from the 80's. I put in about 10 hours of work and was delighted to be taught the definition of blade chatter. I (painfully) stuck to Lie Nielsen planes after that. Of the basic planes I was missing a decent Jack. I was actually planing on saving up for a Lie Nielsen no. 5 but repeated posts on this site as well as an article by Christopher Schwarz convinced me that a L-N is overkill for jack requirements.

After looking over several sites I saw that Jacks are way overpriced - the ones I saw were rusted and cracked and still well over $100 (not including shipping, handling and tax)!

after a while I stumbled across a post by James Spangler on a restoration he did. I reached out and he agreed to search for a Stanley type 11 no.5 for me and restore it.
well, I just got it and I couldn't be happier.

throughout the process Jim has kept me updated and accommodated my nitpicky requests graciously. the way he packed it it could have been made out of glass and still arrived in pristine condition. Ill share some pics of the process he gracefully provided along the way.

I highly recommend seeking him out if anyone needs help finding a quality benchplane.

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P.S. not sure if I'm violating anything by posting this. I was not asked to do so (in fact, at the time of writing James has no idea I am writing this at all) I received absolutely no benefit from this post other than the pleasure of promoting a decent man and his craft.

[David Publicover]

Congratulations! It’s a nice looking tool and looks like a worthy addition to your fleet.
Did you try it out yet?

[Assaf Oppenheimer]

No not yet. I have a PMV blade I ordered. tomorrow I'm going to grind a camber and test it on some maple I need to work

[steven c newman]

I guess I had better get mine spiffied up?
Jacks or better, Stanley Type 11.JPG
Stanley No. 5....Type 11...after-market Tall knob?
Jacks or better, Stanley Type 11.JPG
Rear handle had been repaired.....May put it into the "To be cleaned" row...

[Stephen Rosenthal]

That’s a really nice plane, Assaf. I’ve admired James’s restorations for quite a while.

[Rafael Herrera]

Is there something wrong with the original iron? those are really good and should work fine. The LV irons are 0.1" thick and you may need to screw around with the mouth to get clearance for the shavings.

[scott lipscomb]

Agreed with Rafael. Thats probably a really nice vintage iron to go along with your nice vintage plane. I'd give it a go...
Looks great Assaf!

[James Spangler]

Thank you Assaf for the kind words!
I was fortunate to find that plane which had lots of surface rust but very little serious corrosion.
Assaf was very understanding with allowing me to take my time to restore this plane and get it right.
And yes, the original Stanley iron that came with that plane did clean up fairly well, had about a inch of excellent, no corrosion steel at the bottom, honed to a nice sharp edge, and generated nice wispy shavings.

I admit I was a bit nervous shipping a plane from Illinois to Israel. I sent a plane to Australia last year via USPS "Priority Mail" which arrived at its destination 2 months later(!) intact, but in a very mangled box. Assaf ask me to send this one via UPS and it arrived at its Israel destination in 6 days!!! I am impressed with UPS!

And thanks to everyone for the compliments on the plane.

[Richard Hutchings]

James, that is some fine work. I need to know your secrets :-) I'm guessing there was a buffing wheel involved.

[Rafael Herrera]

This is a no. 3 type 11 with a PM-V11 iron and original chip breaker, unmodified. I was trying it last night and was getting clogging due to trying to get fine shavings. I backed the frog some, I may be close to touching the back of the mouth with the iron bevel. The chipbreaker, being close to the edge, was not allowing enough clearance for the shavings to pass through. Of course, backing the chipbreaker up would make the plane work, but that would negate the function of the chipbreaker. There's something about filing the mouth that makes me reluctant to do it.

If it has to be done, one could file the front of the mouth at a slight angle, so that material is removed in the inside of the mouth, not enlarging the mouth. I've already done this on a no. 6 fitted with an iron I made, but this one is 0.125", it definitely needed to have the mouth worked on.

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[Richard Hutchings]

I haver yet to have any luck with closed mouth and close breaker. I keep trying.

[Rafael Herrera]

I have yet to have any luck with closed mouth and close breaker. I keep trying.

It doesn't work very well from what you can see. You don't need to close the mouth to take advantage of a close set chipbreaker. But if you must, file the mouth as shown in the picture.

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P.S. I got this tip from David Weaver, I didn't come up with it.

[Jim Koepke]

I backed the frog some, I may be close to touching the back of the mouth with the iron bevel.

Many of my planes are purposely set with the blade resting on the back of the mouth. Not enough for the blade to be lifted off the bed of the frog.

jtk

[Richard Hutchings]

It doesn't work very well from what you can see. You don't need to close the mouth to take advantage of a close set chipbreaker. But if you must, file the mouth as shown in the picture.

20220301_115709.jpg

P.S. I got this tip from David Weaver, I didn't come up with it.

Well that's good news. I've been trying to get that to work for years.

[Rafael Herrera]

Many of my planes are purposely set with the blade resting on the back of the mouth. Not enough for the blade to be lifted off the bed of the frog.

I usually seat the frog by sighting down the bed and adjusting it until that plane clears the back of the mouth. The frog can be backed some more after that. I've needed to do that to fit thicker irons. I'm not sure how you accomplish what you're saying; by backing the frog, until the iron touches the back of the mouth, it's more likely that the contact will be on the bevel. Despite the drawing I made, the height of the bevel of the mounted iron is larger than the thickness of the plane sole. Advancing the iron will cause deflexion and slight lifting, but not by much, and the plane will still work.

These three planes have non-OEM irons. The one on the right has an O1 iron I made from 3/32" (0.094") thick stock, the middle one has a Veritas PM-V11, 0.100" thick, the one on the left, a no.6, has an O1 1/8" (0.125") thick iron I also made. You can see how much the frog had to be backed to fit the iron. Also, you can see the way the front of the mouth had to filed to get clearance for the shavings.

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