Recent content by BillHoughton

The Stanley No. 62 low-angle jack plane - the inspiration for the Lie-Nielsen plane and the spiritual inspiration for the Lee Valley version - suffers from a tendency to chip out at the back of the mouth, because the body is grey cast iron, and easily chipped. I don't know much about...

Aren't router plane blades supposed to be lowest at the cutting edge, with some clearance behind?

Most folks call that Record plane a router plane. Nice cleanup.

I was told once, and it makes sense, that squares with wood stocks (the handle bit, for those new to the terminology) and brass binding were reliable only on the side with the brass. Thus, the inside edges in this case. Wood moves. I've still got some wood/brass try squares, but only because...

While I believe in maintaining family heirlooms, there are limits. It's sad that your "Marbles"/Marples square got to be in such dreadful shape, but stuff happens. Give it a good burial.

In the U.S., some of us say that those saws were made by the prolific sawmakers Warren and Ted Superior. The medallion is often found on "second line" saws, or saws made for someone (say, a hardware store), by respected sawmakers. Frequently, the difference is in the finish details, not in the...

Dirt buildup against a structure on a slope is inevitable. I'd consider leaving a trench wide enough to stand in, with a retaining wall built on the opposite side of the trench from the shed, with drain tile behind the retaining wall, the drain tile then brought to daylight (exiting) somewhere...

Now, me, lazy sod that I am, I'd have left the paint alone; but you did a terrific restoration. Is the flat on the rod for the fence a standard feature of these planes? Good idea, if so.

Ah. Caught, once again, by the fact that British English resembles American English and yet...isn't. I looked them up. Interesting bags - kind of a neat shape. The American versions of these bags tend to be boxier.

There was a myth in the U.S. that gangsters of the 1930s used to carry machine guns in violin cases (silly: the Thompson submachine gun, the "standard" gangster machine gun, at least in the movies, was way, way too big to fit in a violin case); but I've never heard of carrying tools in a bass...

Will it still work if you install it upside down?

"Clarke International" - may have been made to a budget. I've had grinders made in Taiwan (before China became the dominant cheap-tools manufacturer) that could have walked to the next town, or to the end of their power cord at least, all on their own. Another possibility to consider is the...

In my experience, the rules for machinist's combination squares are pretty consistent in width and thickness for a given length (and 12" and 24" - and probably 18", too - rules are often the same as each other in thickness and width). I've interchanged Starrett, Brown and Sharpe, Union, and...

Converted public toilet shop? That's got to be one of the more interesting shop spaces around. And nice to see someone making scissors by hand!

They're generally tempered at a sweet spot between spring temper and a temper soft enough to be cut. Check the hole; if the pin has been slipping, the hole could have been wallowed out - worn oval or otherwise sloppy. IF that's the case, and you have enough metal in the spot, you might be able...