Recent content by Henry Disston

I've had a bunch of combo planes and plow planes and my favorite is the Stanley #45. Alf has convinced me the #405 is superior but I've never seen one in the wild. :) Plowing grooves is a pretty easy task and many planes can do it well. A #50 is good, the #043 is really good for small work...

That is a beautiful sharpening job. Kudos to pedder for his passion for saws old and new.

Doh! I was thinking only of the straight cutters. Shows how often I use the others. :oops:

I really like your ramped board, Derek. That will be the next one I build.

I'm not a real believer in type studies. They do help in getting general age of a plane but the tools were made first and type studies came later. They are not absolute. My best guess is that there was a short run of bodies made with these features somewhere in the Type 14/15 range and the...

I would leave the previous owner's mark as part of the tool's history but that is just me. 20 degrees seems pretty steep. It makes it easy to put a micro bevel on, though. I have mine with 25 degree primary/30 degree secondary bevels. Nice score.

Nice blade. Quite a bit older than the plane.

Exactly what it says. It is a clapboard siding gauge. It is used to space clapboards evenly.

Cecil Pierce used to cut dovetails with a hacksaw. He detailed his method in the last part of his book. It is to be noted that he fitted his dovetails by paring with a chisel not straight from the saw. His was the first work on dovetails that I read and that is the way I did them for quite a...

I have had scrub plane irons get hot enough in use to discolor. Quick strokes while edge jointing a long board can get an iron pretty hot in the center.

Looking good! I have no info on Tyzaks but domed nuts, stamped blade sounds like mid 1800's. That is a big, aggressive rip. I'll trade you a couple of Disstons for it. :wink: BTW. that is an abrupt angle at the heel. Is that typical of Tyzaks?

:shock: I just buy the #18 blades. Glad to see someone else using an Xacto knife.

Rob mentioned 3M films and this is one of the advantages. I stick them to 12" square granite tiles and working lengthwise is easy. I have only one 1/8" chisel, a Buck sash mortise that gave me some pause. I just took a small piece of wood with a square edge and held the chisel tight to the...

I have a WWII era Disston D-7 panel saw that raises blisters on my hand but that is a small blocky handle. None of my full size saws bother me although the D-23's don't feel nearly as nice as the older ones.

I've never heard anyone say a #7's handle was uncomfortable until now. I've always thought it was Disston's best handle shape and most British inspired.