Car boot wooden plane

[JanetsBears]

I posted last night on the secret Santa thread from last Christmas and mentioned a plane, so, if you don't mind, I'll nick a bit of that post to set the scene...

Since joining these forums in February I've learned an enormous amount, particularly about the use of hand tools and finally bought my first wooden plane from a car boot sale last Sunday. The idea was that I'd get a naff one that I could practice restoring, having watched the wonderful video on the subject. I ignored the first one I came across as the ironwork was more rusty than a 1970's Fiat - I really wanted something that I had a chance with. I ended up paying £3 for a 16.5" one with a W.Marples blade and now I daren't touch it in case I make a mess of it as the base seems pretty flat already and it doesn't look like there's much room for improvement by somebody with my skills. I've stripped it down, sharpened and re-assembled it and it seems to work surprisingly well, certainly far better than I expected. So, it looks like more car boot sale visits will be needed to get something I will dare to attack properly, or maybe I should just fight my way to the back of my workshop to get at the one that the previous owners of our house left behind piles of wood.

I intend getting more of this sort of thing, mainly because I've always liked the look of them, and also because I'm pretty confident I could get away with storing a few on top of some cupboards in the kitchen where they'd be at home amongst the other old stuff lovingly arranged by SWMBO :wink:

Well, I snapped a quick photo of the one I picked up last weekend on my way out of the house this morning. It's not the best photo ever and please excuse my wife's weekend restoration project that it's sitting on, but here it is:

I hope to get more examples to play with this weekend, preferably ones that I'm confident I won't make worse than they already are!

Chris

 

[bugbear]

That looks like a good, usable, jack plane. Keep going!

BugBear

 

[G S Haydon]

Wonderful! A very pleasing post to read.

 

[MIGNAL]

At £3, got to be a great buy. Don't pass on any little coffin Planes. I like the ones at near 5 1/2" length. Lovely little handy size. I think they are nearly always with a single iron. I find the larger 8" size a bit cumbersome but you may not. At those sorts of prices you may as well just buy them, providing they are in good nick.

 

[AndyT]

Agreed.
Every woodworker needs a Jack plane.

But there really is no need to have just one. You need at least two. One for good work on decent timber but another one to plane off old paint etc from recycled wood.

Then you realise it's quite a good idea to have one with a heavily cambered iron and another set as a small jointer or for use on a shooting board.

And so the fun begins! :wink:

 

[sunnybob]

Agreed.
Every woodworker needs a Jack plane.

But there really is no need to have just one. You need at least two. One for good work on decent timber but another one to plane off old paint etc from recycled wood.

Then you realise it's quite a good idea to have one with a heavily cambered iron and another set as a small jointer or for use on a shooting board.

And so the fun begins! :wink:

I saw a car boot stall a couple weeks ago that had about a dozen if those wooden jack planes. I saw one that had a blade only 3/4 of the way across the base.
never seen that before, whats it used for?

 

[AndyT]

I saw a car boot stall a couple weeks ago that had about a dozen if those wooden jack planes. I saw one that had a blade only 3/4 of the way across the base.
never seen that before, whats it used for?

It could just be a mismatched iron which was too small for the body :lol:

Or else it might have been a rebate plane with a fence or stop. A photo, or a photo of a drawing on the back of an envelope would help. There are thousands of variations of wooden plane.

 

[Monkey Mark]

Agreed.
Every woodworker needs a Jack plane.

But there really is no need to have just one. You need at least two. One for good work on decent timber but another one to plane off old paint etc from recycled wood.

Then you realise it's quite a good idea to have one with a heavily cambered iron and another set as a small jointer or for use on a shooting board.

And so the fun begins! :wink:

It's the "Plus 1 syndrome" :mrgreen:

 

[hoppity55]

Agreed.
Every woodworker needs a Jack plane.

But there really is no need to have just one. You need at least two. One for good work on decent timber but another one to plane off old paint etc from recycled wood.

Then you realise it's quite a good idea to have one with a heavily cambered iron and another set as a small jointer or for use on a shooting board.

And so the fun begins! :wink:

You can never have enough, I have a box of ten planes I bought off eBay still in packing they arrived in and they arrived ten years ago. You never know I might need one of them one day and if I do I know just where they are, or were I cant get down the steps to our basement anymore so maybe my wife has donated them to the councils hole filling scheme (the tip)