Making wooden rebate planes nickers

[Carl P]

I bought a load of old wooden, mostly moulding planes recently, and in amongst them were a couple of nickerless rebates (very difficult not to add a bit of 'Carry On' humour here!). I don't particularly want to spend more money on them but have some old moulding plane irons - can these be adapted? I'm assuming I'd have to anneal the iron, saw/grind to shape then reharden and temper it, I don't have very many so any advice before I destroy them would be greatly appreciated.

Cheerio,

Carl

 

[xy mosian]

Hi, I sense a problem I sometimes come across. That is the need for small quantities of reasonable steel. My own solution is to attack redundant, read duff, flat bits. Often the blade is large enough to cover what I need. The quality of the steel varies but, I suspect, is likely to be easier to work with than an old moulding plane blade.
xy

 

[AndyT]

Here's a suggestion: this is an old Gabriel moving fillister I bought on ebay:

You can see that the nicker is a replacement. In fact, it's made from a narrow combi plane blade (Record or Stanley) as you can tell by the notch. That means it's steel all the way, so it was probably shaped with an angle grinder or electric wheel.

The wedge has been adjusted to suit but it does work reasonably well.

 

[xy mosian]

There's me jumping in again. I had in mind the size of nicker found on 405's and the like.
xy

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Another possibility is to buy a bit of Ground Flat Stock (a.k.a. G.F.S. or 'gauge plate') from a local engineer's merchant or a model engineering supplier such as The College Engineering Supply or Folkestone Engineering Supplies ( www.feskent.co.uk ). GFS is obtainable in a wide range of thicknesses and widths, so it should be fairly easy to find something pretty close. It's in the annealed (soft) condition as sold, so easily workable with hacksaws and files. Usually, it's the same O1 grade of toolsteel that's a favourite of many woodwoking toolmakers.

By way of a bonus, Folkestone Engineering Supplies offer a hardening and tempering service if you feel that is a bit beyond your equipment or capabilities.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Yes, ground flat stock is a good option. I made a skew chisel for pole lathe use using some last week *. I picked it up from a local stockist, but looking at the packet it was made about 2 miles from where I was born in Sheffield ! It is an O1 ~1% carbon steel; the hardening temperatures were listed on the packet. You can easily harden steel of the size you need for nickers with a plumber's blowlamp.

* The skew chisel, with Apricot handle:

 

[jimi43]

I think I have some suitable 01 steel knocking about my scrap drawer so if you want I can send you some to make one.

If you want it hardened then it is relatively easy with a blowtorch to get it to red heat and then dunk it in some old chip oil. This should harden it close enough for your use. You only need to harden the tip anyway.

Let me know roughly what you need and I will have a look.

Jim