Modifying moulding planes

[woodiedonald]

Hi all,
Just wanted to gather a few opinions on modifying moulding planes to suit a particular need. Ive attached a pic of one i bought in a job lot, a centre bead converted to a side bead (never know what ya get eh?) couldnt really see the pic and thought i'd be better off than spending it on lotto tickets.

I never really thought of it as a very honest thing, its like vandalising a historical artefact but now i have a few spare planes and one looks like it'd make a good snipes bill with a bit of work :wink:

So what do you lot think?

 

[dunbarhamlin]

A tool is an object used in the commission of work. If it serves neither as a tool nor as a decorative item, then it is just scrap wood and metal. Unless historically significant (and very few collectibles are) then adapt it to your needs... It then does acquire some historical significance as a record of your working practice and ingenuity.

 

[AndyT]

As you have found, there is a long tradition of modifying existing planes to suit a new purpose. This would have been economical - it could bring a worn-out plane back into use.

While there are still thousands of old moulding planes out there with little or negligible value, I'd say go ahead and do it.

HOWEVER, I would hate for you to modify a plane thinking it was worthless, only to find that it could have sold for a significant amount of cash - more than enough to pay for an original example of the sort of plane you wanted with change for some more.

So, don't do it on anything from the C18th or earlier. Don't do it on anything which is a rare and currently sought after profile. (I assume you've noticed how ebay prices for snipe's bills have shot up in the last few months - I blame Matt Bickford - while admiring him at the same time.)

As far as I know, modified planes are not highly prized as collectibles even if they work well.

A good way of learning what not to alter would be to have a look at Richard Arnold's fine collection here:

http://oldwoodplanes.co.uk/

 

[heimlaga]

Around here the flea markets are overflowing with carelessly modified (butchered that is) profile planes while original ones in good condition are much harder to find. the situation is not much better with other tools. Metal jointer planes hacksawed down to some kind of big smoothers and axes with welded on pipes for handles and chisels where the owner has cut the tang away to get a face to beat on with his hammer instead of making a new handle after the old one split. The same is also happening with old woodworking machines and old tractors and everything. The local saying among Finland Swedes to explain how such a tool or machine looks is "the Finns have had it".
I have spent so much time and frustration on repairing stuff that theese butchers have destroyed that I have became a bit hesitant to modify a tool unless fopr a very good reason. However I always put functionality first so I regularly modify tools but always think first.

For a profile plane I would say that if it is so damaged that it cannot be repaired for it's original purpose with a reasonable amount of work compared to making a new one then a modification is all right.

Just my philosophy........others may think otherwise.......

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I see the logic in the approach that tools are a means to an end, and the real purpose is to make the furniture, joinery or whatever. However, I'd like to put another point of view.

The best tool for the job is usually one that has specifically designed and made for that job. You may be able to get over an emergency by modifying another tool, but you then cause another emergency for yourself next time you need the tool you modified out of it's original usefulness.

If you need the tool for the job, buy it or make it. A properly made pair of snipe's bills will always work better than a bodged-up modification. If you make or buy the right tool, you'll soon have all the tools you need for almost every eventuality. If you're forever modifying other tools, you'll never have the right tool when you need it. A full kit of cabinetmaker's or joiner's tools is not so large that putting one together is beyond the resources of a reasonably capable woodworker, including making moulding planes if necessary.

There are usually more ways than one of doing most jobs. In the case of the modified centre bead, the modifier might have better spent his time making a scratch stock and a bead blade for it. Then next time he needed a small profile he didn't have a plane for, he could just have filed up a new scratch-stock cutter. It would probably have been quicker than destroying a (relatively uncommon) centre bead plane.

Years ago, I worked as a volunteer in a preserved railway machine shop. Resources were scarce, so best use had to be made of what there was. One regular was adept at modifying things to solve the immediate problem. He caused endless grief for other people trying to do other jobs once he'd finished - we spent as much time unbodging his bodges as we did doing useful work. He got things done, but we didn't. Had he just slowed down a bit and not rushed to destroy things in his rush, we'd all have been able to get things done.

First choice - make or buy the right tool. Second choice - find another way to achieve your task using the tools you have, or can easily make. Third choice and last resort - destroy a perfectly good tool to make it do something it wasn't intended to do.