My own wooden plane

[dm65]

Picked up my first ever wooden plane over the weekend - yay

Its been around the houses a bit, but the lady I got it from said it was her granddads and I think he probably made it so at least its been used

Some pictures cos we like pictures don't we ?

Elderly blade, seen some work and needs a bit of a grind cos its not the squarest I've seen

A bit of a split at the front

And looks like an old boxer

But it feels great

Needs a bit of glue, bit of a sand, bit of a grind and some oil

Liked it so much, I've just won big jobs on ebay - can't wait to get hold of them

 

[G S Haydon]

Hi dm65,

That's certainly had a life! It almost looks like it's at the end of it . I must admit, for me I don't know if I would put the time to this one. Are the others you have on the way in better condition?

 

[dm65]

Hi dm65,

That's certainly had a life! It almost looks like it's at the end of it . I must admit, for me I don't know if I would put the time to this one. Are the others you have on the way in better condition?

They look to be, but we'll see - only cost £5

The plane cost me £4 so will be worth a bit of time spent but I appreciate what you're saying

Hardest job will be the blade, not much left on it and needs a serious regrind - my grinder is a right old weakling just to add to the fun

The edge on it though is still sharp and I made my first shavings with a bit of Oak edge on my knee

 

[AndyT]

I would be wary of doing any grinding on the blade from your little smoother.
Try it as it is first- that funny angle might be deliberate, to suit the wear on the plane.
Also, there's probably not much hard steel left. (On an old iron like that you should be able to see the join between the hard steel at the edge and the softer but tougher body. )

Someone has used sandpaper on your bigger planes which is never a good idea in my opinion but that won't mean they can't be put to work and perform well.

 

[Richard T]

Andy T wrote:

"I would be wary of doing any grinding on the blade from your little smoother.
Try it as it is first- that funny angle might be deliberate, to suit the wear on the plane.
Also, there's probably not much hard steel left. (On an old iron like that you should be able to see the join between the hard steel at the edge and the softer but tougher body. )
"

+1 for all that.

If you can't see how far back the steel was welded you can find it with a file. Where the file makes no impression on the face and just skates over is good steel. Sometimes the steel extends a little way past the bottom of the slot and sometimes it stops short. You might have still got a good 3/4" left on it. ... or 5/8" :| ... or 1/2" etc.

 

[G S Haydon]

Those others look ok and should prove useful. The other one is great thought. Nice to see a tool that has been used to within an inch of it's life ;-)

 

[dm65]

I'll file it later but I suspect you may be right - swmbo napping now so got to be quiet

But, I did use it a few minutes ago, camber an all and used it across grain on some well rough 4x2 and took it down to clean wood

5 more minutes with my no 5 (another weekend purchase) and I've got a lovely face on it now

Can't wait for those big planes - I've got a 20" butt up (no glue) which is like a motocross track at the moment so will make good practice

 

[dm65]

Just had a go and can't see any weld, but if you look at the stamp on the blade (visible in my first picture) it states 'cast steel' so should I expect a weld ?

 

[AndyT]

Looking at the pictures again on a proper screen, not a phone, the join seems to be half way up the slot - so you have loads of good steel left.

 

[dm65]

Well Andy, I've been scratching at this now for a few minutes and can feel the file bite in metal all the way up so I guess Richard (are you two related ) was right the first time

Never mind, still going to have a go and hopefully the blades from the other two planes may fit which at least would give me an option to have different profiles

Thanks all for the replies

 

[Jacob]

.....
Also, there's probably not much hard steel left. (On an old iron like that you should be able to see the join between the hard steel at the edge and the softer but tougher body. ).......

I think the shiny area in dm65s first photo is the hard steel. I've got a few like that and it means you can sharpen right up to the hole and get your moneys worth. This would be after many years of hard work!

Like this one below, from John Mossley & Co. Needless to say - it wasn't me who worked it to this condition. The hard steel goes about 1/4" past the slot but many go further:

Always worth looking at the edge on an old plane as yet untouched by new boys. This one has a slight camber and a very slightly rounded bevel at about 30º. Just what you would expect - perfect!

 

[dm65]

Cheers Jacob

That blade of yours makes mine look like it will last another lifetime

After using it today to take the top off a rough piece of timber, I think I will leave it alone and just sharpen it (when I get some sharpening gear) as you could clearly see where it was taking great gouges out of the face

Simple enough to smooth that with another (just as blunt) plane

Getting into this now - damn you UKW for giving me the bug

 

[MIGNAL]

Crikey, that's a serious crack in that plane! Is that a nail holding it together
There's better out there for not much money. Still if it helps someone to enjoy the benefits of a woodie, so be it.

 

[bugbear]

Picked up my first ever wooden plane over the weekend - yay

Its been around the houses a bit, but the lady I got it from said it was her granddads and I think he probably made it so at least its been used

Some pictures cos we like pictures don't we ?

Elderly blade, seen some work and needs a bit of a grind cos its not the squarest I've seen

By very wary and cautious of being hasty(*) on decisions concerning that blade; Edward Preston is a top of the line, premium maker, and the Preston blades I have amongst my tool are equalled only by Ward & Payne, I. Sorby and Ibbotson.

Even if the plane is damage beyond restoration, that blade is very likely to be excellent.

BugBear

(*) (c) Treebeard

 

[dm65]

Crikey, that's a serious crack in that plane! Is that a nail holding it together
There's better out there for not much money. Still if it helps someone to enjoy the benefits of a woodie, so be it.

EDIT - Yes, that looks suspiciously like a 6" inch nail driven through and domed over on the other side - gonna leave that in and see if I can dome it again to tighten it

Glue should have gone off now, but couldn't get much in so we'll see if it holds
And I've already taken a shine to it - lots of shavings for not much effort

By very wary and cautious of being hasty(*) on decisions concerning that blade; Edward Preston is a top of the line, premium maker, and the Preston blades I have amongst my tool are equalled only by Ward & Payne, I. Sorby and Ibbotson.

Even if the plane is damage beyond restoration, that blade is very likely to be excellent.

Read above bugbear, blunt and in need of a good sharpen but did sterling work on a test piece

Thanks for the advice though, I was already wondering about its heritage

Other two planes are by Stormont Archer & Alex Mathieson & Son - any thoughts on these (without either of us seeing them)

 

[dm65]

I got two new (!) planes today - picture below

The baby bear is the one discussed already in this thread

Mama bear is 17" with a blade by Stormont Archer with a shallow bevel

Papa bear is 22" with a blade by Alex Mathieson - very nice, tapered from the tip down to the top - 5mm down to 2mm and with a nomal (imho) bevel

To continue the blade weld discussion, it is very obvious on these two blades

2 or 3 more coming tomorrow

 

[Jacob]

I think they must be relatively modern. Older ones are laminated so you only see hard steel on the face, not like yours on the backs.

 

[dm65]

Thanks for that Jacob, though I intend using these, not for collecting

I actually wanted to be able to transfer blades between planes and have a different profile on each but they all have different widths - boo

Guess that's down to having different blades from different manufacturers - find out tomorrow as I've got two more Alex Mathieson coming plus another little smoother

 

[Carl P]

Hi,

Just wondered if the rear handle on the 22" plane is offset right of centre - I have three at the moment (two will be on ebay shortly!), they all have this feature and I was wondering how common it might be, I've not seen it on any smaller planes and I've not seen any bigger planes (yet),

Cheerio,

Carl

 

[AndyT]

Offsetting the handle to the right was common on Dutch planes and on early English ones but disappeared some time in the early nineteenth century.