Eric The Viking
Established Member
- Joined
- 19 Jan 2010
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It's my birthday, and I've been given a Stanley block plane, like this:
It's brand new and thus needs some fettling.
Blades and soleplates I'm getting fairly good at now (it's all down to flat glass and a good source of wet & dry!), but I've not given much thought before to the front edge of the mouth.
My little #90 is bevel-up and has a forward bevel to the front of the mouth, which allows me to close up the gap to almost nothing - great for hardwoods, but has a tendency to clog a bit on deal. I'm used to it though and like it. I've only ever flattened its soleplate though, because of the difficulty of access and such a small amount of metal to play with at the front. It serves me well.
This new one however is bevel-down (it's not the low-angle one), and because it's removable, I have the luxury of easily smoothing the front edge of the mouth to whatever profile I choose. As supplied it's very rough (as is the sole), but that doesn't put me off as it's easily fixed.
So, the question is to what profile I should shape the front of the mouth. It'll be used for general finishing/cleanup work, and I'd like it to be as good on hardwood as I can make it. Here are the options I've thought up so far:
Please let me know what you think, and if none are suitable, say so!
Many thanks!
It's brand new and thus needs some fettling.
Blades and soleplates I'm getting fairly good at now (it's all down to flat glass and a good source of wet & dry!), but I've not given much thought before to the front edge of the mouth.
My little #90 is bevel-up and has a forward bevel to the front of the mouth, which allows me to close up the gap to almost nothing - great for hardwoods, but has a tendency to clog a bit on deal. I'm used to it though and like it. I've only ever flattened its soleplate though, because of the difficulty of access and such a small amount of metal to play with at the front. It serves me well.
This new one however is bevel-down (it's not the low-angle one), and because it's removable, I have the luxury of easily smoothing the front edge of the mouth to whatever profile I choose. As supplied it's very rough (as is the sole), but that doesn't put me off as it's easily fixed.
So, the question is to what profile I should shape the front of the mouth. It'll be used for general finishing/cleanup work, and I'd like it to be as good on hardwood as I can make it. Here are the options I've thought up so far:
Please let me know what you think, and if none are suitable, say so!
Many thanks!
