Record 043 - Great plough indeed!

[jimi43]

During my visit to our friend Douglas' workshop to check out his "assembly table".... :mrgreen: I had a lovely surprise from Duncan (jumps) who was also visiting. He gave me a belated Christmas present of this little beauty....

Now if I remember rightly, this is the favourite plane of our dear lady ALF....and that alone should be a huge recommendation but I was thrilled to be able to see one in person...let alone actually own one!

As you can see it needed a bit of spit and polish and a few bars but that didn't prove any problem at all...so after a clean up with naptha....a gentle rub down with the magic MAAS polish and some flattening and new bevels it was time to test her out....

I can see now everything ALF suggested was true...it's a wonderful little performer....accurate and a breeze to set up, tweek and use...

The cutter fair whizzes along...ploughing out beautiful clean shavings and resulting in a beautiful groove...

I once had to cut a very thin groove in a clone VOX AC30 cabinet for the gold piping insert...and in those days I had to source a fine expensive router bit...set up a jig and.run a noisy router all the way around to get the result I needed.

I wish I had had one of these little darlings then....sometimes hand tools can be a hell of a lot simpler, faster and accurate than power tools...and this is probably the best example I know!

So...my thanks to ALF for her suggestion and to Duncan for giving this to me...I owe you one mate!

Jimi

 

[Racers]

Hi, Jimi

Now you have one it needs a friend, or two or....

And maybe a Russian bride

Pete

 

[bugbear]

Try a nice wooden fence lining for even more joyful use.

BugBear

 

[Scouse]

During my visit to our friend Douglas' workshop to check out his "assembly table".... :mrgreen: I had a lovely surprise from Duncan (jumps) who was also visiting. He gave me a belated Christmas present of this little beauty....

I'm moving to Kent!!! :lol:

Seriously though, lovely little plane, I've had half an eye out for one to go with my 050, but the 50 does me so my search has been a little half hearted.

As a side note, nice to see a few tools being posted in recent days, rather than endless arguments about sharpening! Must mean toolies are coming out of hibernation ready for summer boot fair season! 8)

 

[The Wood Butcher]

Jimi, can I trouble you for some more details on how you cleaned it up so sympathetically, as it's looking great.

Never cared for the idea of patina on older tools, just seemed like an excuse for a tool's lifetime of careless owners...

 

[jumps]

I knew it was going to the right home....

 

[jimi43]

Thanks Duncan....and thanks again for such a superb present! You made my day.

Pete....ah yes...I saw your lovely black Russian jobbie....rather nice bit of kit and quite rare in the West I shouldn't wonder!

BB....that would be lignum vitae would it? :mrgreen: Now let me see...I have some offcuts I think.... :wink: Actually, Douglas gave me some really old Rio for that very purpose...I am building up the courage to cut it up!

Indeed Scouse...I think we all know how to sharpen now after all the airy debate! I actually want to say here that you must only sharpen these cutters with a primary bevel. They don't work well with a honed secondary....this is quite important when tuning these up. I don't bother polishing the bevel....just make sure it's flat and of course, the back needs a polish. The key is to get a little turned over wire edge and then break this off by re-honing the back.

I do the sharpening by hand using the original bevel and holding the cutter in the pad of the index finger.....using the thumb to keep the angle correct and the cutter straight. I takes a bit of practice but it works. Or just make a jig out of wood and clamp.

WB...these old Records are usually nickel plated and most of what you see in the first picture is gunk....imbedded in the fancy point work. I just get a tooth brush or a fine bristle brush (from a bootfair) and pour naphtha (lighter fuel in this country) over the gunk and scrub. Keep doing this until the tool is clean. For the shiny bit use MAAS Polish from Amazon or FleaBay. It's expensive but it goes a very very long way as you only use a tiny bit. It's wonderful stuff and you can polish wood with it too!

I've been trying out the different width cutters...I thought that the wider one might struggle a bit with such a small plane and lack of weight but it just whizzed through just like the smaller ones....even on coarse cut...

It's hard to show but I cut three adjacent grooves very close to each other to check accuracy and consistency and this thing really performs...

To make it clearer I inserted contrasting coloured pieces of test wood and you can clearly see the fine gaps now...

....especially from above...

A super piece of kit!

Now....off to make that fence! :wink:

Jim

 

[bugbear]

BB....that would be lignum vitae would it? :mrgreen: Now let me see...I have some offcuts I think.... :wink: Actually, Douglas gave me some really old Rio for that very purpose...I am building up the courage to cut it up!

LV would certainly be a defensible choice...

Alf's example in the favourite tool thread

BugBear

 

[condeesteso]

I knew the second I saw it that 43 was going to be a problem. I now have about 5 on ebay watch.
And Jim, that rosewood is off my old U.S. Stan 45 so it's good enough I reckon :wink: And I think you (of all people) very nearly tipped this into a sharpening thread back there.
Yes, Scouse, come on down!

 

[jimi43]

BB....that would be lignum vitae would it? :mrgreen: Now let me see...I have some offcuts I think.... :wink: Actually, Douglas gave me some really old Rio for that very purpose...I am building up the courage to cut it up!

LV would certainly be a defensible choice...

Alf's example in the favourite tool thread

BugBear

Indeed it would...from a frictionless perspective it would be ideal. However, traditionally, the older ones would be Brazilian Rosewood....and I have an excellent piece that Douglas gave me for the very purpose.

I love the way that you have moulded the ends like the old plough planes...rather nice touch that. I think I will stick to traditional though like my old Stanley No.45....

There is something magical about rosewood with nickel plated castings.. :wink:

Jim

 

[jimi43]

I knew the second I saw it that 43 was going to be a problem. I now have about 5 on ebay watch.
And Jim, that rosewood is off my old U.S. Stan 45 so it's good enough I reckon :wink: And I think you (of all people) very nearly tipped this into a sharpening thread back there.
Yes, Scouse, come on down!

AH! Now you know you need five Douglas, one for each bench!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

How strange that I should just post my No.45 and you should mention yours at the same time...spooky!!!

Yes...sorry about mentioning the "S-word" just in response to WB's enquiry that's all mate...

Jim

 

[SammyQ]

Jimi, is MAAS the same as Solvolautsol?

Sam

 

[Harbo]

Yes lovely tools - Silver Steel rod is readily available to make extra rods.

Rod

 

[jimi43]

Jimi, is MAAS the same as Solvolautsol?

Sam

I don't think so Sammy....my mother got it for me...apparently she had heard how good it was and got me a tube as a present. It has had tons of hype but I think that in this instance...it is all justified.

A friend of mine who used to be a luthier at Rickenbacker uses it all the time to polish guitar finishes and sensitive cleaning of vintage parts. It seems to have a cleaning effect and is controllable. You can go so far and stop and it just looks clean and old or you can go further and polish to a shine. The key to use is doing a small area at a time....

You can indeed by silver steel rods on FleaBay really cheap but in this instance I think these came from an acrylic display stand for brochures. I never throw anything away mate! These are perfect because the ends are slightly wider top hats which unscrew...so the fence doesn't fall off the end and land on your toe....(this is known as the Stay Set Effect! :mrgreen: )

Jim

Jim

 

[Alf]

Should tailed-tool-using folks who've seen the light (Hallelujah!) happen to have any UHMW plastic about their person (e.g.), that makes an excellent fence facing material too. Not traditional, but in practical terms just about perfect. I have it on a couple of my ploughs - I'm not ashamed.

P.S. *pssst* 043, Jim :wink:

 

[condeesteso]

Yes Alf - that's what I have on my Stan 45, and Record 44 - doesn't look period but works v well.

 

[No skills]

Hand tool abusing louts might go the whole hog and add bits of nylatron to the fence, save the nice bits of wood for more decorative items

 

[jimi43]

Ok....all done...rosewood...traditional shape...slides even better....

You know when some tools are just that little bit special when you actually want to use them over and over again. Once I had made the fence I spent about an hour just cutting grooves...it really is a fun little baby!

And on the subject of baby...just for those of you who haven't gauged the actual size of this gem....

...it really is only just a handful...

So...yet another classic hand tool which will be ideal when I start my tool chest project.

Jim

 

[Vann]

Ahem Jimi, technique! You starts at the end and works backwards. :mrgreen: (hammer)

Cheers, Vann.

 

[woodbloke]

... I spent about an hour just cutting grooves...it really is a fun little baby!

Jim

Jim, you need to get out a bit more...or at least take some water with it! :lol: - Rob