Storing old woodies that really are past it.

[Benchwayze]

I had an old, wooden Jack that had been hanging around for a few years.
In the end I salvaged the metalworks, the handle, and threw out the split warped body. I used the handle for a push stick on my planer.

MaybeI should have thought about this neat storage method. :mrgreen:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbnnQu1AZvg

The safety arrangements are not my idea BTW!

John

 

[Jelly]

I don't have a problem with the idea of recycling old tools to new uses, and certainly it is possible for wooden planes to get damaged beyond economic repair (or twisted such that it can never be trued up again).

But... chopping up a perfectly good tool* seems more like vandalism than a good idea... with something that's survived longer than you have in good nick, better to give it away to a willing user or new entrant to woodworking that lop it up into bits to make a try square that would just as easily be made from the inevitable offcuts and scraps one accumulates naturally.

More saddening (irksome, slightly angering) however is the large section of the comments thread which seems to see any wooden tool as being fit only for firewood or "recycling", that speaks of both frightful ignorance on the part of the authors of the comments, but also a more general trend within society of total unwillingness to believe that anything old could in fact be good... That is in the first instance their loss I guess, but once something like that is gone, it's not coming back which and that is a loss to woodworking more generally.

*By the fact that he was able to so easily and accurately cut it up it seems to still have been reasonably flat and true; having to pry the iron and wedge out suggests it was not damaged there either.

 

[AndyT]

Well, yes, there really are old beech planes that are beyond restoration but the video gives no help with assessing the age, rarity, historical interest or usefulness of the plane as a plane before putting it to the saw. So it spreads the misguided idea that such planes have no value. It's as daft as the 'upcyclers' who screw coat hooks or lamps onto old tools and claim to be green because of it.

And why someone who has gone to the effort of making a push stick uses it so little... it just looks like stupidity to me.

 

[Jelly]

Well, yes, there really are old beech planes that are beyond restoration...

It occured to me (and i commented in the youtube comments to say as much,) that such a plane might well be recycled best by milling it to make the stocks of two or three moulding, dado or rabbet planes, making far better use of the material both in making fewer saw kerfs, and a better utilisation of a scarce material (pith centered timber simply isn't produced in the modern sawmill, unless one specifies it, nor for that matter would a commercially minded sawyer quarter saw a log other than to fill the limited demand for that material).

A workable try-square by contrast, could be made of any old offcuts from boards of a reasonable quality and stable moisture content.

 

[Benchwayze]

I can assure my fellow forumites; the beech plane I scrapped really was well past it.

The iron and breaker are still in my cupboard, waiting for me to get 'a round tuit'; i.e. a home built woodie! Probably a smoothie. The material for which is going to be some 3 x 3 maple I have drying in my overhead rack.

Mind you, SWMBO tells me, at this end of the journey, I should be lightening the load, and getting rid of stuff. I dunno; maybe she feels Anno Domini more than me!

Cheers

John (hammer)

 

[AndyT]

It occured to me (and i commented in the youtube comments to say as much,) that such a plane might well be recycled best by milling it to make the stocks of two or three moulding, dado or rabbet planes, making far better use of the material both in making fewer saw kerfs, and a better utilisation of a scarce material (pith centered timber simply isn't produced in the modern sawmill, unless one specifies it, nor for that matter would a commercially minded sawyer quarter saw a log other than to fill the limited demand for that material).

A workable try-square by contrast, could be made of any old offcuts from boards of a reasonable quality and stable moisture content.

And if anyone wants proof of those wise words, may I refer you to this absolutely stunning wooden mitre plane made by Richard Arnold from a really knackered old plane and given away to its lucky recipient in the 2012 Secret Santa:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/post737995.html#p737995

A bit of broken chair leg would yield enough beech to make the little square in the YT video. :evil:

 

[monkeybiter]

Mind you, SWMBO tells me, at this end of the journey, I should be lightening the load, and getting rid of stuff. I dunno; maybe she feels Anno Domini more than me! (hammer)

Keep it, it's there to use if you want to, let it subsequently be shifted by someone who won't miss it. Not trying to be morbid but you've got to try to squeeze out every bit of happiness you can.

On a lighter note this thread about workshop cannibalism has certainly stirred some emotions

 

[Benchwayze]

Mind you, SWMBO tells me, at this end of the journey, I should be lightening the load, and getting rid of stuff. I dunno; maybe she feels Anno Domini more than me! (hammer)

Keep it, it's there to use if you want to, let it subsequently be shifted by someone who won't miss it.

I never looked at it quite like that. Even so, I have made arrangememnts for the clearing of my shop, just in case of course! In the meantime, I snatch every moment i can in the shop.

John

 

[whiskywill]

And why someone who has gone to the effort of making a push stick uses it so little... it just looks like stupidity to me.

At least he is using a recycled road kill swan.

 

[Jelly]

And why someone who has gone to the effort of making a push stick uses it so little... it just looks like stupidity to me.

At least he is using a recycled road kill swan.

If you think the tablesaw operation is bad, you should see his miter saw...

Though to be fair to him he does say that it's potentially dangerous himself at the end of the video.