Wooden coffin plane - mouth adjustment

[Bluekingfisher]

I recently bought a small wooden plane. I must say I have very limited kinowledge of them so I have two questions which someone may be able to assist with hopefully please.

The plane is good condition, no damage as such, crisp corners, no obvious signs of wear, although there is a little pitting on the back side of the iron at the top end, the business end is perfect.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171979096270

I assumed these small planes were the equivalent of the #4 Bailey style of plane? The obvious difference to me in that regard is the limitation of iron advancement. The front of the mouth, which is crips and straight leads the cutting edge by about 4 - 5mm. A large gap by any account.

I haven't used the plane as yet as it only arrived last night but how do such planes cater for smoothing (assuming this is what they were for) The comparatively wide space between mouth and iron is not surely condusive to fine shavings or reducing tearout.

The other question is, what is the approx vintage of the plane? any ideas?

It is a Mathieson plane with the makers stamp on the front and a small transfer on the toe with the makers name on it. It has a 2" iron and cap iron. the cap is stamped "warranted" the blade is a Sorby ( I think) the figues' 2in' are stamped on the heel.

Edit - The blade is of the same maker.

Sorry one more question - when placed on a flat surface (kitchen worktop) it rocks slightly at the toe, although flat it seems the toe is slightly higher than the sole behind the mouth - does this need rectifying??

David

 

[Racers]

If you set the cap iron very close to the edge of the blade it won't matter if the mouth is open.

You will need to flatten the sole either by planing it or using a sheet of sandpaper held flat, make sure the blade and wedge are in place as they can distort the sole.

Pete

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Cheers Pete

 

[Cheshirechappie]

From the Ebay listing, it's hard to see how the seller can be so sure about the date they gave. The plane looks rather newer than that, and Mathieson's were in business until about 1966 according to BPM2. The iron doesn't look full length, suggesting it's had some use, though usually the stickers wear off used planes quite quickly, so It's not clear why that one has survived. Accurate dating is therefore pretty well impossible; it looks later rather than earlier, and that's about as near as I can get! Nonetheless, it looks a nice, tidy plane, and should make a good user.

The open mouth may be the result of several sole flattenings (easy to do with a sharp, fine-set plane). Some people insert a patch of hard wood to close the mouth (chop a recess about 1/4" to 3/8" deep, shape a piece to fit, glue in and allow to set, then trim the sole flat and pare the mouth to a nice fit if needed). However, as Pete says, a close-set cap-iron will do the same job.

I quite like the little woodies. They have a different 'feel' which takes a bit of getting used to when all you've used before is Bailey-type metal planes, but there's less friction between work and plane sole so they slip over the wood more sweetly. Setting can take a bit of fiddling to get used to, but it's worth persevering. Once going, they're a delight to use.

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Thanks CC for the advice on mouth closeure, however I doubt I would use this for my best work so "as is" based on the advice from both you and Pete will be the way forward I expect.

With regrds to dating, again I had no idea of the duration of manufacture for such planes. However, with the transfer still intact it would have had to have been inactive for many years and seen little use. Based on your end of production dates it may well be closer to 1960 rather than 1860. Not that the vintage has much interest to me, the enjoyment is key.

Thanks again

David

 

[dzj]

Sharpen the blade, see how it works and go from there.

 

[D_W]

That last post is good policy. The danger to a very large mouth on a double iron smoother, if there is one, is that you can get anomalies at the ends of boards where you're starting a cut, etc, and things like cutting a bevel on a board are much harder to do.

You can either resole it if it's a problem (opening the mouth to match the bed and wear as it is) or fill the front of the mouth and profile an angle similar to the wear angle, but further in. If you're doing an insert, there's no reason to leave it real tall in the wear area.

I think an ideal opening for a smoother is about a 16th if the cap iron is set right, everything is in order and the wear is in agreement with the cap iron so that everything is ejected well.

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Thanks for all the info boys, a great help.

Cheers

David

 

[rxh]

It looks like you have got a good plane that can be made to work well fairly easily. Please let us know how you get on.