Wooden plane restoration

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point5clue

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My father in law offered my this plane - apart from a bit of flattening of the sole and accepting that the iron is 'more than halfway through its life!' :) I think it can be brought back in to use.

I've never worked with anything like this, but have watched a few youtube videos and it doesn't seem impossible.

Any tips, thoughts, advice ? I think its Oak ? I'm presuming its not so valuable that I should not learn on it ?

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Doubt it’s oak, more likely beech. Blade is a bit end of life! Little value so good to learn on. I have a woodie as a scrub plane which is great. Often woodies end up with a very wide mouth as the sole wears and is flattened. With a wide mouth it’ll struggle to take fine cuts, hence my use as a scrub. Alternatively you can let in a new piece on the sole to close the mouth up. What width is the blade?
 
The iron is almost spent, you can easily find a replacement in the UK. Regarding the mouth size, planes with double irons, i.e. iron + chip breaker, are not sensitive to mouth size, don't worry about it too much. Get the sole flat and the iron assembly well seated and you'll be surprised at how well this type of plane works.
 
I only got into wood planes in the last 15 years or so and have done up a few. Before that I thought they were too hard to adjust the blade but spend a day at it and you soon get the nack. That one looks to be in fair shape with no big cracks. the wedge looks good too. As others have said its made of beech that being the most common plane wood. Good old blades like that are quite common so dont worry to much about the brand name as any of the old british blades are good.
If you are not confident planing the sole flat then stick down a strip of sandpaper on a flat surface and lap it flat. I get a pack of big sanding belts and open one out. Do it on the top if the table saw as thats flat but what ever flat surface you can find will do. The handle will have to be reglued and if its a slack fit in the mortice then shim it with thin strips of wood.
I use turps and fine steel wool to get the crud off for a clean up. After that a wipe with boiled linseed oil to keep it good condition.
They are a pleasure to use. Something about the swish sound as it planes.
Regards
John
 
Can I clean and BLO the wedge and throat in the same way or will that throw things out?

scrub the throat with something that you can use on it without damaging - like a plastic bristle brush, use boiled linseed oil as the cleaner (in fact, over the entire plane). Wipe the linseed oil off of the bed and top of the wedge fingers and apply paste wax to the rest of the plane at the same time and then wipe it off - filling all of the end grain EXCEPT
- don't apply wax to the bed
- don't apply it to the top of the wedge fingers or the abutments (the part of the plane where the wedge fingers contact pushing forward

.If you do, it's not the end of the world, but no reason to.

Wipe the excess oil off of the bed and the wedge fingers and excess paste wax off of the rest.

to the extent that you can, you want all end grain whether it's older or not to be filled as it is the primary source of fast moisture change in planes and no matter how old the plane is, being able to breathe through the end grain is no good.

The linseed oil that's not also waxed over and wiped off will dry in a day or two and you'll appreciate the grip that it has.

You can wax every other part of the wedge, including the parts that contact the iron - there is no reason why you wouldn't want them to be treated with oil and wax in combination.

The wax will prevent the oil from ever being sticky - it's just the two key spots where you don't really want wax.

This is kind of like french polishing in a way - if you're french polishing, you can oil the surface and then immediately being applying shellac into linseed oil before transitioning to something non drying. There is no reason not to apply wax into the wet oil or wait for it to dry and allow it to become sticky.

the reason to wax the rest of the plane over the oil with some kind of petroleum solvent paste wax is that it will help the oil dry faster, and it will also go far in helping to prevent mold eating the oil.
 
Hi John,
Yes, butI’ve only been testing. I gave it all a good clean with white spirit and boiled linseed oil then waxed the ends and the sole. I ordered a blade from the tool dealer linked above for a little over 20 quid and also bid and won one on eBay for a fiver! The eBay blade was only a bit longer than the one I had in came with a chip breaker where as the more expensive one had a lifetimes worth of metal left (for me anyway) but no Chip breaker so all in all I have everything I need now . I haven’t lapped the base because it will probably need doing again by the time I need to use it in anger.

It took a bit of getting used to to adjust the plane with a hammer rather than a knob but I’ve been able to get some nice shavings.
 
Good to hear its getting there. Setting the blade with a hammer is one of those things you just have to do until you can do it. Daunting at first but when you get there its very satisfying as are getting nice shavings.
Regards
John
 
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