Wooden planes - your opinions.

[Monkey Mark]

When I was a wee nipper I always remember my father having a wodden hand plane. I beleive it was my grandfathers and think it's still hiding in my fatgers garage.

Since then I've always liked the look of them but never actually had one.

Recently I spotted two for sale locally. I may get them even just to have as a show piece.

My question is, is it hard to get them back to functioning condition and is it worth the effort?

 

[MIGNAL]

Depends on the condition. Ignoring the obvious cracks etc. the usual problems are:

Sole not flat.
Wedge stuck.
Wedge not fitting properly.
Blade needs work.
Chipbreaker needs work.

It shouldn't take much more than 15 minutes or so to flatten the sole, free the wedge and having it fit nicely. Longer if you are new to all this.
The chipbreaker 5 minutes or so. The actual blade could be the longest process of the lot, dependent on the condition.

Once they are set up it should work very well. They are much lighter than metal Planes and are therefore less tiring to use. They are very slick over the work piece. On medium density hardwoods I personally think they are hard to beat.
I used one a few hours ago, on Indian Rosewood. It's the wooden Plane in the background that did a good 75% of the work. I switched to the metal Plane for the last few tenths of a mm.

 

[JanetsBears]

I spotted one yesterday in a far corner of my workshop. I've never actually touched it as it was hidden behind piles of wood that the previous house owners left when they moved out 11 years ago! I've recently got round to shifting some of it and with a bit of effort I think I can reach the plane now. I've never played with a wooden one before so it will be a new experience but if it all goes badly wrong, I'm sure my wife will display it in some way amongst the piles of old stuff we have in the house :wink:

Chris

 

[AndyT]

One of the many nice things about woodworking is that the older ways of working are still available. Tools from the last two hundred years or so still work just as they always did. Wood is still wood and woodworkers hands are much the same.

For making mouldings, apart from some very basic types such as beads, there is no real metal hand plane equivalent so if you want an alternative to the electric router, it's a wooden moulding plane.

For some good video advice on using wooden planes have a look at Richard Maguire (The English Woodworker blog) and Graham Haydon (who posts on here and at Popular Woodworking magazine.)

At the opposite end of the skill and experience spectrum you could look at some of my projects!

 

[MIGNAL]

Don't forget, the Old English style Planes should come cheap. Very cheap. You should easily get your value in the blade and chipbreaker alone. There are dozens of these things on Ebay. A lot go unsold.

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

My 24" wooden jointer cost £3, can't imagine how a premium metal one could be any better. I've got a few smaller wooden planes (all for £5 or less) but I still use baileys for jacks and smoothers as I like being able to adjust the blade as I work.. One day I would like to change over to use the smaller ones. I definitely prefer my wooden moving filister to my stanley multi plane for grooving.
Paddy

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

When I was a wee nipper I always remember my father having a wodden hand plane. I beleive it was my grandfathers and think it's still hiding in my fatgers garage.

Since then I've always liked the look of them but never actually had one.

Recently I spotted two for sale locally. I may get them even just to have as a show piece.

My question is, is it hard to get them back to functioning condition and is it worth the effort?

Exactly what you need here

 

[bugbear]

My 24" wooden jointer cost £3, can't imagine how a premium metal one could be any better. I've got a few smaller wooden planes (all for £5 or less) but I still use baileys for jacks and smoothers as I like being able to adjust the blade as I work..

I circumvent that; I have two wooden "jacks", but they're tuned and setup differently. Essentially one has more camber and more set, the other less of both.

I simply use them in sequence. Even a bailey can't adjust camber as you work...

I don't worry about adjusting a smoother, since my smoother is always set for the finest shaving I can take. It is a Bailey pattern plane though,

BugBear

 

[Cheshirechappie]

My question is, is it hard to get them back to functioning condition and is it worth the effort?

The answers are NO and YES.

It's easier to bring a tired woody back into use than a tired metal plane - Mignal's pretty much summed it up above. I'd just add that it's well worth perusing AndyT's 'sticky' at the top of the hand tools section about methods of restoring. I've just recently acquired a few woody bench planes to add to a small collection of users, and found that Graham Haydon's tip of soaking the iron, cap-iron and screw in vinegar for about 48 hours was well worth it - cleaned 'em up a real treat! Getting a polish on the flat side of the blade right by the edge was the hardest part of the whole restoration; refitting the wedge needs a bit of care, and final adjustment using a cabinet scraper to take off fine scrapes can save the problem of taking too much off with a chisel and having to 'start over'.

Using is lovely. Wooden planes slip very nicely across the wood being planed. The only 'learning curve' is getting used to adjusting the iron setting, and that doesn't take long. Tap gently on the protruding back end of the iron to advance the cut, then tap the wedge to seat it. Tap on the heel of the plane to reduce the cut, then the wedge to seat it. Use a mallet quite hard on the heel of the plane to unseat the wedge and remove the iron. That's about it!

 

[Mrwilson]

Enjoyed that one Bob, thank you. I'm off to get a hold of an old wooden plane now so I can give it a go.

Shug

 

[G S Haydon]

Just grab one or two and give them a go. You can expect to put some work and time into them but they work very well. I think Andy really hits on the point very well of older ways still being available. It's almost an embarrassment of riches. There is a chance you will not like them and find that something else suits your needs better but nothing ventured nothing gained.
As for skill and experience Andy I think you have masses! You did not earn the tittle "Prof" for nothing

 

[Mrwilson]

Exactly my thinking. There's an "antique" dealer along the road from us who has dozens of old wooden planes for £3 each so now I have a better idea of what to look for I'll pick up a couple and see what happens.

Shug

 

[MIGNAL]

I always set up the Sole of my wooden Planes (even western) in the Japanese fashion ie. 3 points of contact.
I basically get the sole as flat as I can, checking with a straight edge. I then use a cabinet scraper and remove or relieve the areas that need it, effectively creating extremely shallow scoops. They only need to be in the order of 2 or 3 tenths of a mm at the deepest point. So the high points are at the very front of the sole, the area just immediately in front of where the blade protrudes and the area right at the rear or end of the sole.
Wooden Planes are subject to changes in your shop Humidity, the Sole will change shape as the humidity goes through big swings. Sometimes you may find that the Plane isn't quite working as sweetly as it once did. Often that is because the point of contact just ahead of the blade has been lost, the plane then starts to skip a little. Introducing the 3 points of contact helps to alleviate some of the effects of humidity changes, not entirely but it does seem to help.

I'm afraid I'm not really that keen on the typical Coffin type smoother (others may well be). I do like the typical longer English style Planes, anything around 14" and longer. For the smaller smoothing size I prefer the horn handled continental Plane. Some of those can be picked up reasonably cheap, not quite the bargain of some old English wooden Planes though.

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

My 24" wooden jointer cost £3, can't imagine how a premium metal one could be any better. I've got a few smaller wooden planes (all for £5 or less) but I still use baileys for jacks and smoothers as I like being able to adjust the blade as I work..

I circumvent that; I have two wooden "jacks", but they're tuned and setup differently. Essentially one has more camber and more set, the other less of both.

I simply use them in sequence. Even a bailey can't adjust camber as you work...

I don't worry about adjusting a smoother, since my smoother is always set for the finest shaving I can take. It is a Bailey pattern plane though,

BugBear

Great idea. When I have time to tune them up I will give that a try
Padddy

 

[lurcher]

at the moment i am altering a wooden jack into a dedicated shute plane i cut of the handle made a new 1 and now it sits on the corner of the main body . and it works great i also have a nice collecton of 18 german type wooden planes and the have become my go to planes .
so look out on ebay for a full set of marples 7/no3

 

[AndyT]

+1 to the notion of having several similar planes, set up a bit differently.
It's not just an excuse for a collection, it will help you understand the subtle differences between a plane that will just about do, and one that is just right.

 

[Monkey Mark]

Well the two for sale near me are still available so I'll see if a can strike a deal.

 

[Monkey Mark]

When I was a wee nipper I always remember my father having a wodden hand plane. I beleive it was my grandfathers and think it's still hiding in my fatgers garage.

Since then I've always liked the look of them but never actually had one.

Recently I spotted two for sale locally. I may get them even just to have as a show piece.

My question is, is it hard to get them back to functioning condition and is it worth the effort?

Exactly what you need here

thank you, as always an excellent video by mr sellers[.