In previous articles, I described rehabbing older Bailey-pattern planes acquired from Ebay to replace all the family’s ancient wood planes…the ones I’m getting tired of inlaying mouths in every decade or so as they wear. I’ll rehab these oldies one more time and pass them on to my oldest boy who’s interested in luthier work…he’ll be the 5th generation of craftsman for some of these.
From left to right is a Stanley transitional jack, a Stanley 36 razee smoother, and an old Ohio Tool coffin smoother. The jack and the coffin smoother have new soles, and I’ll do the Stanley 36 today. Wood planes are a joy to use….they have a warm feel to them and for a boatbuilder or shipwright working overhead, are lighter and handier than cast iron planes. They wear faster, but are much easier to tune. As the sole wears unevenly from planing edges and odd shapes, a simple pass through or over a fine-set hand or power jointer flattens them back into true. Do that three or four times over the course of a decade, however, and the mouth widens to the point where fine shavings are no longer possible. If you look at the Stanley 36, you can see the mouth is a bit wider than the one on your favorite cast-iron smoother.
The front of the plane wears the fastest, and repeated jointings on a plane used for coarse work makes them wedge-shaped, eventually. I could inlay a patch or throat piece into the front section of the mouth, but that does nothing to correct the wedge shape, the mortises are time-consuming to cut, and a throat piece doesn’t support the critical area at the front edge of the mouth as does the original sole and throat. So instead, I prefer to attach new soles and recut the throat to the original specifications or even a bit narrower in the mouth, depending on how I intend to use the plane.
Any straight-grained hardwood will do…these original plane bodies are beech, and I’m using hard Bigleaf Maple for the new soles today. I also use holly and Madrone, more hard local woods. How thick should the new sole be? Thicker than the furthest downward the iron can be adjusted. Because I’m using the power jointer for this, I mill the new sole stock almost twice as thick as needed. For the Stanley 36 in relatively good condition, no taper is needed to correct wedge-shaped wear, so I plane my sole stock flat.
I power joint the beech plane body to expose fresh wood uncontaminated by oil and wax, and glue the sole stock on with 5:1 West System epoxy dyed brown. Get the free Gougeon Brother’s epoxy pamphlet from West Marine and follow the instructions…including the use of a high-strength thickener. A good boatbuilder’s epoxy is moisture proof, is almost twice as strong and flexible as other glues and is the best choice. Clamping isn’t required….I merely place the glued assembly on a wax-papered flat surface and set a cast-iron plane atop for weight over night.
Then I simply trim the oversize sole flush using card scrapers. Notice I also filled the worn corners on the plane body with thickened epoxy to make a smooth surface that won’t catch on something during use.
I clamp the plane to a flat, smooth surface and recut the throat from the throat side of the plane. The rear of the throat is a 45-degree angle and the front bevel of the throat needed to clear shavings is about 20 degrees in the opposite direction. I merely index the chisels against the plane body and tap and pare.
I continue to remove wedge-shaped waste until the back of the throat and the front of the throat meet…
…in a nice, clean “V” at the bottom of my over-thick sole stock.
Then cutting the mouth is simply a matter of jointing the new sole-plane body on a sharp, well-tuned jointer set to remove a 64th or so until the mouth appears and develops into the width desired.
The mouth and throat are cleaned with fine mill files…
…and the plane assembled. Insure the frog is aligned accurately with the throat in the plane body using a straight edge…
…and make that cap lever screw is tight…a source of chatter as the blade dulls in use. To adjust the blade, I merely set the plane on a flat board and adjust the iron to drop until it barely touches the board…then I lightly tap my final set with a brass hammer just like I do any other wood plane. Just don’t exceed the limits of the adjuster’s slop and you’ll not damage the plane.
Then I tweak the adjustments while planing a flat piece of hardwood like this figured Bigleaf Maple until I consistently get fine shavings that are near the full width of the blade. That’s about as good as it gets. Now I can dismantle the plane if I desire and finish the wood with stain, oil and wax.
Sharpening the blade and tuning the cap iron are covered in my articles on rehabbing cast iron planes:
http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDocs/Wood_How_To/Smalser_on_RehabbingPlanes.htm
http://media5.hypernet.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=009153
http://media5.hypernet.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008638
“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think…that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ –John Ruskin.
Replies
Bob,
Thanks for the great articles!! Lots of great info streamlined with common sense. Really a breath of fresh air in this (lately) techno-crazed venue.
Your mention of Big Leaf Maple makes me believe you're in the Great Pacific NW somewhere.
Thanks again!
Regards,
Mack
"WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"
Seabeck, Washington at the foot of the Olympics on Hood Canal.“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think...that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ --John Ruskin.
Anybody else thinking that these posts of Bob's are more interesting then most of the same old stuff in FWW? Hint hint hint, perhaps there is a Taunton bigwig looking for something besides another router table artical out there?
Steve,
I agree with you 100% - Bob's articles are great and his or other such materials would make a welcome addition to FWW which has become - yawn - so very boring.
Jeff
psss, let them sleep, it's still free :-)
Thank you for the article, I've got an old transitional plane, I think it's a four or a five, that was my grandpa's. I'd like to get it working and this will be very helpful. I do have one problem and that is that the chip breaker and the blade have rusted together and I don't know how to get them apart. Any suggestions? or should I just buy some new ones. THank you very much for your time.
Datachanel
Doing things the hard way
If they're that badly rusted, chances are they're pitted, which means that you're going to have to grind a good bit off the back of the blade to get the pits out. Which means that you're going to end up with a thinner blade. Which means that you want to at least start getting used to the idea that you may need a new blade.
But it also means that you don't have to worry much about marring them getting them apart, since you're going to have to grind on them anyway. So I'd suggest just driving your worst screwdriver (or a cold chisel, if you've got one) between them.
Or you could Google for electrolytic rust removal.
Bob, Thanks so much for the time with these articles as I do so enjoy them. They are indeed a breath of fresh air in this tech tech world of ours. I myself have a collection of old planes including several old Bedrocks, and the full line of the Stanley-Bailey bench (minus #1), several transitionals, a Razee, a Victor circular circa 1858, the Stanley complete #45 & 55, and several moulding planes...and those are the ones I don't really use that much! I have restored a few and found it to be considerably rewarding and very satisfying, however I just don't have the time these days. I am looking foreward to the years when I'm not living in tuition city and I can kick back and do a few other things like watch the clouds again, write a little poetry, putter, and restore and enjoy my collection of old planes instead of crankin' out the work.
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