Ok….Been woodworking for about 8 years. Built lots of quality gear. I have a LN block plane that I enjoy using. I went to an antique store today and saw a Mint #4 for $25, so I bought it. I am crossing over into the hand tool relm and need help with this plane…..First, (god this is embarrasing) but what is a bench plane used for? Ugh, I cannot believe I just wrote that. The blade needs sharpened which is not a problem, but is there anything I need to do from there? What can I expect from this tool? I have all the power tools you could need, but planes are brand new to me. Can someone please guide me?
Thanks,
Jeff
Replies
Jeff
First of all, congratulations on the plane. The #4 you bought is commonly called a smoothing plane--it's the last plane used before sanding or the finish--some folks are skilled enough and get a good enough surface from a smooth plane that they don't need to sand. There are a million things you can learn about hand planes. I've found the best way to learn is to suppliment your reading and knowledge intake with using the plane in your shop. Sharpen the blade, tune the plane to take a very thin shaving and try it out on a piece of wood. You will be hooked. Try Garret Hack's book, The Hand Plane Book. You will learn more than you ever dared. Have fun. Tom
There are a lot of threads on hand planes here and since yours is mint, it probably needs nothing more than sharpening/honing.
There are some good books on the subject of tuning up these planes. Lie-Nielsen sells books and they also have videos available. Leonard Lee has a good sharpening book that covers tuning up hand planes.
A plane basically just removes the high areas and when those are gone, you smooth the wood.
Based on what I have learned here and from other sources, make sure:
1) The mouth is straight and crisp- The opening should be parallel to the top of the cap iron when everything is ready to use it.
2) Use a straightedge to see if the sole is flat and not twisted. Twist will make it very hard to truly flatten a board or smooth a jointed edge. If it's very close, leave it or if you want to make it better, you can lap it flat on some emery cloth or silicon carbide paper.
3) Make sure the area ahead and behind the mouth are flat and that if you place a straightedge along the whole bottom (sole), the mouth isn't at the bottom of a shallow V. If it rocks on this point, it'll be a problem and will make it easy to create a convex surface.
4) Flatten the surface of the chip breaker where it lays on the iron. I use a honing guide to sharpen and hone my irons and chisels. It works well and is the cheap grey one that Lie-Nielsen, Lee Valley and WoodCraft sell. I use cilicon carbide paper for the fine work and for removing a lot of metal, I use 3M emery cloth sheets, available from most paint stores.
In another thread, I was telling about my $25 English Bailey plane (a Stanley, just made in England) and my #7 jointer that did a really nice job of flattening and smoothing a piece of hard curly maple. It sounds like your #4 will take a lot less time to get going than mine but if you do some research, you'll find that it can actually save time for you. A couple of swipes with the plane and you can get the wood where you want it, instead of rolling the jointer out (like I have to), setting it up, doing a test run, re-setting it, re-testing and dong what would have already been finished with the hand plane.
Plus, it's a really good whole-body workout if you need to do a lot of planing. Easy on the ears and you can listen to some music while you work.
since yours is mint, it probably needs nothing more than sharpening/honing.
With respect Highfigh, it is because the plane is "mint" that is may need all the attention in the world! This could be a (shudder) new Stanley (ahhhhh!), but on the other hand it could just be 100 years old and NOS ( :) ).
Your checklist is excellent and I would emphasise that it be followed carefully.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Maybe, maybe not. I guess it needs to be checked out to be certain. I know what you mean, though. I have a #7 low knob that still has the surface grinding texture, although someone let the sole get wet at the toe and it has some pitting. The japanning is pretty bad, too but the rest is in good shape. The sole is as flat as I have seen, no twist and the mouth is nice and crisp. I wondered about why it saw so little, if any use. Maybe the person bought the wrong model for what they needed, had no idea how to use one and couldn't get it to work, couldn't use it for some reason (maybe a health issue), whatever. I haven't even tried it yet but since the sole is flatter at the mouth and I have some edges to joint, I think I'll try it tomorrow. Who knows? It may be a total dog. If it's the same case as the Craftsman smoother my dad had, he bought it to work the pine doors in the basement when my folks built their house in the '50s and really didn't do as much hand planing after that. I looked at the iron at one point and tried it- that was before I found out how to sharpen and hone one and it would have been useless that way. He had a little Delta saw with an attached jointer and would clean up the surfaces and edges in other ways. He didn't make a lot of furniture with wide, flat surfaces, though.Thanks for the approval of the list. I'm actually not very experienced with planes yet but the way my warped little mind works, I like to know as much as possible about how things work and how I can make them work better in order to be happy. Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty sick. I had planed some maple with mine before and when I saw absolutely no tearouts on the curly piece (faces or edges), I was pleasantly surprised. I ran the same piece's edges on the powered jointer and tore them up. Sharp knives and shallow cuts, too. "I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 1/6/2007 11:04 pm by highfigh
The late Jim Kingshot (spelling?) had a great video on hand planes that is very informative you might be able to get a copy of it from tools for working wood. This video has some very good tips for tuning planes as well as good explinations of how they work. Just be careful you are starting to slide down a slippery slope and before you know if you will be looking at Hotley infill planes.
Troy
There is a small book called planecraft that was printed by Record planes in the 1930s it has been reprinted many times planes are planes be they Record or Stanley I bought a reprint from Woodcraft in the last couple of years it is a very useful book written in a time when a workshop full of power tools did not exist.
Regards from OZ
You can make it fool proof but not idiot proof
Woodman,
I can't add much in the way of fact to what everyone else has already said. Based on my having too many planes, many of which I have refurbished to excellent quality users, I would encourage you to jump in and don't give up if you run into any problems. Just a learning curve thing.
One story is that bench tools (bench planes, bench chisels, etc.) were the tools a workman kept at his bench because they were the most frequently used. The ones less used were kept in his tool chest. Chris Schwartz, in Popular Woodworking, about a year or so ago, wrote a great article called Coarse, Medium, Fine (as I recall) about which planes did which. And, one doesn't use them in order of 1, 2, 3, etc.
Once the plane is fettled properly, and you have it sharpened and honed properly, then you should be able to take off wisps of wood as thin as smoke.
I believe there are jobs for power tools and jobs for hand tools. And, there are many times where a hand tool will out perform a power tool. Or, where you can do something with your plane in a minute where it could be done equally well with a router but would take you 5 minutes to get it out and set up.
Sharpening and honing is such a significant key to your success. And a good used plane is a good place to start.
If you want to get a good debate going, ask which era of Stanleys is best. Among the handtool people this can be an all-nighter. Since I, of course, know the answer I avoid the discussions. :-)
Enjoy,
Alan - planesaw
Jeff,
<<First, (god this is embarrasing) but what is a bench plane used for?>>
Actually, this is not an embarrassing question at all. Bench planes have a number of different uses, depending on the type of bench plane it is.
There are several types of bench planes (I'll use Stanley plane numbers to illustrate):
Smoothing planes (#1, #2, #3, #4, #4½, #5½): These are used for putting the final surface on the board just prior to applying the finish. (There are those that argue that a planed surface is not ready to finish....I disagree with them, and will leave it at that for now.)
Jack planes (#5, #5½): These are used for rough flattening and thicknessing of boards. The can also be used as longer smoothing planes.
Fore/Try/Trying planes (#5½, #6): These are used for flattening (after the jack plane) board faces or edges. A #6 is often also used as a short jointer on shorter boards, and in travelling toolboxes, because of its smaller size and lower weight than a standard jointer (#7 or #8).
Jointer planes (#6, #7, #8): These are used for making the faces and edges of boards flat. A #7 or #8 is particularly useful for flattening edges ("edge jointing") when making (wide) panels such as table tops, etc.
Bench rebate/rabbet planes (#10, #10¼, #10½): These are used to create and clean up rebates. They can also be used for things like trimming tenons.
Block planes (#62, #164): These are a low angle jack plane and a low angle smoother, respectively. They are about the same size as a #5 and a #4, respectively, but are built as block planes -- with the bevel on the iron facing up, and no chip breaker. The adjustment mechanism is also a bit simpler than on standard bench planes.
Block planes (#9½, #60½, etc.): These are sometimes also considered part of the bench plane group, although they are actually a separate category. Regardless, they are used for trimming end grain, cutting chamfers, and general trimming work.
Misc planes -- most of these are special-purpose planes (#40, #40½, etc.): Scrub planes (#40, #40½) are used to remove wood quickly. They have a wide, open mouth and a thick, heavily cambered iron. Often used for initial dimensioning of rough-sawn lumber. There are lots of others.
You'll notice that some sizes (the #5½, for example) have can more than one function.
That more or less covers the Bailey-pattern metal bench planes.
There are also wooden bench planes, which are pretty much the same, functionally, as the above-listed metal planes, except that wooden jointers tend to be longer: up to about 34" or 36" long.
Also available are the transitional planes (#21 - #37, #122 - #129, and #135): These are wooden-bodied planes with metal plane iron adjusting mechanisms; sort of a hybrid between woodies and metal planes. The name is somewhat misleading, in that transitional planes came about after metal planes had been on the market for a number of years.
And, finally, there are the infill planes, which are generally about the same as the metal planes functionally, except that there is a longer and wider smoothing plane called a Panel Plane, used to do final smoothing on long(er) panels. (If you don't know, an infill plane is a [usually dovetailed] metal plane that has been "stuffed" with wood -- often a lovely tropical hard wood -- and is equipped with a thick heavy iron. A couple of the better-known makers were Thomas Norris & Sons, Stewart Spiers, and Mathieson and Son. A couple of current infill makers are Karl Holtey, Konrad Sauer, Wayne Anderson, and Ray Iles.) One thing that stands out about infill planes -- aside from their classic looks and great utility -- is that they have various iron bedding angles: 45°, 47½°, 50°, 55°. The higher-angled planes are specifically designed to be used on gnarly-grained tropical hardwoods. As a category, infill planes tend to be rather expensive.
There are, of course, also other types of planes -- block planes, joinery planes, etc., but you asked about "bench" planes.
____________
Now, what to do with your new bench plane....
As others have mentioned, it probably needs a tune-up. Here's what I do when I teach plane tune-up classes (some of this will be the same info as others have already posted) (This assumes that your plane is complete, generally undamaged, and not too rusty or grimy.):
1) Disassemble and inspect the plane. Take everything apart: knob, tote, lever cap, iron, chip breaker, frog, iron adjustment wheel, all screws. Inspect for rust, grime, missing parts, damage to parts, etc.
2) Clean everything. Mineral spirits and steel wool/scotchbrite-type pads work well for most cleaning. If the rust is really bad, you can use electrolysis. A brass/bronze toothbrush-sized brush is also handy for getting in to corners and such. I generally don't use a wire wheel because it can damage parts, but that's up to you whether to use one or not.
3) Re-inspect and note any damage, etc., that might have been hidden by rust or grime.
4) Determine whether the frog bosses on the casting are flat and parallel: set the frog on the bosses and try to rock the frog. If it rocks -- doesn't sit flat and square on the bosses -- then either the frog boss(es) on the casting or the bottom of the frog are not flat/parallel. Or both may need work. Use a fine file to make the bosses on the casting flat and parallel, as necessary. Use a light touch here, and try to remove as little metal as is absolutely necessary.
5) Flatten the bottom of the frog, as necessary (see #4, above). Also, use a straight edge to determine whether the iron bedding surface of the frog is flat and parallel. If not, use a file to flatten/make parallel, as necessary. You want the iron to mate tightly and as completely as possible with this surface -- it helps make the iron rigid, reducing chatter. Again, a light touch with the file is best.
6) Inspect the mouth. The forward edge should be flat and square to the sole. If not square it and/or flatten it, as required. This is one place where you really, really want to remove as little metal as is absolutely necessary. The tighter the mouth can be made, the better results -- i.e., less tear-out -- (all other things being equal) you will get when using it as a smoothing plane.
7) Inspect the mating surface of the lever cap. File it square and flat, as necessary. Remove the file marks on a medium and then fine smoothing stone. Lubricate the lever mechanism on the upper end.
8) Inspect the mating surface of the chip breaker. File it square and flat, as necessary. Remove the file marks on a medium and then fine smoothing stone. Polish the upper portion of the leading edge with 400/600 (and higher grits, if you desire) sand paper. The mating surface should completely mate with the iron -- with no gaps. This will help prevent shavings from sticking between the chip breaker and the iron, and jamming your plane. It also makes the iron more rigid and helps prevent chatter. The polished upper leading edge helps move the shavings up and away from the mouth.
9) Inspect the iron. Grind as necessary. The leading edge needs to be square to the sides. Polish the reverse (non-bevel side) of the iron (about 1" to 1½" back from the cutting edge) to a mirror polish. You should be able to see fine details in the reflection. (You normally have to do this only once; subsequent sharpenings/honings will keep it that way.) Then hone the bevel side of the iron progressively up through your finest sharpening stone. Add a micro-bevel, if desired.
10) Put a very light coat of oil on all screws and pivot points. Clean and polish the brass iron adjustment wheel, as needed/desired.
11) Make any necessary repairs to the knob and/or tote. Sand off any old nasty finish and refinish the knob and tote with oil, shellac, etc., as needed/desired. I strongly recommend against polyurethane; it looks horrible on wooden plane parts.
12) Reassemble the plane. Withdraw the iron above the level of the sole. You want the plane fully assembled to introduce whatever stresses will be present when planing into the lapping process, so that the sole is flat when the plane is set-up for use. Lap the sides if desired (not really needed for a smoothing plane, unless you're going to use it on a shooting board. If so, then make sure that you lap the sides at exactly a 90° angle to the sole.) Now comes the fun part: lap the sole. Use a known flat surface (float/plate glass, surface plate, etc. Some recommend using the wing of a table saw or one of the tables on a jointer; personally, I cringe at the thought of deliberately introducing grit into fine machinery....) Start with 80 grit and progressively work your way up to 220 grit; don't skip a grit. You can go higher, but once you pass 220, you're just polishing the surface. Water or a light machine oil on the sand paper makes a good lubricant to float the swarf away. How flat is flat? Well, for smoothing planes, the general rule of thumb is "flatter is better." At the least, you want the first 1" or so of the toe, the ½" to 1" in front of the mouth, the ½" to 1" behind the mouth, and the last 1" or so of the heel to be co-planar. Using a permanent marker to mark wavy lines on the sole will help you see your progress. Continue lapping until you have reached the desired level of flatness. This is quite boring, but you need to maintain your attention to the task at hand to do a good job. It may take only a couple of minutes or it may take a couple of hours, depending on what shape the sole of your plane is in and how flat you want it. Use an accurate straight edge to check flatness from toe to heel and from side to side, especially in front of the mouth. Once you have finished lapping the sole, disassemble and clean as necessary. If you used water as the lubricant, make sure that you get all of the water off your plane, to prevent new rust!!
13) Reassemble the plane, and adjust the iron for a light cut. Test your newly-tuned plane on a nice piece of hard wood. You should be able to take nice, full-width, translucent shavings. Enjoy!
There are many different possible sequences to do this; the one listed above is merely the one that I use.
_____
You can expect a well-tuned smoothing plane to put a surface on a piece of wood that is ready to apply finish to. When you look at the surface against a light at a low angle, the surface of the wood should reflect the light like glass, and it should feel almost glass-smooth.
Have fun, and good luck!
Beste Wünschen auf ein glückliches und wohlbehaltenes Neues Jahr!
Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen aus dem Land der Rio Grande!!
James
Edited 1/9/2007 8:14 pm by pzgren
Edited 1/10/2007 1:09 pm by pzgren
Very, very well done-congrats- now to the iron sharpening lesson eh? Paddy
Pat,
Thanks for the kind words. Working on the sharpening one, but it's been more of a challenge so far than the others -- there's some stuff that's just easier to demonstrate than to put words on paper about.....
How's the move coming along?Beste Wünschen auf ein glückliches und wohlbehaltenes Neues Jahr!
Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen aus dem Land der Rio Grande!!
James
James, the NY house is done on the outside-new roof, painted, fences trimmed up relocked, stained-but now need @ 3 months to clear out, clean, patch & paint on the inside before sale.
The Tn place was winter groomed just before Christmas(78 degrees?), trees trimmed, 3 acres bush hogged, veg garden plowed up(25 x 75 yds. of very brown gold). Moved in my 8' 6" Victorian secretary, the unisaw and started its' overhaul, got the contractors saw and band saw tuned up, found 2 1/4 cherry for the faces of the twin screw tail vise at a sawyer 15 min. from my house.
Next trip is mid to late Feb. with the lathe ,books and some household extras that are not needed here before the big move. All the best Paddy
Hi woodman,
I'd just like to extend my experiences to you. Isn't this a great place to gain knowledge. The people here are the greatest.
Here's just a small part of what I have learned here and in no way dimishes the value I have gained by being associated with these awesome people. Combine this with their wisdom.
Hope your #4 isn't in the shape mine was, but the knowledge you'll gain by restoring/tuning it will go a long ways towards your future success. This one took me almost 6 hours. I use the Scary Sharp method, i.e. sandpaper on float glass. It's an effective and inexpensive way to maintain my tool irons.
Best regards,
Steps:
Plane Body
1. Sprayed plane with BRAKLEEN (spelling) and let it set for a week.
2. Completely disassembled all plane parts and wiped off the Guk as much as possible, then wire brushed all metal parts except the Japanned areas(both by hand with a brass brush and on grinders wire brush). Sprayed with Simple Green, let soak, then cleaned all other parts with toothbrush and brass brush where appropriate..
3. Reassembled the frog and blade assembly back onto the body and adjusted the blade back up out of the way.
4. Flattened the sole and sides up through the grits, 80 (this plane was in pretty rough shape as witnessed by the attached pics), 100, 120, 150, 180, 240, 320, 400, 600 & 1,000.
5. Take a wad of 0000 steel wool and quench it with a good amount of Butchers Wax and work it into the sides and sole of the plane. Let dry. I usually let it dry overnight at room temperature, then buff with a clean soft cloth.
Blade Assembly
1. Removed the blade assembly again and then worked the blade and chipbreaker all the way back up the grits (both sides), starting @ 100 and working through 1,000. I must
confess I used a cheap honing guide on the blade, not by hand.
I wanted to strop the cutting edge on the "new" blade but I don't have a buffing wheel. I then recalled honing valves and seats for a car motor back when I was a teenager. We used a honing compound and a "gizmatchee" kind of device that had stones mounted on bent wings and a hand crank to spin the stones. The paste like compound was smeared on these stones and used grind the seats in the head, to a chrome like finish it left behind.
Off to the parts store in search of valve grinding compound. Violla, I found some and hurried back to the woodshop to give it a try. Remembering a FWW tip I had read about using a dead flat piece of hard maple for stropping cutting irons, I dug one out of the cutoff bin - perfect. Smeared the compound on in a good sized patch and worked the blade through the compound. CHROME!
OK, if I'm going this far, what to use to strop my "new" blade. Hey, wait a minute - I still have my barbers leather and canvas razor strop I used for straight edge shaving razors! The kind you don't see in modern day barber shops, hanging from the chair. Hell, barbershops hardly exist today; now they're called Unisex salons, or something to that effect. A trip up to the attic - found my barbers kit! It even had some honing oil.
I might be on to something here..... The canvas and oil was used to remove any fine steel particles from the razor blade teeth, as well as any micro burr left from honing. The "teeth" on a razor are not that much different than those on a wood cutting tool; they're both at diametrically opposed angles. Teeth on a wood cutting tool are 90 degrees to the cutting edge while those on a straight razor are at an approximate 45 degree angle on each side of the blade. Hold the blade at the appropriate angle for the blad in use? Works for me.
Placed the strop on the bench, spritzed some oil on the canvas, stropped the blade a few strokeson both sides-away from the blade edge. Wiped the blade with a soft cloth, then a few more times on the leather. Hmmmm, I might be on to something here. Time to test the results. When we're down this fine, I would venture to guess that the first test swipe with the blade assembled back into the plane (Careful here) would remove any remaining debrees.
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest
...[Message truncated]
Edited 1/9/2007 9:50 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
Edited 1/10/2007 7:15 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Hi All,
I messed up on the original pics, so I have attached them to this post. Sorry for the confusion.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Nice Job,
I would never have believed it without the pics. The after looks great and the befor just looks so bad.
Doug Meyer
Hi Doug,
First off, I wonder if I could have done it without help from folks like yourself. I'm in the process of restoring 2 #5's, a #7, a #78, a Drawknife and 3 spokeshaves, all in similar condition. Also have a #45 in real good condition, except for the cutters. Have cleaned/honed about half of the 22. What a PITA lapping the backs and fronts of those little suckers. Been racking my brain trying to figure an easier way of gripping for the lapping process. Honing the beading cutters is easy with a round file wrapped with sandpaper. Works great!
Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
Nice job on the #4! It looks like you have plane restoration down pat!! ;-)Beste Wünschen auf ein glückliches und wohlbehaltenes Neues Jahr!
Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen aus dem Land der Rio Grande!!
James
Thanks. My initial goal was to get a functioning plane, i.e. it can make newpaper thin shavings, then get to work on the finish work; like Japanning, knobs and totes to really make them shine.
Once again, thank you,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
Kidderville, NH
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
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