I have been trying to learn to use hand planes for I don’t know how long. I have a used #5 that I have been sweating bullets on for months. I have a good edge on that has gone south because of me trying to get the iron back in the plane. No matter what I do a very tiny amount of the iron sticks out of the mouth. I messed with it until I am ready to go back to sandpaper. It has a Hock blade in it. The frog is moved completly to the back. The chipbreaker is 1/32 back from the cutting edge. The chipbreaker is 5 in long and the blade is 6.5 in. Could I have gotten a CB that is not the right one? I have move the parts to and fro and the best I can get is what I have now. If I move the CB it all gets worse or the CB is fluse with the cutting edge.
Thank you.
Replies
Bonka,
Try moving the frog back a little if you haven't done so. Otherwise you very well may have the wrong type of chip breaker in the plane. Stanley made different types of No 5's and sometime tool collectors mix and match different parts off different planes to complete one plane. You may want to buy a replacement chip breaker from Lie-Nielsen or Hock as I have heard they are better chip breakers than the old Stanley ones anyway.
Edited 9/26/2006 11:25 am ET by mvflaim
I rechecked the frog. I thought I had it all the way back but not so. I re-adjusted it and all is good. The plane takes shavings off of a huge piece of live oak and not with too much effort.
Thanks to all for your help.
Cool. I'm glad I could help.
Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I'll remember, but let me try and I will understand.
I suggest that your problem might be with the replacement blade. Go back to using your factory original blade and see if you get along better. So many times, folks will alter a product thinking they are making it better. I am thinking of backyard mechanics who replace stock motors with more powerful motors. The next thing you know, they are having transmission and power train problems etc. Companies pay qualified engineers to design products and backyard mechanics think they are smarter . It just does not make sense.
Hock, Schmock... there is nothing about the original cutters for these planes that won't work fine. As another poster advised, put the original back in. Get Garrett Hack's book on handplanes available from our lovely host and tune per his instructions.
The notion of an edge that takes forever to dull is grotesque to me (as I've posted before). Part of the rhythm of working wood by hand is the pause one takes to hone a plane iron. Furious, unbridled planing with an iron that never dulls is as likely to result in poor work than anything else, IMO.
If you discarded the original cutter then buy another plane for forty bucks or so. Don't do a damned thing to it other than hone the iron and see if it cuts. The most likely scenario is that it will plane just fine and you can then go ahead and lightly clean and minimally tune the rest of the plane and put it to work. Forget all the aftermarket irons, chipbreakers, and all that crap. These things were made to work.
Have you seen or tried to use a recent Stanley no. 5?
I use one as a demo in my plane tuning DVD which may appear next year.
Sole 6 thou hollow in length.
Sole finish as if from a coarse belt linisher, massive friction.
With a modest shaving, say 2 thou" it will not even plane a straight edge on a 15 to 20 inch board.
I rest my case.
PS A thicker, harder, good quality blade such as Hock or L-N, is one of the best improvements to user performance possible, and I know that I sharpen about 4 times less often. Sharpening is no big deal, if you can do it well ;-) but the purpose of the job is surely making stuff??
David Charlesworth
I told customers that Stanleys were a kit of plane parts, preassembled but not ready for use. For what they sell for I think that is all one can reasonably expect but I do think they should warn people.
Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb
No, I have not used a 'recent' Stanley 5. The Stanley tools that were made in England are junk.
I have no trouble jointing boards edge up in a vise. I've never used a shooting board to joint an edge and don't plan to.
An oldish Stanley plane with original cutter will work fine after a little clean-up and usually very modest fettling.
IMO, blanket recommendations to purchase after-market irons and overly intricate tuning, fettling, and honing procedures turn plane tuning into an end in itself.
As I've said before, the notion of a plane iron that never dulls is ghastly to me. Part of the rhythm of using hand tools is the pause needed to collect one's thoughts while the cutter is touched up. I have no desire to wrestle with overly hard or chewy steel when the time comes to hone, however protracted that interval may be.
I don't mind honing a plane iron. I look out the window. I might even light the occasional cigar. I don't need a spare workbench to hold all the silly-a$$ed accoutrements some folks throw at the task. I've found it simpler to keep it simple. Mhhmmm.
I don't cry and run to mamma (or my collection of tool catalogs) if every single shaving isn't exactly perfect when measured with a micrometer. I just make another pass or touch up any patches with a scraper. I don't mind if the surface looks like it was worked with a hand tool. I'm looking for clarity of grain that hand planing offers not some machine-like uniformity across the broad surfaces. There is a HUGE difference between those two goals. To achieve the latter, you need a hand plane tuned to machine tool tolerances and that doesn't interest me at all.
Edited 10/6/2006 12:16 pm ET by CStanford
While partially agreeing with much that you say, I have never had a student who was not delighted with the improvement of performance from a Hock or L-N blade.
The truth is that they are significantly better in every respect.
Thicker, harder, hold an edge longer, these are facts which you appear to dismiss in your first post. Ron Hocks blades are excedllent and will make tools work better, the effect is particularly noticeable in block planes.
The laminated blades form 1920's ?? not sure of the dates, that Stanley made are good, but still thin and hard to find over here in UK.
We had probably better agree to differ!
David Charlesworth
Better is often the enemy of good enough.
That Hock nearly turns your #5 into a 605 insofar as rigidity and capability are concerned. Mvflaim 's advice to add a Hock chipbreaker is good - - will make it nearly invincible. (Well, a bunch in the right direction, anyway, and sweeter to use.)
Good luck with it -
---John
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