Yesterday I was reorganizing my garage/shop (making room for the snowblower. In the course I came across a box of wooden-bodies planes that I acquires some years ago; they were in a toolchest my Dad bought me from an estate auction.
Well, I decided to mess around with one of the moulding planes. I honed the iron as best I could and went to work on a scrap piece of 4/4 pine. Holey Moley. What a beautiful result! This, even given my inexperience with the tool.
Now I’m hooked. While I probably wouldn’t use them all the time, I can see situations where it would be faster to use a plane than a router. Can anybody point me to info on maintaining, sharpening, using these planes? Any sources for new irons, or info on making my own? Does anybody here use them at all?
My hippie past is catching up with me. Help!
Replies
Chad, having recently caught the "old hand tool" bug myself, I was looking for some good books on restoring them, to usable condition if possible. Among the recommendations that might work for you are Michael Dunbar's "Restoring, Tuning and Using Classic Woodworking Tools" and "The Handplane Book" by Garrett Hack.
The Dunbar book covers a number of woodworking tools, but spends the bulk of its pages on handplanes, including an entire section on moulding planes. (Who knows, you might also want to restore other tools down the road, too.) It's very detailed, very information-heavy (from a "how to do it" sense).
The book by Garrett Hack looks and feels more like a coffee-table book (i.e., oversized pages, lots of excellent photos of old planes, etc.) but it also includes pretty good information on restoring handplanes.
David
Chad,
In a past life I used to restore antiques for a hobby and a little bit of spare cash when I could bear to sell them.
I built up a good collection of wooden moulding planes (and a complete Stanley 55)and used quite a few of them to match odd bits of damaged or missing moulding. I sharpened them with the same stones I use for my carving tools -- mainly slip stones and rounds.
larry Williams who posts here would be a great source of info on old wooden planes. if he doesnt respond here, you might be able to email him via his website. His forte is wooden planes of all types.
http://www.planemaker.com/
http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/Sizing.htm
See if that link will work for you. Just a bit of information to get you started.
Tom
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2nwp6/planes/hollow.html
I have this one, too. Hope it helps.
Tom
Chad,
Check out Superior Tool and Patrick's Blood & Gore. A lot of excellent info. and good links.
http://www.supertool.com/index.htm
My best advice is to get rid of those relics and join the 21st century. In fact, to get you started, you just box up those old moulding planes, send them to me, and I'll send you a nice new router and an assortment of bits.
Jeff
Edited 10/16/2002 1:39:26 PM ET by Jeff K
Edited 10/16/2002 1:41:52 PM ET by Jeff K
Thanks, all for the helpful info!
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