Can this Stanley #4 be saved!

[Jim Koepke]

I will have to look into how to adjust it and use it. I really dont know much about that. I tried it a little bit but only got small shavings not any nice curls.

Surely, different folks have different ways to do the adjusting. My method is put a piece of scrap in the vise, then to back the blade off until it is not engaging the wood. With the plane on the wood, it is slowly moved forward while the adjuster is turned to lower the blade. The plane is also moved from one side to the other during the motion since often the blade will cut more on one side than the other. Once the blade starts to shave the wood, it is checked to see if it is doing more on one side than the other. The lateral adjuster is then used as needed to straighten the cut. After a while, you will be able to take a swipe down a board's edge on one side of the blade and then the other and compare the feel of the shaving to set the lateral.

When you have the blade cutting fairly evenly, adjust the blade in and out to get used to the back lash. If you sharpened the blade with a camber, the shavings will be thiner at the edges or possibly not be produced at the edge.

If "too much" lateral adjustment is needed, check that the blade bevel is relatively square. The frog can be rotated a bit or you might have a base and frog that are not coming together in a line square to the direction of travel for the plane. This would require a bit of inspection of the parts to determine where the fettling is needed.

jim

[Paul Ryan]

I just tried a couple of quick pushes last night. And what I got was small shavings that built up in the mouth of the plane. I will have more of a chance to play with it this weekend. Thanks again. I am sure I will have more questions.

[Paul Ryan]

Well,

I had a chance to use the plane today. The blade seems to be pretty sharp I was able to get nice thin shavings from parts of the blade. I couldn't get the whole blade to cut at the same time. I think it is a result of my sharpening method.

Just thought I would let you know that the plane seems to work as designed. I will have to work on sharpening methods now.