Beech Jointer Build

[David Weaver]

I thought I'd put this in a separate thread, I changed my mind. There will be less talk about the mortise, wear, etc, it's all covered in the cocobolo smoother thread here.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...oother-Build-2

This beech is courtesty of Prashun generously offering up some good stuff. It's pretty close to QS (close enough), it's 4" wide and almost 6" tall, and 29" long. And whatever Prashun does where this wood is stored, it smells wonderful (I smell essential oil of tobacco in the wood or something of that sort, which for the uninitiated is not remotely similar to burning tobacco...)

I don't have a power jointer, this stick has a little bit of twist, I have to be careful and sparing because the jointer will finish slightly under 3 3/8 inches wide. The twist is nothing unexpected, beech moves a little when it dries, even when it's QS.

On the top of this stick, which you can't see, you could trace grain in the middle of the stick straight to the back and be pretty much in the middle. That's preferable. Grain can be a little diagonal, too, but straight is best for strength around the cheeks.
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Check the winding sticks..You can just barely make out the silver of the one on the far end. The wind is gone.
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That's about all I have time for in a night. two young kids who sleep over the shop and they go to sleep late - woodworking was eaiser before kids.

Some pictures of considerations:

There will be a sacrifice. I don't have a spare 2 1/2" iron and cap iron set that is not in a plane. I do have planes that are not worth as much as it would cost me to go out to ebay and get one, though. This is a plane marked "FM" with a nice I&H sorby iron that's got about 3/4ths of its life left. I'll never use it to the notch. This plane has a repaired handle, a not so fancy mortise, a lot of cracks, and on the opposite side of the plane, it's got a mouth plug. Prashun, I'd send it to you (so you could have a look at the mortise, bed, wear to get some measurements) but I don't think it's worth having to copy. It does feed well, though, it's a decent working plane.

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And the iron/cap iron:
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Fortunately, I&H sorby bears no relation to what robert sorby calls steel these days. This is one of the vintage crisp and dry feeling irons that raises a wire edge easily, wears evenly and lets go of the wire edge without tearing itself up.

Here are two planes I'm going to take considerations from. The front is a JT Brown of baltimore jointer, a lovely jointer to use, but limited by the fact that it's 50 degrees, single iron and the iron is a fast wearing butcher - something that would matter a lot less if it was sporting a cap iron. It is so nicely made, though, that I will never get rid of it.

The back plane is one of two I got from an MJD auction. I paid a MINT for those two planes ($185 with shipping) to find that martin couldn't be bothered to take a picture of the mouths. This one has been let open a little bit by a user a long time ago (it's tolerable, and the maker may have made it a bit too tight out of pride), and the other one just had a very large mouth to start. Both jointers will hit the road when I'm done with this jointer process. In spite of the mouth being let out a bit, this plane is nice to use, but I don't know what was done to it - it's over 10 pounds.

I like the handle on the JT brown jointer, it is just a superbly made plane all the way around (and almost 200 years old), with a super choice piece of beech, and a very tasteful handle with flat sides - the maker had the good sense to leave the sides faceted instead of just rounding them all off. I may copy this handle design. George had also provided a nice one, though this one would be a little bit easier (the aesthetics of what george provided are better, though).

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i realize that there are some who aren't going to get as excited about making an heirloom quality plane as I am, but with a stick of wood like this, the time it takes to make any plane, and the desire to do something nice, well...it's not going to be a throw away plane, a marginal performer or something looking full of shortcuts. I've made tools in the past that I wasn't that happy with, it turns into a waste of time.

Well, I'm going to make two of them actually, but we'll get through the first one first. UPS has a nicer stick yet of beech than this one (on its way to me), and the second one will be made from it. I'll give one of them away when I'm done, unless there's a fatal flaw with one.

[David Weaver]

Only a little work tonight. Thank goodness for bandsaws (though plane no 2, I will saw to size by hand, I feel a bit cheated)

Brought the stick closer to spec. with the flatsawn top and bottom - keep those, they'll be good wedge material because they should move the same amount as the plane body (in terms of how much they move laterally). A finished wedge is only about 5/8" thick. We will be precise about how the wedge fits - especially at the bottom of the abutments, so the closer the amount of movement is to the body, the better.

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I want the finish dimensions to be 28 long, 3 5/16 wide, and just a hair over 3" high, or right around there.

At this point, I can go just a tiny amount over the height (I don't have much fear over blowing it with the eyes, which is the only reason I'd keep the height overthick a little - you can get two shots at the eyes), or if you think you might do sloppy work and chip something out at the top of the mortise, if you leave yourself an extra eighth, that'll give you some room to clean it up. It also means extra work later, though, that I don't want.

I'll leave the plane a little wide because I want to cut the mortise and do the eyes to a pencil mark on the sides, but have some left over in case they get a bit wide. If I make the sides narrow right away and overshoot the eyes, they'll look uneven.

The stick itself - it is a really nice piece of wood. It will make a nice plane. I have to choose what is the front and what is the back based on the grain being higher in the front than the back. There's not much difference on this one, but in this picture if the front is at the left and the back at the right end of the stick, that'll be the best orientation.

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Like the cocobolo plane, I am using only a washita stone to sharpen. I did use the jasper on that plane to pare, but that was into the grain on cocobolo, just a bit too much for the level of sharpness a washita provides.

[Brian Holcombe]

Awesome. There is a beautiful quality to clear, straight grained, heavy lumber that I find irresistible. I think it is under appreciated in a world that admires wild grain.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Looking forward to it. Thank you for taking the time.

[Prashun Patel]

Looking forward to this.
I forgot to warn you about the aroma of any wood coming from me. I store it in my warehouse at work. We blend fragrance oils here. Any wood I take home tends to 'offgas' for a couple days a faint powder/musk odor. Fortunately, you didn't find it distasteful.

[David Weaver]

Fortunately, you didn't find it distasteful.

The blend that the beech took on has quite a nice smell, made my garage smell lovely It could be by chance that the combination smells like essential oil of tobacco, and I know not everyone likes that smell, either, but I think it's a great smell (the users of tabac shave soap think the same, even though our wives tell us we smell like old men).

That fragrant smell is fighting the good fight against the diaper genie, which is kept nearby. Yesterday, the diaper genie was winning, unfortunately.

[Prashun Patel]

Fortunately we don't use Skatol any more, otherwise both the beech and the Genie would be rowing in the same, unfortunate direction.

[Jim Matthews]

I think it is under appreciated in a world that admires wild grain.

You need only struggle with interlocking grain a first time to gain this insight.
Scraping an entire kitchen's worth of Birdseye maple made me appreciate good veneer.

[Jim Matthews]

... even though our wives tell us we smell like old men.

Is this observation made, on days when you have not shaven?
I believe the "old man smell" is brought on by the presence of things like diaper pails, and Transformers lunchboxes.

[Brian Holcombe]

Very true! I've been planing interlocking white oak and rock maple this week, so the 12/4 straight grained walnut I bought is looking really appealing to me right now. Every once in a while I stop and plane some straight grained white ash just to remember what it's like.

[Brian Holcombe]

I'll have to put a diffuser's worth of green irish tweed in the workshop in case I have guests.

[David Weaver]

Is this observation made, on days when you have not shaven?
I believe the "old man smell" is brought on by the presence of things like diaper pails, and Transformers lunchboxes.

It's made specifically on the days I use Tabac when I shave. I just looked it up, and my hopes are all dashed - it's not only tobacco oil, it's got other things that combine to make the old man smell.

[David Weaver]

I'll have to put a diffuser's worth of green irish tweed in the workshop in case I have guests.

I had to look it up to find out what that even is. I thought it might be something that you'd put on the outside of a suitcase, or that you'd make a hat out of!

[Brian Holcombe]

I had to look it up to find out what that even is. I thought it might be something that you'd put on the outside of a suitcase, or that you'd make a hat out of!

Hah, that it does. My wife hates it, dubbed it 'old man smell'.

[george wilson]

I have mentioned that my wife likes the way I smell when I use linseed oil. Strange!! She said it reminded her of the smell of her grand mother's closet. When she was a little girl,she'd go in there and set it up to be her "office",and pretend she was in business.

I have never cared to smell of linseed oil !! Especially when it gets old smelling.