Wooden Jointer

[Allan Speers]

I have found some antique wooden planes like new over the years. I'd rather have them than most new ones.Their wood is by now about as stable as it's ever going to be. And,if you plug up the throat at the bottom with some soft window putty,while the plane is clamped to a flat board,you can pour several escapements full of RAW linseed oil,and further stabilize and add weight to the wood. I have had the oil bleed all the way through long jointers many times. I made many trips to the flea markets starting in the early 70's,buying tools for myself,and a succession of shop employees in my and other shops in the museum. I never,ever had any ill effects from filling the planes with raw linseed oil. Did it harden way down inside the wood? It doesn't matter. It hardened completely on every surface exposed to air,preventing any unhardened oil from ever EVER seeping out. If and did seep out,it hardened too. But,I never saw and oily spots where the planes were kept after they had had a few weeks to harden up.

If you try this,take my word and ONLY use rather sticky window putty. It is the best stuff I ever found for keeping the oil from leaking.(It DOES leak a little). But,don't try tape! You could probably pour a little epoxy down into the throat. But,that is going to be trouble to get loose later,and you might damage the throat. I got this trick from old Mr. Simms(whose toolbox remnants Roy had on his show).(A miracle anything survived in the hands of his clumsy,hippie son!)

This is good advice.

What I do is put a few planes at one time into a shallow, rectagular plastic box (like they make for tool & office supply storage) then just full it up with the oil.

I dunno though if raw or boiled is best. I guess that's a never-ending argument.

One thing: Make sure your throat opening is perfect before oiling. Obviously, it if needs any tweaking or an insert, you want to do that first.

[Michael Ray Smith]

We had a booth at an antique mall for a while. From our experience, the only people who make money at an antique mall are the people who own the mall. Typically, malls charge monthly rent, generally based on the number of square feet in the booth, and they take a percentage of the sales. The balance between those two varies from mall to mall, some being high on rent and low on percentage of sales, others vice versa.

Generally the people at the desk aren't dealers; they're the mall owners or they work for the mall owners. Mall owners have different arrangements with the dealers regarding the authority to haggle. Some malls have carte blanche to agree to drop the price by a certain amount, but beyond that they have to call the booth owner. A typical amount is 10%, so always, always, always ask if they'll take 10% off, even if you'd be willing to pay the marked price. Others can't do anything without calling the dealer. If the person at the desk tries to say something like, "I don't have authority to do that," ask them to call the dealer. Sometimes malls will call dealers only if you make a firm offer; they won't call just to ask what's the best price they'll give. Also, most mall owners will not stay on the phone and play go-between for you to haggle with the dealer. Most of them will take one offer from you, and then will relay one counteroffer from the dealer. But if you make a firm offer, very few dealers will just tell you to take a hike, so make your offer fairly aggressive -- try about 50% of the marked price. Sometimes the mall owner won't get the dealer on the phone first time but will leave a message. If that happens, be patient and offer to stick around for a while to see if the dealer calls back. Ultimately, the price you can get will depend on how much the dealer paid for the item and how long it's been in the booth. If you've seen the same item in the booth over a period of a few weeks or months, you've more likely to get a good deal.

[steven c newman]

$125 for a wood bodied Jointer plane? I happen to have a "spare" Scioto Works #81....more than happy to sell it for half of the $125......
IMAG0104.jpg
Refurbished up and ready to go, too. 22" long.

[george wilson]

Raw oil is best simply because raw oil does not dry as fast,giving it time to completely penetrate the plane before it dries. What controversy can there be about that?

WE eventually began using tung oil on our wooden tools because it does not permit mold to grow on it. Linseed does. Some of the tools in the museum are kept in unheated sheds year round.

Tung oil dries even slower than raw linseed oil. I never liked it as well,myself. I liked the smell of the linseed better(not that tung oil smells bad),and tung just seemed messier to use. Too "oily",if that makes any sense. Seemed more prone to end up just getting everywhere.

And,last,but not least,my wife liked the smell of linseed oil on me! I don't care for the smell myself,but it was a smell from her childhood that had pleasant memories for her. Her grand mother's closet had that smell. When she was small,my wife would go in there and set it up like an office and pretend she was a secretary,or some such.

[Allan Speers]

Raw oil is best simply because raw oil does not dry as fast,giving it time to completely penetrate the plane before it dries. What controversy can there be about that?

Well, because BLO also soaks all the way through, long before it starts to cure. I know this for sure, because I once tests with a really beat plane body that I was going to throw way. I let it soak for a while (I don't remember how long, but probably overnight) then let it ooze out & dry, then cut it open.

It seems to me (conjecture now) that having cured BLO inside the plane would make it less prone to movement than raw oil, though maybe there's no real difference in actual use. Wood movement is pretty powerful.