Tight mouths in wooden double iron planes.

[Kees Heiden]

Interesting that you use a rasp for the bed, not a float. I only have one real float, a sidefloat from LN, great tool after I sharpened it. I tried to make some floats myself but wasn't very succesfull. Now I use the sidefloat for almost everything, also for the bed. But I can see how a bedfloat would be very usefull. Liogier also makes them, a bit thicker then the LN ones, so not so good when you want to make a single iron plane with a tight mouth and a 3 mm thick iron. I don't have a rasp like that but I do have one of these Japanese Iwasaki rasps, nice tool but completely useless for this job. Nice for smoothing out the wear and breast surface though.

I don't know about needing a special temperament to make these planes. I see it as just another woodworking project. Finicky stuff for sure, and my planes don't turn out too perfectly. I make plenty of small silly mistakes, but end up with very usefull planes anyway. It helps that I use these fat 19th century irons with capirons, that makes the whole process a little more forgiving.

Oh, and I am afraid that I am not patient enough for tight mouths. The jointer I am working on started out with a less then 0.5 mm mouth, combined with a 45 degree bed and 83 degree wear. Crap! Instant clogging again. So I thought to myself: #&%>$!. And I opened the mouth a little to slightly less then a mm. Now it works like I want a plane to work. I probably should have increased the wear angle, but like I said, no patience.

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[george wilson]

Stewie,you do nice,neat work.

Kees,developing patience is what good craftsmanship is all about. I have made projects that took a whole year of unremitting hard daily work.

[Kees Heiden]

I've got time until Eastern to finish my 5 bench planes. After that I promissed to start on the batchroom cabinet.

That and I am not the most patient man on the world. Striving for the perfect mouth while my planes work just as well (or even better) with a slightly wider one isn't quite my cup of tea.

[Patrick Chase]

I think you are right, George. The plane (kanna) should be touching at three points - heel, mouth and toe. This is only touching at the heel and toe. Poor drawing?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Don't some Japanese planes (smoothers?) have two contact points, one at the toe and one just forward of the blade? Either way that diagram is wrong, just checking my understanding.

Thx,

Patrick

[george wilson]

I don't remember,nor do I care that much about any Japanese tools,really. I don't see the point of scraping their bottoms into hollows,either. It probably is said to relieve friction. But,I think a larger surface like a Western style plane would have no more friction since the load is distributed over the entire sole,if the wood is flat. And,the high spots would soon wear and you'd have to re dress the sole of the Japanese plane.

I remember the old aluminum coffee pot we used to have,with the aluminum strainer at the top where you put the coffee. There was a long tube up the center of the pot. In the center of the strainer was a slip fitted tube about 1 1/2" long. I would sometimes spin the empty strainer,holding the long tube horizontal. It was amazing how long that strainer would keep spinning. It had a large contact area with a very lightly distributed load on it.

[Stewie Simpson]

The wedge abutments have been mortised out; next up is to form the recessed slot within the blade bed for the rear cap iron retainer bolt. When completed, that will allow the double iron to slide down to its full bedded depth.

[Patrick Chase]

The wedge abutments have been mortised out; next up is to form the recessed slot within the blade bed for the rear cap iron retainer bolt. When completed, that will allow the double iron to slide down to its full bedded depth.

Wow, that is some seriously precise work.

[Kees Heiden]

Ho ho, let's wait with praise until it is finished, still plenty of scope to mess it up

Joking, I've got all the confidence in Stewies ability to make a nice plane. I'm looking forward to the end result and I am especially curious how your experience with the tight mouth will be.

[Stewie Simpson]

Kees; its a double iron smoother; if the mouth clearance end up being close to 1mm then that's okay with me.

[Kees Heiden]

Then you are in the same boat as I am. And in the same boat as Benjamin Seaton too, all his planes have a mouth around 1mm. The jacks slightly more, the smoother just a little less.

[Stewie Simpson]

Kees; changing the subject slightly. This species of Indian Rosewood I am using for the plane stock is full of nasty interlocking grain. Too heavy a hand with the chisel across the grain and it could spell real disaster. Its been slow work with the floats and rasps with most of the mortising out. The wedge stock is straight grained Merbau.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Stewie, and that Indian rosewood is gorgeous. The only Indian rosewood I've come across in that quality has always been in veneer form, nice to see that you have access to some heavy stock in that quality range.

The type I come across is always farm grown and leaves a lot to be desired.

[Stewie Simpson]

Thanks Brian; I purchased 10ft @ 4" x 4" DAR of East Indian Rosewood a few years ago for some plane making stock.

[Stewie Simpson]

Completed the recessed slot within the bed for the rear cap iron retainer bolt; I mentioned using a chalking technique to fine tune the fit of the wedge within its abutments. You want to end up with a chalk transfer mark showing full length on both abutments. This technique is not restricted to new plane builds, as it can be used on older wooden planes to validate the wedge fit. On a new build I would suggest you remove the top sharp corners formed on both abutments so as to avoid later fracture of these corners when freeing the wedge. No further progress till after the weekend.

[Mike Holbrook]

Steve Knight had an interesting way to make an adjustable/replacable mouth for wood planes. This is the mouth on a Jack I made from some parts I got from him.

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