Wood hand plane care

[Reed Gray]

I went to the local Woodcraft store last week, searching for wood hand plane kits. My friend there sent me to a second hand store, telling me they had a bunch of plane irons for sale. So, I go to the store, and in the front window, he had a bunch of wood planes, including some jointer planes, and I told him I would never put them in direct sun light as that would cause more cracking. I was correct on that right?

As a side note, I got 6 plane irons with chip breakers for $10 each. None of the names I recognized. Spear and Jackson, DR Barton, Aaron Hildick, W Butcher, and Charles Buck. I figured I almost stole the blades at that price.

robo hippy

[Edward Weber]

Speaking only for myself, I wouldn't put them in direst sunlight if I could avoid it.
I'm not familiar with the name Aaron Hildick, but all the others are reputable names.

[Jim Koepke]

Be thankful you weren't arrested.

That was a pretty good price if the blades can be put in service.

jtk

[Edward Weber]

I did look up Aaron Hildick, Sheffield tool maker that was a precurser to Henry Taylor tools
https://progress-is-fine.blogspot.co...n-hildick.html

[David Carroll]

I use wooden planes quite a bit, some old ones and some new. What I see most often with old ones (aside from dirt, paint spots, wormholes and endgrain checking) are the escapements shrinking around the irons, or a different iron forced in, causings cracking at the thin spots in the cheeks. If this is the case some glue worked into the crack and some judicious filing on the edges of the iron so it fits sweetly is in order. Some of the old planes I have picked up have wedges that weren't original to the plane, they worked, but weren't fitted well. If it doesn't fit well it will pop out just when you don't want it to. Some fitting here might be in order. I glued sandpaper to a flat surface (granite tile) and rubbed the wedge on the paper to remove the high spots and correct the angle.

One idea that I once read and tried is to take an old plane, stop up the mouth with window putty or modeling clay and fill the escapement with linseed oil (boiled I think). Keep filling it until it doesn't soak it in any more. This is a great idea if you want to double the weight of the plane, turn it black, and spend the rest of your life wiping ooze off of the ends of the plane.

But it is worth carefully inspecting it, cleaning and carefully truing up the bed where the iron sits, if it is dinged up at all. Then all that's left is to make sure the sole is acceptably flat and the mouth isn't gaping. For a Jack plane (or fore-plane) this isn't too much of a concern, but if its a jointer (try plane) or a smoother then the mouth should be tight. If the plane has been flattened repeatedly then the mouth can open as the gap follows the angle of the front edge of the escapement. I have a plane that had an insert inlayed into the sole to close up a too big mouth and I have an ECE block plane that needs this treatment.

For sole flattening (again probably not so necessary for a jack or fore plane) I have used sandpaper on a flat surface (surface plate, powered joiner table, etc). and for smaller planes I just trued it up with a known flat plane (take extremely fine cuts). Sometimes I have just tested the sole with a good straightedge and just scraped off the high spots. To be honest, none of my new woodies have needed any work on the soles at all. Even the 30-inch jointer (try plane) I got from Clark and Williams back before they were Old Street Tool.

I'm sure others will chime in to point out my errors, but that's what I have done and it works. Good luck with yours.

DC

[Eric Brown]

I use wooden planes quite a bit, some old ones and some new. What I see most often with old ones (aside from dirt, paint spots, wormholes and endgrain checking) are the escapements shrinking around the irons, or a different iron forced in, causings cracking at the thin spots in the cheeks. If this is the case some glue worked into the crack and some judicious filing on the edges of the iron so it fits sweetly is in order. Some of the old planes I have picked up have wedges that weren't original to the plane, they worked, but weren't fitted well. If it doesn't fit well it will pop out just when you don't want it to. Some fitting here might be in order. I glued sandpaper to a flat surface (granite tile) and rubbed the wedge on the paper to remove the high spots and correct the angle.

One idea that I once read and tried is to take an old plane, stop up the mouth with window putty or modeling clay and fill the escapement with linseed oil (boiled I think). Keep filling it until it doesn't soak it in any more. This is a great idea if you want to double the weight of the plane, turn it black, and spend the rest of your life wiping ooze off of the ends of the plane.

But it is worth carefully inspecting it, cleaning and carefully truing up the bed where the iron sits, if it is dinged up at all. Then all that's left is to make sure the sole is acceptably flat and the mouth isn't gaping. For a Jack plane (or fore-plane) this isn't too much of a concern, but if its a jointer (try plane) or a smoother then the mouth should be tight. If the plane has been flattened repeatedly then the mouth can open as the gap follows the angle of the front edge of the escapement. I have a plane that had an insert inlayed into the sole to close up a too big mouth and I have an ECE block plane that needs this treatment.

For sole flattening (again probably not so necessary for a jack or fore plane) I have used sandpaper on a flat surface (surface plate, powered joiner table, etc). and for smaller planes I just trued it up with a known flat plane (take extremely fine cuts). Sometimes I have just tested the sole with a good straightedge and just scraped off the high spots. To be honest, none of my new woodies have needed any work on the soles at all. Even the 30-inch jointer (try plane) I got from Clark and Williams back before they were Old Street Tool.

I'm sure others will chime in to point out my errors, but that's what I have done and it works. Good luck with yours.

DC

Don't wan to hijack the thread too much, but have you ever seen/heard of someone using Osage-Orange for a wooden hand plane?

[Richard Coers]

Sunlight doesn't cause wood cracking. If it ain't cracked in the last 50 years, I really doubt if that window location will damage them. In most thrift stores, you can buy an entire wood body hand plane for that $10

[Edward Weber]

Sunlight doesn't cause wood cracking. If it ain't cracked in the last 50 years, I really doubt if that window location will damage them. In most thrift stores, you can buy an entire wood body hand plane for that $10

Radient heat from sitting in a window can further dry out the body, this can lead to cracking. This depends on the environment and the MC of the plane when it was put in the window.
It probably won't cause a catastrophic failure but it's not good practice.
Just because old wooden planes stand up to years of use and abuse, there's no reason to subject them to more.
JMO

[Reed Gray]

I would guess that sun on the outside of the plane would dry out the outside much more. The inside will stay stable at a higher moisture content, which creates stress, which is relieved by cracking. All of the blades I got will be put back into service and are in really good condition.

As for Osage, if I had some, I would try it out. It should work fine. It isn't often available commercially. Hmm, I may have a board of it around some where in my shop.

robo hippy

[Jim Koepke]

I would guess that sun on the outside of the plane would dry out the outside much more. …

robo hippy

+1 on that.

jtk

[David Carroll]

Don't wan to hijack the thread too much, but have you ever seen/heard of someone using Osage-Orange for a wooden hand plane?

It seems to me I have heard about people making planes out of Osage Orange. But I don't remember if it worked out well or not. But I am pretty much a traditionalist, so I tend to think that since beech and in the USA Yellow Birch is so prevalent, that there must be a good reason for it and tend to think that planes made of the traditional woods are likely best. That said, I made a drawer bottom groove plane out of QS walnut, with ebony boxing and it works like a charm and has for 20 years.

DC