Wooden planes

[Arron]

Hi. I have been buying up old wooden planes at a local flea market - mainly smoothing, moulding and dado planes. I intended to learn how to use them but found it almost impossible to consistently set the blade at the right depth. How do you do it ? I notice that most of them have bruising on the rear faces - where they have been hit pretty hard by hammers. Is that part of the process.

thanks
Arron

[bigAl]

Hi Arron,

Setting the blade on a wooden plane is pretty simple. Put the plane on a flat piece of wood, drop the blade into it and then give the wedge a tap to seat it. Hold the plane upside down and sight along its sole as usual to make sure the blade is square. Tap the blade on either side to adjust the blade angle or tap the back of the plane to make the cut finer. Whilst you're tapping, make sure you keep a finger holding the wedge in place.

Hope this helps

[Dan]

Have a look here http://www.hntgordon.com.au/bladesettingsmoothtry.htm ,the moulding planes might take a bit more practice. A small wooden mallet stops any damage to the plane body.