Thread: Block Plane Selection and Rehabilitation

And degrease with mineral spirits followed by strong trichloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen, so here I wear gloves, which are also necessary to keep my oily fingerprints out of the blued finish.



I then cold blue the parts using phosphate blue (Brownells.com). This solution hides rust staining, inhibits further rust, but most importantly is an index dye for the critical stages of flattening irons and soles.



Before sharpening I check my stones for flat using 60-grit wet-or-dry paper on a precision-ground, cast-iron surface like this jointer table. A couple strokes done dry allows sighting down the stone to find any hollows still shining amid the stone dust made by the abrasive paper, If I have to flatten the stone I use kerosene as a lube and rub the stone till until I have a perfectly flat surface. I’ll never get a good edge without perfectly-flat iron backs, and I’ll never achieve flat backs without flat stones.



As you can see by the indexing blue remaining after initial honing of the backs, all of these irons will require more work on the coarse stone to make the blue near the cutting edge disappear. If the iron back isn’t dead flat at the cutting edge, the high spots with blue remaining don’t get as sharp and don’t attack the wood uniformly…the plane drags in use, and the cuts aren’t clean.



Common after flattening these old irons is to wind up with high spots at the corners of the cutting edge that simply won’t go away.



I could simply grind the iron back a few millimeters, but this iron doesn’t have much life left so I simply hone a slight back bevel or 2 degrees or less into iron’s back until the blue at the corners disappears.



This blued iron is adequately flat far enough back to accommodate a number of quick resharpenings without having to mount another major attack on the back.

Continued....

Once more to the jointer table with 60-grit, I attack the plane soles. First I mount the iron and set the adjustable mouth to the position in which it will be used the most often, and then remove the iron to flatten the entire sole assembly. You can see how badly this Sargent’s sole is out of flat by the index dye remaining. This one is pretty bad, and will take two sheets of 60-grit followed by a sheet of 100-grit to make true.



Few are as bad as that Sargent, but when they are that bad, keep in mind that soles don’t have to be absolutely perfect like iron backs do. Just the toe, both sides of the mouth and heel need to be in the same plane to do fine work. In fact, Japanese planes are purposely set up with hollows in between my ink marks to reduce friction. Much of the chattering experienced woodworkers complain about in Stanleys isn’t because the iron is dull, but because the critical area behind the mouth is in a hollow and is unsupported by the work piece. Indexing dye makes a huge difference in how well you flatten. If you aren’t using it, you may not be flattening as well as you think.



I’ll do some trial work using three fettled planes. From the left, a stock #60 ½ I just finished above, my old standby #65, and a near-new Lie Nielsen #60 ½ low-angle rabbeting block plane. I checked out and finish-honed the L/N using the above techniques… that took all of 10 minutes….these are as close to perfect as you can get.



My 15-dollar #60 ½ has its stock carbon iron ($6.00), my #65 a thicker Hock carbon replacement iron ($35.00), and the L/N a thicker-still iron of A2 steel ($150.00 complete). The L/N is one heavy block plane….two or three ounces heavier than my large #65. Better in a leather holster than an apron pocket.



I set the mouths up for combination work removing both end grain and long grain hardwood. One of the limitations of this model L/N is that the mouth is a bit tight for heavy cuts in boatbuilding softwoods, placing it at a disadvantage…so I’m using White Oak instead.



The stock, 70-year-old #60 ½ had no trouble at all making end grain cuts in White Oak.

Continued....

Neither did the pre-war #65 with Hock iron.



Nor did the L/N. I even tried my stock, standard-angle #18 on the far right on the oak end grain and it pared it adequately too….just not as effortlessly as the low-angle models.



Will the stock #60 ½ take full-width shavings of tough oak edge grain? You bet.



So will the #65…



…as will the L/N…



…but here’s where the stock #18 shines. As cheap as the old, standard-angle block planes go for, don’t be without a #18 or #9 ½ to match your low-angle #65 or #60 ½. In the middle of a project you’ll sharpen half as often.

How long will the different makes of iron stay sharp? L/N's A2 steel with chromium and
molybdenum added is tougher and will hold its edge longer. The only down side to A2 is that it doesn’t take quite the edge that good carbon does. Not by much though, and after a couple hours of work dulling both, I can barely tell the difference. But when freshly honed I can feel a difference, and if I were to go to A2 irons I’d try diamond paste on an indexing plate instead of stones. My ideal remains Hock carbon, but as you can see, I stumble along just fine with stock Stanley..

And as a rabbet plane, this L/N hasn’t enough depth for anything deeper than a quarter inch, although it would work well as a shoulder plane for crossgrain work on small tenons. If you need a rabbet plane, buy a rabbet plane. An inexpensive, old Stanley #78, Record #078 or Miller Falls #80 can be made to work as well as the #60 ½ here. Let my friend Jake Darvall in Australia teach you how to fettle them:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...hlight=stanley



These fettling techniques apply equally well to modern, store-bought Stanleys, which can also be made to work well with about an hour's attention. But the oldies are cheaper, and were made better. When selecting tools for boatbuilding, keep in mind that teaching yourself to clean, flatten and sharpen can free up the money you need for all those other tools you need but don’t yet have.






Additional detail on sharpening, bluing and fettling is found here:

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl#smalser

http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulleti...ad.php?t=48786

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl

Excellent write-up Bob, thanks for the effort!

Greetings Bob,

Not far from you, well, at least in the same state. Great start to finish, detailed round up of getting iron to perform again, and perhaps tuned up better than they ever had been in their prior life.

Can't agree more with your comment regarding:

...."When selecting tools for boatbuilding, keep in mind that teaching yourself to clean, flatten and sharpen can free up the money you need for all those other tools you need but don’t yet have....."

Great, write up.

Cheers,

Walnutty

I hate to be a pedantic bastard, but wouldn't the spots on the blade be 'low spots' rather than 'high spots'? Great write-up, regardless!

They're high spots in relation to the stone

Originally Posted by silentC

They're high spots in relation to the stone

And the sole and work piece.

But thanks, if you had that thought, others will, and it can stand some wordsmithing before it goes final.

Great post Bob. Many thanks.

an enjoyable read,

many thanks.

Thanks Bob, yet another great post.

Thanks for an interesting and informative post, it's these posts that really provide the forum with some oomph and meat.

John

Excellent commentary, Bob, and much appreciated. Pretty slick photography, too.