Thread: Refurbishing an early wooden Jack Plane.

At 6.30pm I checked on the progress of the hide glue hardening, and made the decision that it was good enough to proceed with the 2 coats of garnet shellac. After application, the shellac was then buffed to a pleasant sheen using a cutting paste. All done by 8.00pm. The refurbishment has now been completed. I will hopefully get some time tomorrow to post a couple of photo's of wood shavings from this Jack Plane.

In 1 1/2 hours of work, I was able to go from this;



to this;





regards Stewie;

Originally Posted by NCArcher

Stewie, what is powder tinted DO? Is the powder just to lighten the colour or does it provide additional wear resistance to the DO by itself? And what type of powder?

NCArcher; I will forward you those details via pm sometime tomorrow.

regards Stewie;

I was in the workshop early this morning to test out this Jack Planes performance. The wood chosen was to work was Australian Blackwood. A moderately dense hardwood by Australian standards, with characteristic pockets of reverse grain. Australian Blackwood | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwoods)

The double iron was set to take a reasonably heavy cut. Loads of curly shavings were soon exiting the throat of the plane, with no backlog of shavings apparent at the mouth opening. Excellent results.



The following shows the planed surface of the timber worked. A couple of areas of reverse grain tear out, but heck, the focus is not to end up with a perfect finish using this Jack Planes cambered iron set up. That's the follow up role of the Try and Smoothing Plane.



The final photo shows a size comparison between this Jack Plane, and the Mathieson & Sons Try Plane I recently refurbished.



regards Stewie;

Stewie,

Do you prefer the open or closed handles on these wooden planes?

Cheers,
Zac.

Zac; that comes down to the forward weight and length of the wooden bench plane. The longer and slightly heavier Try Plane, as an example, is better suited to the closed handle design. The design of a closed handle is structurally much stronger than that offered by an open handle to accommodate that extra weight. In similar terms, its no different to the type of handle you would fit to a backsaw that exceeds a certain length. Its about what shape of handle would best support that forward weight.

regards Stewie;