Thread: Hints on using a Stanely Plane

Nice find, good to see there is no overthinking on the sharpening. Set bevel, sharpen, strop, done. Transfer the weight on the plane as you move through the stroke and finish on the left foot. Perhaps that will be right foot for left handers. Simple.

Two names that would be worth researching..
David Charlesworth for planing technique, no other tutor comes anywhere close in teaching the basics of precision woodworking IMO, especially planing, and you will likely not pick up bad habits, he is honest, thorough, and conveys information so well, compared to other folks.


And for setting your plane up, David W (Weaver) as in.. if you wish to plane anything under the sun with unbeatable results, without anything fancy needed.
You won't find much at all from anyone else in regards to using the close set cap iron.
Not by the big or well known names, one or two other folks have videos on it, but those are not comprehensive enough.


I could mention other names, but those two guys stand out to me by a long shot.

p.s I forgot to mention of a good lamp with at least a 7.5" shade, like an angle poise lamp like this

Good luck
Tom

Hi, would the P54 at the bottom of the last page indicate a publication date of 1954?

Cheers,
Geoff.

One tip not mentioned in Stanley's little flier is that you should aim for hitting your final setting on the plane iron by pushing it out, not retracting it. There's a bit of play in the mechanism, and it's good to have it taken up, so that the iron is not inadvertently shoved back a bit. Same principle as always doing final tuning of the strings on your guitar, banjo, mandolin, or zither UP rather than DOWN in pitch.

Thanks for posting that.

Could be. I was basing my 1950's estimate on the last page where it states "In 1869...more than 80 years ago" which I read to mean that the plane and "hints" doc must be made after 1949.

Originally Posted by Boringgeoff

Hi, would the P54 at the bottom of the last page indicate a publication date of 1954?

Cheers,
Geoff.

One corroboration of your estimated 1949 date (apart from if your dad bought it new, which should nail it), would be what wood is used for the handles. If it's stained Beech, it's pretty certainly post-WW2...

The old shibboleth about taking up any slack with the adjuster after backing-off set is very persistent. It seems logical, and the practice was drummed very firmly into us by the ex-cabinetmaker teacher we had in school. For donkeys' years thereafter, I religiously observed the rule and never had a blade slip back even when planing hard or knotty wood. Being of a curious nature, I decided to put it to the test about a dozen years or more ago, and started leaving the adjuster wherever it was when I had the plane cutting at the setting I was aiming for. I've still not had a blade slip out of set even under pretty tough conditions. My conclusion is that the lever-cap does a very satisfactory job of holding the blade in place on all of the 4 Bailey style planes I regularly use. Of course that's a very small sample size & doesn't exclude the possibility that the LC won't hold he blade on some planes. You might also accuse me of having my LCs excessively tight, but I don't think I do - I like to be able to adjust depth of cut easily 'on the fly', so I keep the pressure to the minimum that allows easy adjustment....

Just something to muse about the next time you are taking up the slack on your Bailey. If you have any like my old type 11 5 1/2, which has about 2 1/2 turns of backlash, it could save a deal of finger-twiddling...

Cheers,

By the way, jaded62, I thought it was worthwhile adding your file to the "sticky" thread on handplane info - it will be easier to find there in future.

Unfortunately, I haven't got Adobe pro so I couldn't edit the pdf. to stand the pages upright, but it's easy to do once you open the file....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

One corroboration of your estimated 1949 date (apart from if your dad bought it new, which should nail it), would be what wood is used for the handles. If it's stained Beech, it's pretty certainly post-WW2...

The old shibboleth about taking up any slack with the adjuster after backing-off set is very persistent. It seems logical, and the practice was drummed very firmly into us by the ex-cabinetmaker teacher we had in school. For donkeys' years thereafter, I religiously observed the rule and never had a blade slip back even when planing hard or knotty wood. Being of a curious nature, I decided to put it to the test about a dozen years or more ago, and started leaving the adjuster wherever it was when I had the plane cutting at the setting I was aiming for. I've still not had a blade slip out of set even under pretty tough conditions. My conclusion is that the lever-cap does a very satisfactory job of holding the blade in place on all of the 4 Bailey style planes I regularly use. Of course that's a very small sample size & doesn't exclude the possibility that the LC won't hold he blade on some planes. You might also accuse me of having my LCs excessively tight, but I don't think I do - I like to be able to adjust depth of cut easily 'on the fly', so I keep the pressure to the minimum that allows easy adjustment....

Just something to muse about the next time you are taking up the slack on your Bailey. If you have any like my old type 11 5 1/2, which has about 2 1/2 turns of backlash, it could save a deal of finger-twiddling...

Cheers,

This probably has more to do with the amount of friction applied by your lever cap than there being no play left in the adjuster.
Normally I wouldn't be brave enough to contradict you, since I'm still aspiring to be called an amateur some day.
I'm going to anyway though, because when I first started using my Stanley planes, with little more than a few videos to guide me, I noticed my blade retracting into the plane as I was using it and wasn't at all aware of the practice of taking up the slack in the adjuster.
This lead to a very frustrating afternoon, followed by an evening of feverish googling and youtube trawling. Once I picked up this trick, my problem went away.

Well, my problem with the blade slipping back into the plane at least...

At this stage of my woodworking journey I wouldn't know Beech from a beach.

Originally Posted by IanW

One corroboration of your estimated 1949 date (apart from if your dad bought it new, which should nail it), would be what wood is used for the handles. If it's stained Beech, it's pretty certainly post-WW2...

Soundwave, never be afraid to question my opinions, I ain't no oracle!

I think I covered myself by saying I have no problems with slipping blades in any of my current Bailey type planes whether or not I take up slack in the adjusters. I have no doubt the problem has/does occur, hence the injunction passed on to me as a 12 yr old, 63 years ago, and to many more plane users since.

In making & fettling planes I've struck my share of blades that slipped, be they retained by lever caps or wedges. It can most certainly be a frustrating experience & it can sometimes take a good deal of time to diagnose exactly what the problem is. I will claim that so far, I've been able to (eventually) figure out a cause & get the blade to stay put under reasonable LC or wedge pressure, though it has often taken me much trial & error to arrive at the cause(s).

A problem I've encountered more than once with Stanley/Record lever caps is that the locking cam gets worn (or was poorly shaped to begin with in the case of a very cheap Stanley I bought in my early days when I still thought "Stanley" meant decent quality!). The profile of the cam should be shaped so that as you press it home & it goes "over centre" to lock, it remains tight. If badly worn, it may tighten as it should for about 3/4 of its arc, then loosens slightly over that last bit. Sometimes you can fix the problem by a bit of judicious filing of the cam to restore the right profile (do this with great caution, it's very easy to take too much off the wrong area), but if it's too worn, or damaged, replacing it is a better bet - until relatively recent times, & possibly still, you could buy replacement cams from Stanley at a very reasonable price.

Several planes I've made had slipping blade problems to start with, and all turned out to be due either to some irregularity in the bed, or a problem with the lever-cap or wedge, & soon fixed once the cause was correctly diagnosed, but on one of my early infills it took an entire afternoon just to establish the actual cause!

So I'm not claiming blades never slip.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Jaded62

At this stage of my woodworking journey I wouldn't know Beech from a beach.

Fair enough. If you can post a couple of decent pics we will probably be able to tell you which wood it is. It would have to be pre-1940 to have rosewood, and all the signs point to it being post-WW2, so I think it's unlikely. It was just a suggestion, as another way to corroborate its age....
Cheers.

Here you go.

Originally Posted by IanW

Fair enough. If you can post a couple of decent pics we will probably be able to tell you which wood it is. It would have to be pre-1940 to have rosewood, and all the signs point to it being post-WW2, so I think it's unlikely. It was just a suggestion, as another way to corroborate its age....
Cheers.

Front.jpgBack.jpg

Beech (99.5% confidence limit).

Not as nice in the hand as rosewood, but waaay better than plastic! I'd clean off that chipped varnish, give 'em a good rub-down with steel wool & apply a good dose of a drying oil (any brand, according to your personal preferences). Then use it lots & after a year or two they'll look & feel almost as good as rosewood...

Cheers,

Screwing threads into compression is pretty much a universal practice when the thread is used to set, adjust or fine tune anything, in music, woodworking, surveying, etc. Its a good habit to form, usually doesn't take any extra time and if it does that little time lost generally pales compared to the time potentially lost correcting any errors, etc.

One area I have always found problematic with the blade retracting back into the plane body is when shooting end grain on hard to very hard woods if you get to greedy.