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  1. #1
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    Default A pseudo-badger plane

    Many of the regulars in this section of the Forum will probably know what a "Badger" plane is, it's a type of panel plane, which has a canted blade that sticks out through a small gap on one side (usually the right side, but "paired" badgers are known, one with a left-peeking blade, t'other with it coming out the right side). One authority I read thinks it was invented in Scotland, but admitted that was a guess, based on the oldest known examples of known origin. They were made in both wood & metal-bodied form.

    What's supposed to be so good about them is that the blade is not only canted over to make a single-sided rebate, but skewed, and this is said to make them a super panel plane, able to plane the tops & fielding of panels with & across the grain with equal facility. Now I really love my panel plane I made a couple of years ago, so the thought that it could be even better is too tempting to ignore, & I've been cooking up plans to build a badgered version for the last year or so.

    I've got as far as starting to get the bits together, but it's a big job, taking me into territory I haven't visited yet, so in the meantime, I thought it might be a good idea to have a dress rehearsal, using some leftovers & scraps & make something similar. I had a blade intended for a rebate-style block plane, so instead of canting the blade, I thought I'd just keep it straight & bring the lower part through the side like a regular rebate plane, but on one side only.

    Most of last Friday was spent drawing up some plans, making a cap-iron for the blade, and cutting out some of the parts. 1 Parts.jpg

    Then I decided on a change of plans - I wanted to skew the blade. After all, if this is going to be a rehearsal for the panel plane, I need to sort out a skewed blade. Fortunately, I'd made my sides with a generous mid-section hump, & a quick check with some bits of wood & the blade indicated I could accomodate a skewed blade & still have room to pivot the lever cap.

    So next morning, the first order of business was to scribe the side tails on the sole & get them fitted. Then I marked out the mouth and added a blade-block (or "chatter-block" as it's sometimes called). I cut out the block & filed he bevel to the blade-bed angle (47.5 degrees, the slightly higher angle being chosen to give me more room to fit a handle in the short body), then riveted in place against the back line of the mouth: 3 Blade block b.jpg 2 Blade block a.jpg

    With the blade-block in place, I cut & filed the mouth (leaving the front a bit tight to allow for finessing when fettling at the end: 4 Mouth cut out.jpg

    Next I cut a gap in the right side for the blade: 4a Side cutout.jpg

    Then the plane was assembled on a peening block 5 Ready to peen.jpg

    And half an hour later, it was more or less banged together 6 Peened.jpg

    At that point my elbow was telling me it had had enough fr the day, so the dog & I went for a long walk......
    IW

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  3. #2
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    This morning, I went to the shed feeling fine & fresh, and went over my peened dovetails once more. After that, it was an hour of RSI-nducing filing to level everything 8 Body ready.jpg7 Body ready a.jpg

    The next job was to modify my blade/cap-iron assembly to take account of the skewed mouth. You can calculate the angle needed on the blade if you remember enough of your technical drawing, but my memory has faded in the 60 plus years since I did any of that at school, so I took the easy way & put he blade in my now assembled body and scribed it directly. A few minutes on the grinder and I had the blade sorted. Then it was over to the cap-iron. I thought I would have to try & re-bend it, but on a hunch, I just went at it with files and was able to re-shape it quite convincingly - you'd never know it started out being a straight cap-iron! 10 Blade b.jpg 9 Blade a.jpg

    That was a relief, I'd been fretting about that overnight - it was the last bit of 2.5mm stainless plate I had & I didn't want to have to use the 3.2mm that I do have, because it's just too bulky for small blades.

    A bit of trimming of the side gap and the blade assembly fits nicely where it's intended: 11 Blade in place.jpg

    Time to think about stuffing. I'm running dangerously low on suitable material for plane stuffing, but found some bits of Blackwood that I thought would suit:
    12 Wood for stuffing.jpg

    I roughed out the bits for the handle end, to make sure it was ok (it was, just - there is a small punky bit on the bottom of the bit I'll cut the handle from, but it will be glued inside between the cheek pieces & cause me no grief, I hope). I managed to cut out & fit the front bun (I'm "over-stuffing" this plane), and that was it for today.
    13 Front bun in.jpg

    I had to have a little drive-by gloat & include the little shoulder-plane & thumb-plane I was using to fit he stuffing - they are very useful little planes, especially for making more planes......

    Cheers,
    IW

  4. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanW View Post
    This morning, I went to the shed feeling fine & fresh, so the first job was to modify my blade/cap-iron assembly to take account of the skewed mouth. You can calculate the angle needed on the blade if you remember enough of your technical drawing, but my memory as
    i think something may have gone wrong in the last post as it seems to be incomplete. You’re killing me Ian, this plane I am super excited about and can’t wait to see the work in progress commentary and pics!

    ... ah seems to be resolved now, may have been how I was viewing it (my phone).

    Looking great! I’m curious Ian, I can find too much text on badger planes, do you know what the benefits are over say a panel plane?

  5. #4
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    Default Even slower progress

    Spent most of the day fooling with my plane, but not a lot of visible progress to show for it.

    The first job was to cut out the handle and cheeks for the rear stuffing. I shaped the handle to fairly close to finished, and prepared the two side-cheeks: M1.jpg

    Almost cut one the wrong way when my brain did a flip when I turned it over to mark the skew angle on it prior to sawing the blade angle. Blending the bottom of the grip into sides & sole has to wait til the cheeks are glued on. The tops of the cheeks & sides of the handle have to be finished & fine-sanded before before glueing, because you can't get at them conveniently once they are stuck together. I clamped the cheeks to the handle piece and smeared the junction area with paste wax to make it easy to remove the glue squeeze-out: M2.jpg

    Then the three pieces were glued and clamped, and checked 5 times to make sure nothing squirmed under the clamps. Araldite has zero tack until it starts to go off, and I've had so many things move a bit after I think everything is ok. So I checked it several times until the bit of residue had started to firm up, then I could relax.

    While the glue was setting, I turned to the lever cap. There are some compound angle to deal with here, thanks to the skewed blade, so I made a fairly accurate wooden mock-up to make sure I had the angles sorted. First, I had to make a temporary blade bed so I could sit he blade in place while checking the fit of the lever-cap: M3.jpg

    Then I made the LC and adjusted it until I reckoned it was all in order: M5.jpg

    The geometry is sort of complex if you try to think it out too much, but actually fairly simple. The sides of the LC must be angled so it sits neatly between the sides when it is flat on the blade. This means the underside of the LC remains flat. The end only needs to be skewed to match the blade angle, it doesn't (or shouldn't!) need any additional shaping to contact the cap-iron evenly. It looks good on the mock-up: M4.jpg

    The only catch is the pivot points must be co-axial, or the LC won't rotate in an arc parallel with the sides. It will need some careful setting out, and even more careful drilling & tapping. I think I have it worked out in my mind, but the reality may be something else! We'll see - might be $20 worth of brass about to be converted into scrap metal.

    At this point I'd run out of day again & it was time to take the dog for her run, so that was all I managed - doesn't seem like much, but I was busy for all of the 6 hours or so I spent in the shed (or I thought I was). Tomorrow, I will clean up the rear stuffing get it to fit it in place, which will take a while as I intend "over-stuffing" which requires some very careful fitting. Then I can set the wood in the plane. The only major job after that is this lump of 1/2 inch brass into something that looks a bit more like a lever cap: M6.jpg

    Final clean-up & fettling always takes longer than I think it will, so don't expect to see any shavings before Wednesday evening, at the earliest...

    Cheers,
    IW

  6. #5
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    Ian,

    Another fantastic read thank you,

    One question 47.5 degrees now without sounding like a smart bottom(I think you know what I mean)
    An I’ve seen this referenced in other writings on hand planes,does .5 degrees make a difference??

    It seems a small amount say from 47 too 48 degrees.

    Cheers Matt.

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    Matt, I think most folks would struggle to tell the difference between 45 ("standard pitch") and 50 degrees ("York pitch"). I know I would, under 99% of situations. A 2.5 degree difference? For me, no chance!

    OK, so perhaps you deserve an explanation. The plane is pitched at 47.5 simply because that's halfway between the two traditional pitches. I really wanted to keep it at 45 because my current 'favourite' in my stable of infills is a 45 degree smoother, so I'm having a bit of a thing about standard pitch this month. But I needed to lift it a bit, & being the anal type, I had to make it precise, so neither 47 nor 48 would do, it had to be 47.5. And luckily for me, I have a nice, precise protractor with clear half-degree divisions.

    What's more, I can still see them (with my headband magnifier).

    All I wanted to do was lift the blade forward a little so I can fit a handle in the short body more comfortably. Two & a half degres doesn't sound like much, but it gets just that little bit more wood up near the top of the handle, so the connection between the bed and the top of the grip isn't too flimsy. Ok, so plenty of Mathiesons Spiers & Norrises had 'open' handles, but plenty of them broke, too, (see Colin's post on his 'find' a few weeks ago).

    So there you have my reasons for the decimal point, pathetic as they may be.....

    Cheers,
    IW

  8. #7
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    The use of a 47.5* bed pitch is an allowance that's normally restricted to wedge abutment wooden bodied planes with a tapered iron.

    if you subtract the 2.5* in taper from the value of the 47.5* bed angle, it equates to an effective cutting angle of 45* (common pitch).

  9. #8
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    Default Pseudo Badger Plane - Please Explain

    Good Morning Ian

    Watching in awe as your latest project unfolds. but I am a little confused by your terminology, or my ignorance.

    My understanding is that a panel plane is an old name for a jointer plane and that often they were much longer than a modern jointer. I am down in Tassy and some local names also applied. Back in the days of the "blue gum clippers" it was a point of honour for shipwrights to use full length planking on their vessels and often three or four shipwrights would be working spiling a single plank 100 foot long, using large wooden jointers called yard planes. Two derivations of this name are that they were used in shipyards or that they were at least a yard long. The Maritime Museum in Hobart has one that is about 1,500 mm (5 feet) long, but apparently some were "a fathom long" (6 ft). Confusingly the shipwrights also referred to these large planes as shooters.

    Google informs me that a badger plane is a panel plane with a side escapement and a skewed blade. Essentially a big rebate plane.

    But you describe your project as a pseudo badger plane. ie its not really a badger plane ????

    Why don't we just call it Ian's bloody big skewed rebate plane ?


    Fair Winds

    Graeme

  10. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by GraemeCook View Post
    .....Why don't we just call it Ian's bloody big skewed rebate plane ?..

    Coupla reasons, Graeme. First, it isn't at all big, it's quite tiny, the the sides are only 160mm long. There is a sole extension under the handle, and the wood will jut out a bit past that when it's all faired in, but it will still be a pint-sized plane. My blade only sticks out on one side, so really, it's "Ian's not-very-big-half-rebate-plane," if we want to be exact. The big one is coming, possibly early in he New year...

    Quote Originally Posted by GraemeCook View Post
    ....My understanding is that a panel plane is an old name for a jointer plane.

    Google informs me that a badger plane is a panel plane with a side escapement and a skewed blade. Essentially a big rebate plane......
    I've never seen a panel plane described as a jointer, but local usage does funny things to names. Panel planes were typically 300-450mm long, which is not getting into average jointer territory. I've seen badgers described as a type of panel plane, and indeed, if one source I read is on the money, that's what they were made for. They could plane the surface of a panel nicely (I can vouch that my straight-blades panel plane does a superb job there, it's like a good smoother on steroids!), but the big trick of the badger was to be able to plane the sloped rebate on a fielded panel, both with and across the grain with equal facility thanks to their skewed blade.

    Badgers don't have a side escapement like a typical rebate plane, the notch in the side is just sufficient to let the corner of the (canted) blade through. Because of the skewed blade, the shaving starts at the leading corner, and curls back into the throat to be ejected from the throat like a 'normal' plane, whereas most rebates of any description tend to roll the shavings into a cylinder that stays in the throat 'til you push it out with a finger. At least that's how my straight-bladed rebates behave, the exception is a skewed version that spews the shaving out in a long curl like a mini spill-plane. (Our granddaughter loves it when I set my little 1/2" job for a coarse shaving & she makes "unicorn horns" with it, keeps her amused for quite a while. )

    Stewie, that's interesting about tapered blades being fitted to 47.5 degree beds to bring the cutting angle to 45 degrees - I've never checked the bed angle on any old stocks, but now you've alerted me, I will check the couple I have kicking about, out of curiosity. I wouldn't have thought anyone would bother being so precise about the cutting angle; as I said to Matt, I doubt I'd be able to reliably pick the difference between York & standard pitch blindfolded, & certainly wouldn't notice a 2.5 degree difference. But maybe some planers are like some musicians and have 'perfect pitch'....

    Cheers,
    IW

  11. #10
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    Default Little to Report

    Only got a couple of hours on the plane today, so very little progress to report.

    The handle & cheeks came out of the clamps, and as expected, there was a line of squeezed-out glue all along the top edge of the cheeks: T1.jpg

    But the wax I wiped on did its job - a few careful cuts with a sharp chisel and the excess glue peeled away as clean as a whistle: T2.jpg

    A friend turned up with a two-minute job he wanted help with, after lunch. The job did only take a few minutes, but we had to shoot the breeze & put the world to rights as old blokes like to do, so the afternoon was well-advanced by the time I got back to the plane. I spent the rest of the time rebating the sides of the rear stuffing & fitting it in place. It's a tedious job even with straight sides, the most minute bit of wood will prevent it from sitting tightly on top of the sides, but after much careful sawing, paring, filing & planing with my mini shoulder plane, it eventually sat nicely in its place. Then I planed a bit off the blade bed to level the joins and bring it into line with the bevel of the sole, mixed up a goodly dash of Araldite & set both rear handle & front bun in place: T3.jpg

    So that's where I was at at lock-up tonight. I did spend a little bit of time mucking about with the lever cap mock-up I started working on yesterday, and decided it wasn't going to work the way I'd envisaged. So I have changed to plan B, but I'll talk about that tomorrow, because I'll need a few pics & possibly a diagram to illustrate the situation & the alternative ways of making a lever-cap that can rotate between parallel sides and clamp evenly on a skewed blade....

    Cheers,
    IW

  12. #11
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    Ian

    An interesting build and I have to say the "badger" was a new one on me: I have to get out more! It does appear from my very brief research that you may have to make an opposite handed mate for it. Was that deliberately why you selected this project or will the left and right versions be reserved for the full sized badgers? It seems that there could be at least three more planes to come after this is finished with no sign of the last hurrah in sight.



    Regards
    Paul
    Bushmiller;

    "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"

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    Nice try Paul, but I definitely don't want a 'set' of badgers in my shed, they have a reputation for being cranky little animals!

    While you could certainly buy pairs, left handed badger planes are few & far between, according to my source, so it seems the majority of buyers were content with what they could do with a single example. Tbh, I'm not convinced that a badger plane (even a 'real' one) has abilities that can't be matched by other planes in common use, which may explain why their time was relatively brief. Their era roughly paralleled that of the infill shoulder plane & Queen Victoria's reign (though I'm not sure if there is any connection with either)...

    My desire to make one is driven by curiosity and in the interests of research on your behalf. If it turns out to be a winner, then you'll all be clamouring to make one.

    Cheers,

    P.S. As I mentioned last night, I'm struggling a little with the lever cap for the skewed blade. I managed it easily enough for my dovetail plane: D_T plane a.jpg

    But the LC for that is narrow, and I was able to keep the sides square & cut & file enough twist on the end to get it to sit on the blade. 6.jpg

    For the current plane, the width of te LC is making it a bit harder to fit the contours of the required shape in the 1/2" thick piece of brass. I thought I had it solved, but a mock-up didn't look like a goer. Anyway, more about that tonight, by which time I will have got it sorted, or thrown the whole kaboodle out a window...
    IW

  14. #13
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    Default Today's efforts

    Well, I spent most of the day in the shed, but still haven't produced a shaving! I thought I'd be able to show you a few tonight, but they're a couple more hours away yet.

    So the first order of business today was to decide which of two alternative ways of fitting the lever cap was going to be the one I'd use. This might be a bit hard to explain, but bear with me & hopefully, the diagram and pics will help.

    So the two ways of installing the lever cap are to angle the sides so the under-surface is parallel to the blade bed (A), or keep the LC square to the sides of the plane (B): W1a.jpg
    A is the easiest solution in most ways, it doesn't involve any compound shaping, but the catch is getting the pivot points to be co-axial. I thought I could get away with it (just) by drilling the fulcrum holes close to the bottom on one side, and close to the top on the other, as indicated on the sketch. I tried working it out on paper, but kept getting myself muddled up, so did what works best for me & made a couple of mock-ups. They may look similar at first glance, but there is quite a difference between these two 'lever caps':W1.jpg

    It's more apparent from underneath - for example B, the brass has to be cut & shaped at two angles so the toe will sit flat on the cap-iron: W2.jpg

    After trying each mock-up in the plane, it was pretty obvious I had to go with the one that involved the most labour, so with some trepidation, I started hacking up my one remaining bit of 1/2" thick brass. The first steps were to cut the skew angle and the angle across the toe: W3a.jpg

    Then with hacksaw, files & coarse sandpaper wrapped round a dowel, I shaped the cove behind the toe: W3b.jpg

    I checked progress several times to make sure the toe of the L.C. was straight & sitting evenly on the cap-iron when the LC was in position: W3c.jpg

    I had to grind a little bit more off the LH side of the blade so it could be inserted & withdrawn with the LC in place - if anyone owns a Stanley 10 1/2, they'll know what a fiddle it is to insert the blade, but it's not so bad with this plane because the extended bit of blade is on one side only. Finally, I had the front of the LC shaped to my satisfaction - here it is beside the two mock-ups. The shape shows more clearly in metal than it does in wood: W3d.jpg

    Fitting it in the plane was straightforward, but I had one heart-stopping moment when I thought the blade wasn't going to go in under the LC, but it was just because the ramp to let the LC screw in needed a bit more taken out - a few slices with a sharp chisel & that was fixed. Note the angle of the thumbscrew - that was one of the reasons I wanted to fit the LC the other way. With the 'square' fit, the thumbscrew has too be leaned over so it is perpendicular to the blade assembly, otherwise it has a greater tendency to skew the blade when tightened, which can be very annoying! : W4.jpg

    That was the end of the day - tomorrow I have to finish shaping the LC, rivet in & shape the woodwork, then lap the sole before I can make the first shavings, but unless something goes seriously amiss, I should be able to show you some shavings by tomorrow night... W5.jpg

    Cheers,
    IW

  15. #14
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    Ian, I'm completely in awe of the speed that your projects get done. Thanks for this enjoyable journey.
    Cheers,
    Geoff.

  16. #15
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    Default It works...

    Righto, first order of business today was to rivet the woodwork in. I thought I had plenty of 1/8 brass rod, but discovered what I thought was 1/8 was mostly 5/32. I only had enough 1/8 for 3 rivets & I needed 5, so I had to turn a bit of 5/32" rod down to 1/8", which is a silly, fiddly job, but better than going out & buying another 3.6M of 1/8, which I really don't need! Once the rivets were banged up I filed them level, then sanded the sides & stuffing flush: Th1.jpg

    After that, I made a start on tidying up the woodwork: Th2.jpg

    Then I turned my attention to the roughed-out lever cap and spent a half-hour making it look a bit more lever-cap like: Th3.jpg

    With the blade in & the lever-cap twitched down, I lapped the sole 'til it was flat in the critical places (it still needs a good bit more), then spent a very tedious hour filing the front of the mouth to get the blade through. It was a cow of a job because it is really difficult to file the bit at the outside edge without hitting anything inside and making ugly marks. My fingers became quite sore from holding the file, but eventually, I had the blade through with a small, even gap (or at least I thought it was even!). So I honed up the blade, set it in the plane and took a few swipes on a test board. I got about 3/4 of a full-width shaving, but nothing from the rebated side. A quick look & the problem was obvious, the gap on that side of the mouth was far too tight & had immediately clogged, preventing the blade form any further cutting.

    So, pulled out the blade & LC, and spent another ten minutes filing & checking. Then re-assembled and gave it another go: Th4.jpg

    Much better - a nice full-width shaving, albeit a bit thick, but not bad considering I still need to lap the sole properly. So I didn't attempt a 1 thou shaving today - I'll go for that goal after a bit more fettling.

    I'm reasonably pleased with it at this stage, it's already working at least as well as my Stanley 10 1/2, and I think (hope) it can do a bit better yet. I have plans to fit an adjuster, though that may not happen for a while. As it is, the short blade isn't easy to tap to set depth or for lateral adjustments, I'll end up damaging the handle unless I'm extremely careful. The adjuster will have to be a bit unconventional, and I will have to make a mock-up and see if my idea even works before I try fitting it to the plane. If I'm not happy with it, I think I'll just get a blade for a #3 and modify it to suit, I'm just as happy with tippy-tap adjusting anyway.

    As I said, making this little plane was a dress rehearsal for the big brother to come, but it has changed my mind about whether it's worth the trouble of doing a 'real' badger just so I can say I've done it. I'm happy to let Konrad Sauer take the laurels for making a modern badger. I'm thinking now I will certainly skew the blade & that will be enough to make it very useful. I don't think adding the badger feature would make it any more useful to me, I already have 3 shoulder-rebate planes and a bullnosed plane of my own manufacture, plus a 10 1/2 and a 78 - how many rebate planes does one person need? Not that many, I think!

    OK, you will now have to wait 'til the raw material for the panel plane arrives before the real show starts. I probably won't be doing anything on it until well into January or February, so don't hold your breath....

    Cheers,
    IW

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