Thread: Re-wooding a Veritas scrub plane

For many years I have used an old (very old - pre lateral-adjustor!) #4 set up as my scrub plane. The poor thing came to me in a very sad state, minus blade & cap-iron, with half a rear tote and the front knob tied together with wire. The worst part is that it has had a nasty accident at some point in its life (looks like it was used to drive railway spikes), & as a consequence, a large chunk is missing from the right side of the body casting:

Old 4 scrub.jpg

However, with some new wood and a scavenged blade-assembly sharpened to a ~75mm radius, it works well enough, and removes lots of wood quickly, as a scrub plane should. The lighter body casting (compared with more modern #4s) is a plus in this role, but it is rather short compared with ‘regular’ scrub planes. I had intended to make one, but an unexpected windfall gave me the opportunity to splurge on tools, so I thought I might treat myself to a ready-made Veritas:

Scrub original.jpg

Now I’m on record as NOT being a fan of Veritas’s woodwork! I find that overly-upright rear tote uncomfortable to use, and the shaping is just too crude to grace an otherwise decent bit of equipment. The finish leaves much to be desired, too, there are numerous 120 grit marks clearly visible!
So I had no qualms at all about replacing the things on the new scrub. A few years ago, I gave the full treatment to a LA smoother, & for that job, I opted for a handle angle that was a bit higher than a traditional tote, because I didn’t think I could get the double studs through it without having one or the other come out in the wrong place. The scrub has plenty of room between rear tote & blade, so this time I thought I’d go for broke & try for a full-on traditional handle. I made a template as wide as the centres of the two studs & checked it against a handle template & it looked like the studs should just fit without breaking out. But I would have to bend them forward more than I did on the LA smoother, and wasn’t sure how that would work out.
The only way to find out is to try it, so I dug out the last couple of pieces of Rosewood I had squirreled away for such purposes. I think it’s Indian Rosewood rather than Sth. American, but it’s definitely a Dalbergia spp. by its characteristic odour, and I have to admit, it makes handles that are even nicer than She-oak, which is one of my favourite handle woods, but most of my old planes have Rosewood handles, so I want it to feel it belongs with the crowd. The knob was easy, a few minutes on the lathe and I had a knob in the ‘low’ style that I prefer. I had to make a shorter stud for it, but that was a very simple task thanks to Veritas choosing to use bog-standard ¼”-20 threads, so a few cents worth of all-thread, & the new knob is in place:

New knob.jpg

The tote needed a bit more fussing. First I marked out the lines for the studs, drilled the 7/16” countersinks in the top for the brass nuts, & then the stud holes (I do these from each end to make sure they start & finish in the right place). The bottom of the tote has to be recessed to fit over the two bosses on the sole that receive the studs. Rather than risk wrecking the originals (in case I had to retreat & use the original handle again!) I used some more of the all-thread. I set up a bevel gauge to match the stud angles in the handle, and bent each stud where it emerges from the boss to match this angle. I did this by screwing the all-thread fully into the base, marking the front where it emerges from the boss, then gripping it in my vise (which has aluminium jaws that won’t wreck the threads), and pushing it over with a piece of hardwood so that the bend is only in the one place, & the rest of the stud remains straight. I snuck up on it, bending the stud a little, then screwing in & checking the angle against the bevel gauge, & got them right after two or three goes. Here is one stud bent, & the other screwed in to mark the point of the bend, This shows how much of a bend is required:

rod angles.jpg

Once the studs were bent & cut to the correct length, it was a straightforward matter of shaping & finishing the tote (with my favourite finish for tool handles, Shellawax rubbed on & polished with a cloth wheel).
Now it looks like a real plane:

Scrub rehandled.jpg

And yes, the new wood makes it much more comfy to use at my bench height. Here are the obligatory ‘curlies’ torn off a piece of red Ash (‘chunkies’, really!):

It works.jpg

Another happy camper.
Cheers