Thread: Red Ironbark for Plane bodies

That's interesting Ian, the red ironbark from the drylands north of bendigo are near impossible to split. So is the grey box.

Originally Posted by echnidna

That's interesting Ian, the red ironbark from the drylands north of bendigo are near impossible to split. So is the grey box.

Yairs, Bob - I lived down that way for a while & someone once gave me some grey Box for firewood. It burnt alright, but I got even warmer making it fit in the heater!!

Originally Posted by echnidna

That's interesting Ian, the red ironbark from the drylands north of bendigo are near impossible to split. So is the grey box.

echnidna
...interesting that the red iron bark from around Bendigo is type which is hard to split, given there was significant Chinese immigration there in in the middle - late 1800s. Possibly the reason it is favoured by those early Chinese plane makers.
One of the rebate planes I had was obtained directly from a decedent of a Chinese family from the Bendigo area.

Regards,
Peter

Originally Posted by echnidna

That's interesting Ian, the red ironbark from the drylands north of bendigo are near impossible to split. So is the grey box.

I can vouch for that! Lots of hydraulic splitters sold around here.

Originally Posted by IanW

F&E - I think the issue is how fissile the wood is rather than its hardness.

Sorry Ian, I was too rushed with my comment. I was answering the OP, not the issue introduced by Funky. IMHO, the wedge is expendable, so I do not particularly care if, within reasonable tolerances, the timber splits a bit more or less than another: who plans to hit it with a sledgehammer anyway? But the sole is essential for the functionality of the plane, and even if red ironbark or similar timber is probably good enough, the professional plane makers, who can be assumed to know best and use the best, use only harder timbers.

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

Sorry Ian, I was too rushed with my comment. I was answering the OP, not the issue introduced by Funky. IMHO, the wedge is expendable, so I do not particularly care if, within reasonable tolerances, the timber splits a bit more or less than another: who plans to hit it with a sledgehammer anyway? But the sole is essential for the functionality of the plane, and even if red ironbark or similar timber is probably good enough, the professional plane makers, who can be assumed to know best and use the best, use only harder timbers.

Yes, I see what you mean, F&E, but struth, I reckon any Ironbark I ever met would be hard enough for plane soles to suit most purposes. No woods I've tried are particularly good at standing up to high pressures on a limited area like a corner - hence the 'boxing' on moulding planes & the like. The 'down' corner of my newish dovetail plane (Sheoak) is already showing signs of wear, so I'm plotting to replace the sole piece with brass or even mild steel (one of these days!). For a smoother or jack or jointer, any of our Eucalypts would be an order of magnitude harder than European Beech, which was the most ubiquitous wood used for run-of-the-mill planes, after all. I would like to use 'boxing' on a couple of woodies I am contemplating making (when I get the right round tuit) and since real Box (Buxus) is not easy to come by round here, wonder what would make a good substitute? One wood suited to the purpose might be Brush box. Of course it's not even a distant cousin to the real deal, but it is fairly fine-grained and tough. It should also make good plane bodies, if you can get clean chunks, and I have used it for clamp screws with some success.

I think we are spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting woods for hardness, but workability is an issue, and there aren't nearly as many that are really stable and not prone to cracking, IMO. I can't resist a bit of a gloat here - due to the kindness of a BIL, I just scored a large chunk of Cooktown Ironwood (Erythrophloem) which should suffice for all of the remaining woodies I intend to make in this life.... I haven't done much with it yet, but I made a large bench screw from the least 'clean' bit, and the threads chipped a lot - pretty splitty stuff. Probably one reason why HNT favours those brass abuttments(?).

Cheers,

I remember the Cooktown Ironwood we made Helmut's scrub plane from, it also was fairly split prone and brittle. Very hard, but not particularly resistant to abrasion, this is one reason I like Ironbark better. The Red Ironbark I've got seams a lot 'tougher', if less hard.

Personally I don't think hardness is the thing we should be focussing on for a plane body, modulus of elasticity, general toughness and abrasion resistance are far more important. Ironbark satisfies all of these requirements.

Originally Posted by kman-oz

.......
Personally I don't think hardness is the thing we should be focussing on for a plane body, modulus of elasticity, general toughness and abrasion resistance are far more important. Ironbark satisfies all of these requirements.

Hmm, interesting comments, kman. Agree that abrasion resistance & maybe even natural 'oiliness' (think Lignum vitae - supposed to be the bees' knees for soles) would be desirable virtues, alright. (Wonder how Tallow wood would go?)

Hope your experience with C'town Ironwood was just the bits you had & isn't indicative of the properties of the stuff in general - HNT Gordon used it pretty successfully for quite a while, so I'm hoping I didn't haul that great gut-busting chunk all the way from Nth Qld for nothing.

Avagoodweekend,

I couldn't say whether the experience I had with Cooktown Ironwood was indicative or not. Regardless, Helmut's scrub plane was a great success. Funny you should mention oiliness, I'd considered Spotted Gum for soles also; dense enough, tough, and naturally oily which might aid smoothness. Helmut used some on his scrub plane sole eventually too.

I have some laying around also, maybe I'll try it out.

I should've said splinters not splits. Ironbark is pretty hard to split (even with a hydraulic splitter) but is very splintery.

My mate has an HNT Gordon Cooktown Ironwood shoulder plane that has a chunk broken off the back. The blade was stuck in tight one day so he gave it a good whacking in the appropriate spot and broke a small piece off.

Red ironbark ain't splintery either from what I've seen. Grey, well, that's another story I think

I ripped and re-gued both of my blanks yesterday, this time I went for the time honoured 'lots-o-dowels' approach which has worked so well for me in the past. When I've cleaned them up I'll post progress pics.

Fingers crossed!

Originally Posted by IanW

F&E - I think the issue is how fissile the wood is rather than its hardness.

Fissile? So you have your own home nuclear reactor?

Fissile: That may be split, cleft or divided in the direction of the grain, or of natural joints. - Webster's Dictionary. Though I don't think Ian's used the word in exactly the right context, I understand this to be a geological term. Either way he makes his point clearly enough.