Thread: What is the right tool?

Originally Posted by soundwave

That is considerably more than I am prepared to spend...

Yairs, you could blow 5 years worth of tool budgets in a single transaction!

It's a thing of great beauty if you have a weakness for fine wood combined with brass (as many of us do), but it's getting into the "precious" class. It deserves to sit in a glass case, along with a Holtey or two, as examples of exquisite workmanship & human ingenuity.

Buy an old banger for a 20th of the price if you intend marking it up by using it......

Cheers,

Earlier in this thread I mentioned that with a bit of patience useable Record/Woden/WS twin rod rebate planes come up on Fleabay at reasonable prices; HERE is a WS with all the bits. Needs some cleaning up but I wouldn’t pass over it to get to the Carbatec own-brand version.

CT that's a good deal. I have a Stanley #78 which is great but I do think the handle could come in real handy when you're ploughing through big rebates. No good for bullnosing though SW if it's any help Paul Sellers loves these

One of my gunnadoitoneday’s is to make a WS/Woden style front handle, although without the strange depression in the top. I’m led to believe the originals have an insert inside for the screw to bear down on; I have some cup washers put aside for this.

IanW made a handle for his a few years back but with one difference; it is square to the front bed rather than square to the sole. Probably feels better in the hand and is easier to make!

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

.... IanW made a handle for his a few years back but with one difference; it is square to the front bed rather than square to the sole. Probably feels better in the hand and is easier to make!.....

Yes, a bit easier to make, Chief. I used a screw right through the knob, like a front knob for a Bailey type, so of course the knob has to sit perpendicular to the blade bed: Old LC.jpg

As far as I can make out from the pics available courtesy of Mr. Googly, the screw hole for the Woden knob is drilled through the lower part of the knob at 45 deg (from the front). It would be a teeny bit more difficult to make & fit, but not much. My knob was just a 'proof of concept' to see if it made the plane more comfy to use. It certainly does for the uses I mostly put it to. Whether it's more or less comfortable than a straight-up knob is moot. One day, I might get a bee in my bonnet & make one to fit like the Woden's, and see if they're any different to use - I suspect the difference will be small, if there is any at all...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Earlier in this thread I mentioned that with a bit of patience useable Record/Woden/WS twin rod rebate planes come up on Fleabay at reasonable prices; HERE is a WS with all the bits. Needs some cleaning up but I wouldn’t pass over it to get to the Carbatec own-brand version.

Thanks for the link! I'll try and get that. I also have a little record 43 on its way since posting this.

Originally Posted by IanW

Yes, a bit easier to make, Chief. I used a screw right through the knob, like a front knob for a Bailey type, so of course the knob has to sit perpendicular to the blade bed: Old LC.jpg

As far as I can make out from the pics available courtesy of Mr. Googly, the screw hole for the Woden knob is drilled through the lower part of the knob at 45 deg (from the front). It would be a teeny bit more difficult to make & fit, but not much. My knob was just a 'proof of concept' to see if it made the plane more comfy to use. It certainly does for the uses I mostly put it to. Whether it's more or less comfortable than a straight-up knob is moot. One day, I might get a bee in my bonnet & make one to fit like the Woden's, and see if they're any different to use - I suspect the difference will be small, if there is any at all...

Cheers,

Ian, your knob modification is interesting. Obviously it works for you, but this set up of yours is just so different to the way I use the Veritas Skew Rabbet Plane that it is worth a comment.

There are two aspects that occur to me from your photo: firstly, the fence is shallow and, secondly, the knob leans forward and lies at the toe of the plane. This suggests that you use more downforce and concentrate on moving forward with a high centre of effort.

Here is an old photo taken 11 years ago, when I was still relatively new to the Veritas ...



Even then I was not using the knob but placed my hand at the centre near the blade behind the knob ...



Of course, this had a few unwanted side-effects ... such as seen in the Band-aided finger in the photo ...

... and more!



These days I have dispensed with the knob altogether. There is a deep fence for stability ...



... and the right hand pushes forward, while the palm of left hand pushes the fence against the side of the board, and the thumb placed downforce from low down ...



Low centre of effort = stability.

Different strokes and all that. Care to comment on your experience (which may have altered since then)?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

.... Different strokes and all that. Care to comment on your experience (which may have altered since then)?........

Well, Derek, one point of difference is that I rarely use my 78 for cutting rebates. On the rare occasions I do, I hold it pretty much the same way you're holding the Veritas, i.e. with my left hand on the fence, pushing it against the workpiece. Blisters were something I rarely experienced in the past, but my old-man skin has become annoyingly fragile, and I have to be far more gentle on myself these days!

What I use my 78 for almost exclusively, is finessing tenons, a job at which I find it excels. I used to use a 10 1/2, but found the 78 just suited me so much better. That's when the knob comes into its own. As on any plane, I use front knobs/buns to apply down-pressure at the start of each stroke, and ease off as the blade becomes fully engaged, using my left hand only to guide the plane after that. Initially, I thought I would just remove the knob on the 78 when it was used for rebating, but it doesn't get in the way at all (I was using it to clean up a rebate just the other day), so it has remained a fixture since I first put it there, and will probably remain so while ever it lives with me, because I never use it with the blade in the bull-nose position.

I have a much more convenient & nicer-to-use bull-nosed plane if I need a rebate style: B_N rebate.jpg.

And if I don't need the rebate ability, this one is even nicer to use: Chariot Mk2.jpg

OK, mea culpa, that was a blatant drive-by gloat...

In fact, I so rarely have need of either of those planes that I would have a hard time justifying them if I didn't make my own. Both types seem to have been steady sellers in their day, but largely fell out of favour early last century. I assume the sorts of jobs they were used for have either disappeared or are more efficiently done with other tools?

Cheers,

Ian, if I owned either of those two planes, I would find a way to justify using them all the time!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Ian. I have been keen on getting a 10 1/2 for a while but I am interested in hearing mkre about why you prefer the 78. Does the smaller body help?

I’m also keen to hear more. I just (a week ago) bought a 10 1/2, and haven’t had a chance to sharpen it up and try it out yet. I put in a bid which I then decided was a bit high so I was hoping that either no one else would bid or that I’d be outbid. Of course I ended up winning it for just under my maximum, so I’m left with the feeling that I over paid for it.

For me the choice of plane is dictated by the width of the cut I’m trying to make.
Here is the 778 making a big tenon for a breadboard end; this plane was chosen mainly to emulate Ian’s practice of using the 78 for trimming tenons:

8C52869E-E82C-4BE0-88BE-C26A393A3695.jpeg

And here is the 10-1/2 trimming the ends of four legs clamped together:

8C04F52A-B41D-41A7-ADC9-9AE84A3B7C0D.jpg

I also have an RB10 and a Paramo rebate plane; those two are generally described as only slightly less worse than the useless fibreboard planes but I’ve actually had some success with them. On pine only, mind! My RB10 even has the optional side fence which works quite well.

Have you considered Badger planes?

badger plane wooden.jpg badger plane metal.jpg

Hi Colin. Once you start using it I'm sure the price will be forgotten