Thread: Old Wood Plane

Yep , it seems to be trying , try , jointer , plane .
Before you flatten the sole , sharpen the blade and give the plane a bit of a workout
Make it a decent one , have at the rough edge on a board .Then have a crack at the face . If you have a jack plane , use that first on the really rough stuff .
Just to see how it went the last time that it was used in the hands of the tradesman.
Don't forget to give the sole a decent waxing .
Have fun

Hi AyeJay,
The piece of leather on the top is really not needed, as you give it a bit of a whack on the front end & that should remove the Blade.
Then again to hit it on the top, is preserving the Makers Name, that could be there.
I have in the past, given those Planes a good wash with a rag with Metho & they come up really well, & a bit of wax later to fill the small holes.
You may like to give it a wax finish, should make it look good.
Some of Neil's Traditional Wax, would do the job nicely.
A 320G Belt Sanding should clean up the bottom, but I'm not sure of the mouth opening.
Regards,
issatree.

Ayejay
check out this page , and the one that follows it . Good info on the upkeep of wooden planes

VI. Planes

It looks, from the colour of the base - that it may have had the bottom flattened before.
If this is the case then the mouth will have been already widened somewhat.
Anyway, an easy way to do this if it is needed is to put the plane upside down in a vice and use anther handplane to plane from the toe to the rear.
Before you do this, check the mouth opening with the blade and cap-iron set to take shavings and the wedge set in place. The mouth opening should be around 1/16 inch if it is original.
If the mouth opening is large in front of the blade, then you may need to add an insert to narrow the mouth.
You would do this before flattening and then flatten after it has been done and the glue has dried on the insert.
The top in front of the mouth escapement looks very dry and hungry. I would give it a wipe over with some boiled linseed oil after you have cleaned it to appease those cracks that are starting to show.
Nice plane by the way.
SG

Originally Posted by AyeJay

Hi all,

I recently purchased a old wooden plane from an antique shop (nice and cheap) and bought it home in the hopes of getting some use out of it, but have a few questions now that I've cleaned it a bit and checked it out.

1.It is 22" long and 3 1/4" inch wide with 2 1/2 inch blade....Does this make it a trying plane??

2. How wide is the mouth supposed to be? It seem to be about 1/2"

3. how do you flatten the sole?

4. The blade and chip breaker have w marples and sons written on them...does anyone have any idea how old it could be?

5. what are the best uses for such a long plane? ( I edge jointed some panels the other day...would this be good for flattening those panels?)

Unfortunately there are some borer holes, but other than that, i am quite happy. And...if I can't put it to work perhaps I can display it somewhere in my future workshop!

Thanks so much for you help.

1. Trying plane or jointer.....it's yours now, call it what you want.

2. Probably not quite that wide, but as it's had some use, that's not too bad. Can be closed up with an insert.

3.Depends....what sort of non-flatness are we talking about? It seems alright from the pics, maybe a light sand to smooth the surface. In really well used jointers the sole becomes laterally concave and it's impossible to set the blade to a reasonable depth.

4. I have quite a few Marples planes but I'm not an expert.....sorry. The mark doesn't look like mine and most of mine are mid-20thC...so maybe late 19th or early 20th?

5. The best use right now would be for planing lengths of 'the cheap stuff' and just getting used to using a wood bodied plane. Once you get the hang of setting them, they're very satisfying to use. Not just Old School.....this is chalk and slate.


Clean the plane with meths, oil with raw linseed oil at first.....it'll probably suck up quite a bit, it looks dry....and then use boiled linseed oil.

Have fun.



Don't buy another one......they breed.

I have done a little more searching and found the following links:

This one says W marples and sons was said to have been founded in 1828.

MARPLES TOOL MAKERS

This one shows my plane as a double iron trying plane (shared by lightwood in another thread):

https://www.woodworkforums.com/attach...e-bbplanes.jpg

Don't know how much this one means...gives dates of 1920-1930 for a W M&S scraper plane:

B2504 Plane, toothing, mahogany & steel, William Marples & Son, England, c.1920 - Powerhouse Museum Collection

This link (from RayG in another thread) gives dates of 1909-1963 for Wm M&S:

http://www.backsaw.net/pics/MarplesHistory.jpg

seems like the plane could be anything from around 1910 to 1950's age, thats pretty cool.

Anyway, maybe some new information for some....was for me.

Hi again all, thanks so much or all your advice and help. An update on the plane.

I tried the metho cleaning trick, but I went at it hard with a damp cloth the other day and the metho didn't seem to be doing much more....but next time I think metho will make life a bit easier to begin with!

I haven't been able to get any linseed oil into it yet, but hopefully I'll get time soon.

I asked about flattening the sole as I put a straight edge on it and from the mouth forwards it sort of curves away from the straight edge (convex i think) and it has a dip between the back of the mouth and the heel.

I think I read that most important places are the toe heel and front of mouth that need to be in the same plane, and slight dips between are acceptable. I might go at it (SLOWELY) with my #4 that I fixed up and then will probably need to do the patch thing in front of the mouth. can I ask for some info on this procedure....ie what wood, how deep, glue or tack nails or ????? Thanks heaps again.

Hi Ayejay,

Can I suggest that if this is your first wooden plane that you set it up as a fore plane for now. By all means flatten the sole a little but leave the mouth until you are sure it needs tightening up.

A fore plane is used as the first step in flattening a rough board. It can take a thick shaving so a flat sole isn't critical and a wide mouth is an advantage to clear the shavings. The blade is sharpened with a distinct curve, maybe 1 to 1.5 mm lower at the sides, and the chipbreaker another 1mm or more back from there.

It should be easier to set the depth of cut in this configuration as it is less critical than for a jointer/trying plane.

With a sharp blade you will find it a pleasure to use, and when you are more practised with it set like this you can always tighten the mouth and set it up for a finer cut as a jointer.

It looks like a nice plane that is definitely worth using.

best wishes

Steve

Originally Posted by seanz

Don't buy another one......they breed.

haha, yes, I know. I have strange urge to go forth and multiply my hand planes!

I got an old stanley #4 from my dad, which I cleaned up and made nice (had to make new handle also), and then I bought an aldi special (PREMIUM) plane, which goes alright.
Then I bought another aldi plane and I'm using the iron from that in my #4, very minor mods to iron required. Seems pretty hard steel.

I recently bought 2 more at $10, one of which I will sharpen up nicely and send to my dad, the other for a cheap spare iron.

so that is my plane situation at present. and yes, I want more, and keep an eye out for garage sales etc all the time now! haha