Thread: Wooden plane mouth opening problem

Ciao,
6 mm is too much for having good performances. You should try to close the mouth by inserting a wood patch. 1-2 mm opening will work.
Usually, that kind of plane is used as levelling plane. A shorter tool will be better for finishing purposes.

Giuliano

To close the mouth, find a piece of suitable timber - I have used oak in the past - and thickness it to around 5mm - 8mm making sure that the side to be glued to the mouth is flat. Cut out a shape similar to the marked area in front of the mouth.
When you have this shape, place it on the appropriate space where it is to go and carefully draw around its outline.
I have used a small router to cut the cavity to depth, and finished the edges with a paring chisel. When the insert matches the cavity, glue it in with some epoxy leaving it proud of the base, and clamp it until it dries. This will be planed off with a handplane after the glue has set.
Job done.

Andreas

If you can find another plane that is beyond redemption, and low cost, you can cut up the body to provide a piece of matching wood for the insert. This should also provide spares for other planes you may be forced to buy in the future

regards

Andreas - I second Guiliano's opinion that this is not going to make an ideal finishing plane. With infinite patience, you will get the job done with it, but shorter planes allow you to work smaller areas, as you often need to do when finish planing cranky grained pieces. There are good reasons why smoothing planes are short.

In any case, a 6mm mouth is certainly a bit too generous for anything other than a scrub plane, so you would need to reduce it whatever you use it for. For a smoothing plane taking very fine shavings, less than a mm is desirable, (which will make it useless for taking heavy cuts). I prefer to use a non-matching wood for mouth inserts (or brass, depending on the plane type) - makes it quite plain it's meant to be there, and gives me a wider choice. I like to use something very tough, as this is a major wear point....

Cheers,

An alternative to the suggestion of an insert is to resole the plane. I tried this on an ancient and missused coffin smoother and it didn't turn out too badly.

I thought it best to use a harder timber for the resole. A friend from work had a nice darker piece of Grey Box left over from his parquetry. He cut it down to what we guessed to be an appropriate thickness and we used a marine grade epoxy to bond it to the flattened sole of the plane. Old woodies are often deeply impregnated with linseed oil so I wiped the already planed sole down with metho before applying the epoxy.

It was an exercise in patience to get the mouth right. I marked and drilled it out and then used rifflers along with a very sharp chisel, frequently checking and rechecking with the blade. Even with this approach I got some chipping.

I have another pair of old woodies I want to get back to functional tools so I'll be applying the same method, hopefully I'll learn a bit from the first one I did.

For what it is worth, here are some shots of a transitional plane that had a shocking mouth that I had a go at re-mouthing.

It worked out definitively non-perfect, but far better than I had any right to expect ... my skill level at the time was basement level ... and I still haven't even made it to ground floor

I used a nice dense piece of jarrah, the sole is beech. The (slight) killer is that if I had only held back the tiniest amount in the paring back the mouth would have ended up very close. As it was - a cool learning exercise that didn't end up in disaster. So I'd say have a go if you feel inclined .. or get another cheap woodie that you've put less sweat into and try that first.

On the other hand ... an open mouth is good (essential?) on green wood if you ever have it.

Cheers,
Paul McGee

I've seen that idea in a Charles Hayward book where he actually cuts it at a taper so it jams in tight. Of course one then trims the sides to fit. Looks easier if not as flash as sinking the trapezoidal patch into the sole.

Well done,
Virg.

Hi guys!

I have finally closed the mouth down to 2mm, I figured that would be better since it’s not an appropriate finishing plane. I went for the mouth insert option. I did all of the work with hand tools so its weren’t a perfect fit( my workshop is without electricity) and my hand tool skills are rather limited(wip)

I will try resoling the next plane I’m working on, it seems exiting!


Thanks for all the helpfull advice!!

Originally Posted by Andreas87

Hi guys!

I have finally closed the mouth down to 2mm, I figured that would be better since it’s not an appropriate finishing plane. I went for the mouth insert option. I did all of the work with hand tools so its weren’t a perfect fit( my workshop is without electricity) and my hand tool skills are rather limited(wip)

I will try resoling the next plane I’m working on, it seems exiting!


Thanks for all the helpfull advice!!

Not too shabby at all - well done.
How well does it plane?
cheers
SG

As SG says, it certainly looks the part in the photos. I think you'll find a 2mm mouth to be quite satisfactory for rough to medium quality work, which this tool is best suited to, IMO. Get that blade razor-sharp & well-bedded & you should have a very good user......

Cheers,

Looks tops! What timber did you use for the patch?

Cheers,
Virgil.

Nice job - braver than me - I took the easy route.

I think it looks very good - and I'm sure you'll have a feeling of satisfaction in having achieved a result that you can hold in your hands and wonder "how the hell did I manage that"

Cheers,

Paul McGee

Well done!

Ciao
Giuliano

Nice work! What is that you've got in there? Blue Gum?

Berlin