Thread: Wooden Plane Rebirthing

Not a bad idea. I would cut down the blade and the wedge too. Make it easier to use.

Yep , I think your right there Pagie, I did trim a bit off the wedge to give it a rounded shape , the top of the blade would look nice if it matched and there is plenty of room to go lower.

The form has to follow the function is the first rule and if it can be pretty as well that is a bonus. Picking it up and planing with it , marking where I could feel pressure points on my hand and shaving that old tough Beech to fit my hand was rewarding tool time.

I do a lot of sculpting of the flat tops of tables like the Oak one the plane is sitting on, It's upside down, and the under side sometimes gets more heavily worked. all my smoother's are 8 inch long and the next step down for a shorter sole is my spoke shaves. It may be interesting to see how a 7 inch or even a 6 inch works.

Rob

Looks good!! neat recycling!!

I never knew what colour the timber was!

Nice work.

Great job, looks super.

You must have enough off the back for a mallet, Rob. Or maybe that 6" inch smoother you mentioned...

Cheers
Matt

I was checking out the off cuts Matt and at first I thought the back left over was a bit small for a traditional woodworking size mallet, it's also too small for the 6" idea, the left over back section has a slot in the top for a handle as well, it might do for a small mallet. It is a nice dense piece of Beech and I was thinking it's too good to throw.

Ive always wanted to make a mallet just for striking wooden planes , Bench planes and Moulders, timber at one end and brass at the other, the timber for striking the wood and the brass for blade adjustment, it may suit that. I think for that design a Two inch turned head four to five inches long with a 3/4 " rod sticking out the other end.

At the moment I strike the blades with a Brass hammer and the wood with a mallet, so I'm searching for two tools sometimes.

Sounds like it might be the perfect candidate. I have to admit that I use a wee little steel 100g cross pein hammer to set my blades and a mammoth tree stump-esque mallet on the planes...

I think I just found my next project.

I got a start on the Mallet, I'm going to braze some bronze on the end of the 3/4 steel rod or silver solder brass on the end of it then glue it in. It turns out that the plane I cut up is not Beech but Maple I think, nice stuff too. The handle for the Mallet is Plane tree wood. I drilled the hole first then mortised the head with the chisel mortiser in from both sides.

Rob

Wow, Rob. That's going to be sweet little mallet. Top stuff.

Matt

I got my Plane striking Mallet finished a while back, I neglected it for some months. It works real nice . I was sick of seeing the wooden planes with bruised and bashed ends and fronts, from steel hammers adjusting them, and the iron ends mushroomed over. Like I said earlier in this thread I used to be looking for two tools when wanting to adjust some of my planes ,a Wooden Mallet and a Brass hammer for the iron . Now it's all in one , with a leather face as well . The flat sides to the mallet works nice as well for hitting the wedge.

A most excellent bit of kit, Rob! Idea pinched, with a few minor changes like a square brass insert rather than the round one......

As you say, having one convenient tool for adjusting my growing family of wedged planes would be a boon.

Like all good ideas, I ask myself, 'why couldn't I have thought of that?'.

No need to answer......

Cheers & thanks,

To steal that anonymous quote 'any tool can be used as a hammer/mallet', but you are going to have trouble doing those guitar plates now Rob with that plane.

Steve

No worries Ian , It's an honor to be copied .
That bit of steel rod is 19mm x 75 mm and goes through to rest on the handle .
It goes POW! when it strikes either way round, it packs a punch , so light strikes work well on the planes,
and a medium hit on the back end gets the blade loose.

I think the idea evolved from another Mallet I made a long time back that has had so much use ,it's ready to be re re made.
I call it me poke mallet and its great for knocking apart tables and chairs, a long head on it gets in where I need it . I keep being tempted to pick up this new plane striker for use on chairs because of the punch power of it , but don't want to wreck it's leather face on the rough inside of a chair. Another project for another day.

Rob

Rob - I really like the finish you've applied to the mallet (and the mallet too !!)

Is that your AA Tyson bandsaw?

John