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This video is pretty good too.


https://youtu.be/0n9iIwihqaI

I meant to post this the other day. In this youtube channel, retired craftsmen re-enact old trades that presumably they practiced in their youth. Here they are milling timber out of freshly felled...

He's got a more recent video. Jump to 4:12 for a view of the handle.


https://youtu.be/VonUTprSPHA

For what it's worth, I've only used Lee Valley's 90x SiC grit on my India stones.

Found this on ebay. NOS soft arkansas. I can't date it, but it seems post 1950s. Clean white stone. It looks like what Norton is offering today, so they still seem to be consistent. Compare with the...

This report from 1890 lists 11 quarries where Washitas were mined. Somewhere else in the report they are mentioned, but I don't remember if it provides an accurate geographic location. There's lots...

You may already be familiar with this technique, but if not, you could make your own drawkife-shaped scraper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy_bW3wrwbo&t=398&feature=youtu.be

oops! It just popped in my inbox this morning, full circle, I guess.

https://youtu.be/Jt4bLxmc8PE

Fingerless cycling gloves are also useful on some situations, like planing. They're not cheap, though.

David, I've a couple of drop forged V&B smoothers and one S4 (steel-soled Stanley) if you want to try them.

On your plane, the handle has a European flavor, it looks a little crude too. I'd guess a Scottish-made plane would have followed a more English pattern, like my plane. I'd say your plane was user...

Yes, beech. I added about 1/4", enough to "close" the mouth. Unfortunately I chipped the mouth while cutting it.

I refurbished a razee jack a couple of years ago. I took pictures of the refurb steps.

J. Hussey jack plane - Google Photos

I don't know anything about the maker or when it was made. If I...

I'm nowhere an expert on these planes, but the Japanese don't lap these planes to set them up. They scrape them so that there are either two or three points of contact between the sole and the work. ...

Here's David's plane. Testing on pieces of pine and applewood. You can see enough through the throat to set the chipbreaker and the successive approximation David mentioned should you really close...

Tempting to get a set to try.

At 23 cm total length they might work well, the other pictures make them look small.

It cuts rabbets, the others cut grooves.

Nicholson trained as a cabinetmaker in the 1780s. We could use his 1812 book as reference. Even contrast it with Moxon's. I've heard Ian's argument before. These authors should not be taken as...

It should be noted that the use of the term shooting in Moxon and Nicholson meant to plane edges straight. The books don't mention shooting jigs and when they discuss planing end grain, like in the...

From the ad copy quoted and a google search, this is the Australian-made plane with a 10V iron. If it has been designed so the iron has no room to be adjusted laterally, that's really strange. I...

If there's room for lateral adjustment, then the iron will not by default cut even thickness shavings unless adjusted. If your plane doesn't have a Norris adjuster, then it's done by tapping the...

A couple of things this thread reminded me of, first, tube making in the 19th century became more economical to manufacture at some point, that is a factor to consider as to when ferrules became...

They were holding the chisels with tongs, and doing this quickly too. Getting them into the quench tub slanted wouldn't be unusual.

I participated in the thin shavings competition that David mentioned above. I tried to get my planes to take as thin a shaving as they could without going extra crazy sharpening and fiddling with the...

I went back and tried the paring action with the piece below the guide, like Derek's. Works perfect.

With the piece sitting on top, very awkward, and the chisel gauges the guide.

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Derek, in your example you're paring down with the back of the chisel riding the guide. It's not the same as what the OP picture is showing, where the edge of the chisel is riding the guide.

Seems...

Tried a quick test using a piece of white pine. The wedge I already had, it's a piece of oak. The picture is a bit blurry and the test was hurried, but it wasn't that difficult to get some smooth...

These types of demonstrations depend also on the type of wood used. It looks like mahogany (or something similar) in the picture. Given enough time spent on it, you can sharpen any chisel, made with...

In one of Cosman's videos, where he's selling his planes, he's asserting that the larger 4 1/2 smoothers are the appropriate plane to get because the no. 4s were designed for boys to learn planing at...

From the perspective of a buyer, if I were told something is hand made, I'd expect a bit of inaccuracies and irregularities of something made by hand and hand tools. There's effort in the making. The...

I had to state that I'm over 18 to watch your video. The algorithm thinks it's erotic. Lol.

Sh*t, I'm still stuck running rosin and trying to get a usable varnish out of it, I'm falling behind.

The Congo copal sounds like it blows the rosin varnish out of the water, and yet that's what...

If you set the cap iron close to the edge and then start moving the frog forward to close the mouth, there will be a point where the shavings will hit the front of the mouth and the plane will choke....

If it makes sense, tape where you don't want japanning on and might be hard to clean later. Also, don't tape where it may be hard to remove the tape before putting the plane in the oven, you may...

I've not seen an explanation for the multiple step baking process either.

My electric toaster oven does not get hotter than 420f or so and the bakes were sucessful, so don't worry about getting a...

Did you thin the cooked mixture with turpentine?

The surface looks very smooth, how many coats did you apply?

One more block plane, right off the oven. By the way, I'm using an old electric toaster oven with a convection fan. According to the inexpensive oven thermometer I placed in it, the maximum...

I went ahead and applied one more coat to my Birmingham block plane. It didn't make it worse, it's done now.

I mentioned to David the other day that I have a Stanley sweetheart era #80, it is...

It depends on how well ventilated your workshop is, but in my case the home store turpentine smells so strongly that it migrates to the rest of the house, SWMBO complains.

Whatever the source,...

I finished the plane body. Three coats, each at least 3 hours at 400f.
I'm not super happy with the final result. The casting wasn't smooth to begin with and I may have brushed the last two coats...

I did have trouble with thicker irons, so here is the story.

Shown are four irons. The two at the top are shop made, the bottom two are Stanley and Vaughan & Bushnell.

The first one is 1/8"...

Third coat. Baked for about 3 hours at 400f.

I need to remove the old japanning off of the block plane body. That'll take a little longer since I don't have a sand blaster. I'll post more pictures...

It didn't smoke and the smell wasn't bad. However, the oven is outside under cover, so any strong odors would blow away quickly.

Here's the cap fresh off the oven with its second coat. This time I...

I have a little can of japanning from the site I posted a link to earlier. The maker, Greg Ricketts, filters it at 100 mesh, so it's unlikely to have the particles David is talking about.

The...

3mm is more than likely too thick and will need the plane mouth to be filed open. Even 0.100" blades will barely fit. In addition to that, if you want to use them with a closely set cap iron, the...

I'm going to try dissolving the ingredients at room temperature and by heating to see how the finished product looks like.

Some of the current online advise don't indicate 450f baking...

Was there a clear top coat on these machines? That could complicate matters.

I was thinking that a decal or fine brush with gold paint would fuse with the last coat of japanning.

It's a remarkable finish, no running, no brush marks, smooth surfaces.

Here's another possible example, sitting next to the sewing machine, an old typewriter.

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Here's another thought. Were these old sewing machines japanned? Notice the golden ornaments? Could something similar be done when refurbishing old planes and other tools? Gold dust?

(I took this...