Re: My Hand Planes
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2023 11:14 am
Thank you richard, and very nice boat. Ive always been interested in the old wooden boats and old ships also, but just dont have the room to make one. As you saw by the razee style of the scraper plane, and quite a few of my patterns in the past, Im a fan of the style of old ships, which just have the right flow to them imo, lol. Alot of my stuff seems to follow the same flow to the design as was commonly seen in old shipyards. On my good patternmaking toolbox, I was experimenting a bit and used a few coats of the pine tar, BLO, and turpentine mix that was commonly used on old dingies and wooden ships, which no matter what Ive seen for stains and such, you cant beat the finish you get off of that stuff. I just let it cure and soak into the old plywood (my toolbox was made from an old foundry flask I made up ages ago), and it went from old and grungy looking of plywood, to a vibrant color that cant be beat. I put a shellac and paste wax finish on top of that after a week or so drying out in the sun since that stuff needs the UV from the sun to cure.
We have plenty of black cherry, normal cherry, black locust, oak, hickory, ash, dogwood, maple, hedge apple, etc, around here to make planes from and Ive used most of them trying it, and my favorite honestly has to be black cherry due to it's higher hardness, ease of working, and very high stability. I have some black locust sitting here, but have never actually worked it before, beyond carving a block out as a form for working sheet brass/copper for my copper smithing projects. I love carving black locust, and it's hard enough that you can work sheet metal down into it and it wont even think about trying to deform, lol. I think it's harder than the soft brass and copper, so it works great for that kind of stuff. Ive never actually turned it or tried planing it smooth into a board.
I agree with you on the wooden planes, which even the metal planes I use, they have replacable wooden soles, so it just glides on the wood, and has a burnishing effect on the wood too, so gives alot better finish. I only have one iron plane in my toolbox, and it's an old low angle block plane with an adjustable mouth on it, which I keep the mouth set very tight. That gives the best finish, least amount of tearout, and it just glides through the wood. I commonly just use it as a small shooting plane to true up edges, that way the parts line up, or tilt the piece on the bench hook with a wedge to cut draft on a piece for a pattern.
We have plenty of black cherry, normal cherry, black locust, oak, hickory, ash, dogwood, maple, hedge apple, etc, around here to make planes from and Ive used most of them trying it, and my favorite honestly has to be black cherry due to it's higher hardness, ease of working, and very high stability. I have some black locust sitting here, but have never actually worked it before, beyond carving a block out as a form for working sheet brass/copper for my copper smithing projects. I love carving black locust, and it's hard enough that you can work sheet metal down into it and it wont even think about trying to deform, lol. I think it's harder than the soft brass and copper, so it works great for that kind of stuff. Ive never actually turned it or tried planing it smooth into a board.
I agree with you on the wooden planes, which even the metal planes I use, they have replacable wooden soles, so it just glides on the wood, and has a burnishing effect on the wood too, so gives alot better finish. I only have one iron plane in my toolbox, and it's an old low angle block plane with an adjustable mouth on it, which I keep the mouth set very tight. That gives the best finish, least amount of tearout, and it just glides through the wood. I commonly just use it as a small shooting plane to true up edges, that way the parts line up, or tilt the piece on the bench hook with a wedge to cut draft on a piece for a pattern.