My Hand Planes

[cae2100]

Well, I got the blades cut out, made a 1/4", 3/16", and 1/8" cutters, which I still need to cut the V grooves in them for the spurs/knickers on the one side, but I just havnt done that yet. I thought about making some thinner cutters for it, but not sure I would ever use them tbh. The 1/8" was just a piece cut out of some bed frame, which was already at 1/8" thick, and the one I'd be using the most anyhow, and the other two were made from some leaf spring off cuts that I had cut off of the jointer plane, and milled down on the shaper.

It has technically had it's first shavings, which it does work pretty well and is pretty quick and easy to use, but not having that front part open for the spurs/knickers, it really makes it akward and not want to cut very well. The spurs/knickers slice the wood ahead of the cut, then the other side of the cutter comes in behind that and scoops the material out, so it can go across grain and leaves a perfectly smooth and sharp edge to the slots/grooves. The spurs/knickers side also sets the depth of cut too, which right now, both sides are equal, so it doesnt really want to dig in and cut very well at all since both sides are technically set flush with each other.

I was thinking of taking some black shoe polish and rubbing it down with it and giving it a buff, then the casting defects and sand cast texture underneath would get filled in with the black shoe polish/wax and harden, so it would look like the old japanning, but removed off in the high spots where you would grip, so it would fill in the defects and would look like unworn areas from the japanning, and the rest would be patina'd brass, which it wants to do pretty quickly on it's own tbh.

Edit: after reading how the shoe polish wears off pretty easily, I do have some black paste wax I can use to fill the spots in, and i know that it does harden, so I may use that instead. Ill have to do some experiments with both to see what works and what I like.

[Jammer]

Looks like it cuts pretty well.

[cae2100]

yea, when you get the angle just right, it cuts really really well, but because the cutters are missing the spurs/knickers side, and the cutout for those to also set the depth of cut, there is really no depth of cut and is finicky to actually get it to want to cut right now. Once the spur/knickers side is done, it'll drop the cutting depth down a little bit so the scooping edge can dig down in a bit and work alot easier.

[cae2100]

Well, it's done, lol. The blades were filed out earlier this morning and heat treated using the propane torch since I couldnt fire the forge up. We have burn bans all over the place here, everything is just too hot and too dry, and we're in a major drought right now, so I just used the propane torch to do them up.

To do the spurs/knickers in the blades, I wrapped the cutting edge side of the blade in a few layers of blue painter's tape to protect the edge. Then I just used a V file and filed a notch in the middle of the spur/knicker side, then used the corner of a normal file to dig down in and remove the material. The larger blades, I did the same, except I used a round file/chainsaw file to file the material out, so they have a round groove in them instead of a V.

The spurs make a massive difference in using them, even going across the grain. There was a knot in the board and it didnt even recognize it was even there, it just sliced through it like it didnt even exist, lol. Going across the grain, you really saw the difference, the board I was testing it with, it is very soft eastern/northern white pine, and some of it was a bit punky, so it wasnt the best to do the test on, but it still excelled tbh.

The top in the first pic was before the spurs/knickers and it just tore chunks out of everything, second was after it was just filed and rough shape, before it was actually heat treated and sharpened, which you can see was a massive difference. Then in the bottom pic, you can see the edge was even more cracked and punky, but it was done after heat treating and sharpening to razor sharp, so the edge of it was very sharp/crisp, so I couldnt ask for more than that. It is very very quick at cutting the grooves too, I was really surprised about that, probably removed 30-40 thou per pass quite easily, so you could do a groove along the edge for a drawer bottom in a matter of 10-15 seconds at most.

I wanted it for blocking off sections in coreboxes and such, make the core print section longer than it was needed, then cut the groove around the inside and put a piece of plywood in, which would help hold the sand in while ramming the cores up, and also for cutting out for removable pieces that would be inset for loose pieces in patterns. I also made up the really wide cutters because I could use them to cut really wide grooves in stuff, like coopered pieces for stuff like cutting the grooves in treasure chest tops type stuff, where you would want it inset into the top but be hidden and the stickout on an electric router would be too much. Since it's like a router plane, you can set the cutter to depth you want to cut down to, then cut a groove, move over the fence and go down again, and it'll cut a dado across the edge of a part too, so it'll defenitely come into use alot for me, lol.

Well, this one has probably been the most challenging, but probably the most rewarding of any of them so far imo, from learning how to do every part of it with the pattern, realizing how much Ive improved when shaping that and how little time I took to make it vs how much I used to have to spend working on the patterns. Machining it was a serious learning experience, trying to figure out how to hold everything, and how to machine it all.

But as I said, that actually is my last one for the toolboxes tbh, I had some other ones doodled up, but Ive never really be happy with them, so I may finish them up and just take them out to colonial and sell them tbh. I think that is probably the last tool for the toolbox really, I cant really think of anything else that I would ever need, lol. I have a few planes, like the plow plane that just needs the blades cut out for it, and the bottoms shaped, but that's easy enough to do. I plan on probably just cutting those out and leaving most of them soft, that way I can grind them to shape easily as I need to a custom profile.

[cae2100]

I figured this was a fitting way to finish it, so I did up a video on the build of the quirk router. That thing has a million different uses and is honestly alot of fun to use, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7c8f0S9Y5c

That stuff is all done now.


As for the planes and such, I took my pipe planes out to colonial homestead, to my friend out there and he went nuts over the new pipe planes, lol. He wants me to make some extras of those to bring out so he could sell them, which after the prices he quoted, my dad's jaw just hit the floor hard and it looks like Im going to be making a half a dozen of each plane coming up probably to take out. Ill just start out with some small pocket size ones that I designed and have been working on for a little while, just to see how they sell and how everything works.

I also forgot about a plane that I did up a while back and never finished, it was a spill plane, which isnt a useful tool, and defenitely not a patternmaking tool, so it kinda slipped through the cracks, lol. It's whole purpose is to make wood spills, which are these long narrow tapered cones as you run it across the edge of a board. The wood spills were very common and found all over the house before matches were invented, you would light the end of the wood spill using an ember in the fireplace/cook stove and you could walk around the house with it to light your candles, lamps/lanterns, and even your tobacco pipe.

I have a bunch of candles here that are in the glass jars, and you can never find matches or a long neck lighter to get down into them, but I can always find the small lighters that fit in your pocket, but you can never get those down into that jar to light the candles with those, lol. I made the spills up so I could light the end and reach down into those candles to light them, lol. I thought about dipping some in paraffin wax so they burn really slowly as an experiment, and using them as waterproof fire starters when I go camping. The plane isnt perfect, but it's very close to being right and creates nice long tapered cones that just shoot out the side of the plane and serves the purpose that I was wanting them for.

After I got a big bundle of the spills to use, the planes just were sat off to the side and havnt messed with them since. They were made of cherry as usual, but this cherry had a huge streak of mineral stains running through it, which made it look pretty neat, and the wood is quite figured, so that really makes it look nice, lol. I just need to cut out some blades for them and make the wedges for them, then those will be done.

You probably remember these ones, I started these a few months ago i believe and finally got some wedges and such made for them. Since Ill be the only one to have and use them, I just took with me to the carving group last time and used my whittling knife and one of my needle rasps to semi shape them. I just finished up the front toe on the compass plane a few days ago while I was cleaning stuff up.

That's about all that I have atm, I still have the little pipe planes I was designing to take out to colonial, but Im mostly just finishing up the ones that I had now. I think all that I really have left to finish up is making the blades/blanks for the plow plane, and just minor tweaks on some other ones really.

[cae2100]

Well, I saved some of the misformed spills from the spill planes for myself to use, and the rest/nicer ones, I ended up taking out to algonquin this past weekend and started putting them in each of the old buildings around the fireplaces, and explained what they were for and what they would have been used for, since that would have been a common thing to find in those old colonial cabins of that period. I didnt realize it, but the one lady that was in charge of the one building, was actually a writer for the local newspaper, so she wanted to get pics of everything and get a bunch of info about them, how they were made, etc, so I may or may not end up with my picture in the newspaper holding a burning wood spill, lol.

While I was at algonquin, I was talking to the one blacksmith friend there and we were talking about forging hand planes, and he said he took a coopering class a while back. Coopering is making stuff like the wooden buckets, butter churns, oak barrels for wine, whiskey, etc. But we were talking and he asked if I wanted all of the old coopering stuff since he did the class, but ended up losing interest in it, but still had all of the stuff just sitting there. He had a big cooper's plane that they made in the class, and all of the other tools, and asked if I wanted it. I couldnt pass it up, so he looked for everything but could only find the parts of the cooper's plane, and brought it in. Cooper's planes are massive things that actually have thier own legs and stand up on the legs on one end, and the other end in the ground, and the barrel staves and workpieces are pushed over it, rather than having the plane pushed over the work.

It is 4" thick, 5" wide, 48" long (4ft), and stands around 3 ft off of the ground.

I put my pipe planes on it, which the larger jointer plane that I have is 18" long for scale on the bottom of the thing and it just dwarfs it, lol. It's almost as long as my workbench tbh, lol.

The bottom is far from flat, it'll need trued up, which shouldnt be too hard. It's made from cherry, and I think the legs are made from ash, but not sure yet, but they'll defenitely need some work because they feel a bit springy when trying to push on it. He just put the thing together in the class he went to and it was never finished, but it is around 80% there at least. It's been sitting for a few years exposed to the air, so the ends have a few minor cracks starting, but it should clean up easily enough since they're so shallow.

Ill probably cut down the back a little bit and make it a bit of a shallow razee style and put closed handle/plane tote on it, then put heavy 45 degree chamfers on the corners of it to hide the laminations since it is just different pieces of wood glued together. That'll clean it up to look really nice, then use the cornering tool to round over the edges on the bottom, and that should blend everything together very nicely. The mouth is a bit messed up, so I thought about chopping it out and putting a piece of hedge apple in it as a mouth closer, then it will give it a nice tight mouth, and will resist wearing alot better than just the cherry wood alone. The mouth is also not square, so it'll fix that too.

I dont plan on doing coopering or any of that stuff, but I know someone who has a plane like this, that they call the godzilla plane, and made a bunch of jigs that rides on the bottom of it for creating different profiles and such for the hand planes they make. I saw them using it quite alot when making the radius bottoms on round bottom planes, and always thought that was cool, lol. Ill probably make a holder that gets screwed onto the wall, that the plane attaches to, then it'll sit on it's front legs to hold it at height, then I can use it for jointing long boards and such, and for shaping small things that cant really be held in a clamp/vise to plane it.

I say that this thing's not going in any toolbox, but that should be pretty obvious at this point, lol. I really wasnt planning on making any more planes to keep, but this one litterally fell into my lap, and it was either I took the stuff or he was just going to toss it, so yea, I didnt have a choice, lol.

I also got some new tools that were desperately needed at algonquin and nearby also, got a few saw sets, that way I can fix the set on my hand saws finally, which I just did last night. I didnt realize that my good hand saw had no set at all and that's why it kept binding up in the cut every time I tried using it, but it just glides through everything in a nice straight cut now, lol. I also got a very very old thumbscrew brace, which is like a bit brace, but it doesnt have a chuck on it, just the square taper, with a thumbscrew coming in from the side to hold the bits in place. I found one in a catalog over in england from the late 1890s that looks identical to it, so I'd say that was a win there for sure, lol. I also got a new tap wrench finally, a really big name brand one that is very good quality (old forged steel), arkansas sharpening stones, and a few other things, all for $5 each, so I couldnt go wrong, lol.

I recorded quite a bit of video earlier on in the day, then the guys from the carving group I go to were up in the carving building and I got to BSing with them, then before I realized it, it was time to head home, lol. So most of my video is from early in the morning when I was first walking around, lol. It got extremely busy there, even on friday, it was difficult to walk through some places because there was so many people there, and that was on the slow day, on saturday, it tripled or quadrupled in size like usual. Overall tho, the food was good and I had a fun time, and I got some new very old tools to use

[greentwin]

Das some cool stuff !
.

[cae2100]

thanks man, Ive been working on the cooper's plane last few days, and it defenitely has changed shape quite a bit, but I like it alot better now, lol. I need to finish the spill planes next probably, I have someone who might be wanting a bunch more of the spills, so need to get actual blades in them that cut a full width of a board rather than thin strips only, and make up the wedges so it doesnt want to jam up every few passes. That quirk router has opened alot of possibilities in doing stuff with patterns that I wasnt able to do before, and has been used for so many things that it wasnt intended for, lol.

I also got some saw sets and finally fixed the set on my hand saws, now they just cut like a hot knife through butter, and they dont bind up anymore, so Im defenitely happy about that, lol. I have a few other things that I had gotten too, but they just got tossed in the toolbox before I finished up the quirk router and put it in there. Stuff like a tap for wood and a thread box (wood cutting die) that cuts a 3/4"-5 V thread, which if I sand down the tips a little bit, it makes a fake acme thread, and 3/4-5 acme is what broom handles use, so I can use that to fix broom handles and such when they break or wear out, lol.

But yea, the cooper's plane is defenitely an interesting challenge in a few ways, but mostly due to the raw size of the thing, and the wood is very highly figured, so trying to shape it with chisels, hand planes, and power tools gives a serious challenge, lol. I cut the back out, cut a large scallop in it and removed around 1 1/2" from the top behind the blade for a handle/plane tote to fit into, then I added heavy 45 degree chamfers around the top of it and rounded over the front, then added stopped chamfers going down the front of it being terminated with scallops from a gouge. The large chamfers tend to make the laminations be not as visible, and kinda blends everything together so that it doesnt look like it was just pieced together as much. It also gives it quite a bit of character that makes it look nice imo.

That's the progress so far on it, tomorrow I want to chisel out in front of the mouth and put a mouth closer in, which is just a piece of really hard wood that gets glued in and is used to close up the mouth of the plane, since the mouth is messed up on it and is pretty large, or much larger than what I would have liked. Ill cut out and carve a new handle for it, then drill some holes and chisel it out to inset the handle into the plane body, to make be usable as a large jointer plane, even if it never gets used as one. It's defenitely a work in progress anyways, lol.

[greentwin]

Wow, that is huge !
.

[cae2100]

lol, yea, it is defenitely massive. It's 4ft long, and Ive seen some cooper's planes go up to 6ft long. Cooper's planes are the largest hand planes to ever have been made to be used. I saw a cast iron one and it was 5ft long and weighed around 300lbs with the legs and everything, so they're pretty massive things, lol. They're designed to be used upside down, and the work piece is brought to the plane, rather than the plane brought to the work piece. They're designed that way for shaping the staves for wine/whiskey barrels, butter churns, wooden buckets, etc that a cooper would have made. Ive seen some that have had 2 4" wide cutters in them and they looked like a 3 legged bench tbh.

I keep thinking about trying my hand at a coopered project coming up, but no idea if/when I'd ever actually do it, lol. It's easy enough to just cut the stuff up with the table saw for the type of stuff I wanted to do tbh to cut the angles on it. I have this motor/impeller assembly from a vacuum cleaner, and a longer round hepa filter, and kinda had the funny idea of making a shop vac around it so I no longer have to run after my small one all the time, especially for using to suck up plane shavings and such, lol. But it'd have a coopered wooden bucket for the bottom, not tapered tho, so table saw should work fine for it, have the filter sticking down into it for the fine dust, and have the vacuum cleaner unit just in the lid. Im not sure what type of filter this thing is, so Ill have to look it up for later on if I ever need a replacement.