A Pair of Jack Planes

[D_W]

I made these, the one in the front is for a large-handed friend, and the one in the back is mine. The handle is a bit large for my hand (lesson learned on a jack that the handle should be a bit shorter than the try plane handle since it's a two or three finger open grip on the handle, and that's it. The large handle looks a bit funny on both of them.

Both of these are modeled after an old mathieson jack plane that wiley horne (who is probably not known here) sent to me when he heard I was interested in building some planes and knew that I liked mathieson planes.

17 inches long, both of them, and the one in the back has a 2 1/4" english iron (can't remember the make, something NOS - hildick maybe), and the one in the front has an old chapin and stevens iron. Both are wonderful irons to sharpen.

http://s28.postimg.org/ps9kljk99/P1080390.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/djgi9kstd/P1080387.jpg

I don't sand on these planes, personal irk, and they are made with the blanks sized from rough by hand, only using a cordless drill to do the initial mouth opening. Handles are rasped and then scraped instead of sanded, scraping them leaves an interesting texture on the end grain, a little bit of bite but not blistering, and it preserves the lines on the side of the handle (one of which was washed out by the flash on the front plane).

American Beech. I've seen some comments, maybe it was here, about whether or not american beech is a suitable substitute for euro beech - they're similar, but american beech is a smoother feeling wood. Badly behaved if not sawn right, but if sawn pith perfectly on center, it is fabulous, bettered only by air dried apple, which is impossible to find in these size blanks now (the saw handle sneaking in is quartered air dried apple).

I have some old jack planes, but none are as good as a freshly made and freshly fitted and bedded plane. Everything is so tight on a new one.

Finish is boiled linseed oil and briwax.

 

[swagman]

Wonderfully crafted David. Excellent work. Without getting into the pro's and cons of double irons in general, do you still see a need for a double iron on a jack plane when its cutting edge is normally cambered.

regards Stewie;

 

[cansdale]

Nice work, D.W., something to be proud of for years to come. Enjoy them.

 

[AndyT]

Now I see who you are - I recognise these planes from your YouTube videos. Definitely the real thing. It's nice to see someone appreciating the established pattern and faithfully following it. Very nice work!

 

[Bluekingfisher]

Very nice and I am sure staisfying to know someone will be appreciating them for generations.

David

 

[Mr_P]

Great work and thanks for the extensive how to video guide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjHMwL-dj4

 

[D_W]

Wonderfully crafted David. Excellent work. Without getting into the pro's and cons of double irons in general, do you still see a need for a double iron on a jack plane when its cutting edge is normally cambered.

regards Stewie;

Hi Stewie, thanks for the nice comments - if I were limited to only one plane with a double iron, it would be the trying plane and not the jack. I could generally live without it on smoothers, too, if the surface were prepared by a proper try plane, which leaves a near finished surface. (when I say live without it, I mean it wouldn't be that much of a detriment to rate of wood dimensioned - we can obviously do all of the work with single irons and get a similar end result).

The cap iron can be brought to close enough to use with effect on a jack, but I don't generally do it much because it's easier to deal with minor tearout and try to plane downhill at that step than it is to face any chip resistance on such a thick chip.

The only other consideration is that on a double iron plane, it is extremely hard to generate chatter if it's fitted properly, that's really my preference for a double iron jack - and a lot of that solidness had to do with the old cap iron design that is a heavy truck spring style. I've seen people dropping bailey irons and modern flat cap irons in wood planes, but without that spring to really lock things up, it wouldn't be the same.

I did have a single iron jack until not long ago, but I cut up about 7 or 8 planes at one point and harvested their irons because the irons were worth more to me than the planes. They were too hard to sell to anyone as planes, and that jack fell victim to that scheme (I still have a nice single iron jointer, though).

One other side comment, the things that are different in building a double iron jack, and where the feeding problems occur before proper fitting (which is fairly difficult until a few planes are under the belt) - those are less critical on a jack because it's only feeding in the middle. So, the one plane where the cap is needed the least is the one plane where it would be easiest to build successfully.

 

[D_W]

Great work and thanks for the extensive how to video guide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjHMwL-dj4

Guilty as charged! Those videos are not safe for anyone who can't tolerate my very strong (nearly televangelism level - except with proof!!) preference for the double iron.

I've built twice as many planes since then, and am a little faster at it, but build them largely the same, and probably will until my jones to build them is over.

 

[D_W]

Nice work, D.W., something to be proud of for years to come. Enjoy them.

Thanks! I hope they (mine and the one in front which is going to Chris Griggs from another forum) get used so hard that they are beat and show significant signs of wear. It would be a compliment if they were used until the iron was too short to stick above the wedge.

 

[D_W]

Now I see who you are - I recognise these planes from your YouTube videos. Definitely the real thing. It's nice to see someone appreciating the established pattern and faithfully following it. Very nice work!

Thanks, Andy. I guess I've never seen a double iron plane with the chamfer elements that we see on the older single iron planes, but it's nice to mix and match off of the things from the time. I'm sure some of the early double iron planes were made so, but I have never been lucky enough to own a double iron plane that came from the 18th century, despite literature describing their use in the mid to late 18th century.

At any rate, the established patterns make more and more sense the more we use our planes for more than smoothing. It's worth the effort to learn to make them.

 

[swagman]

Thanks David. Appreciate your thoughts on the subject. Your traditional techniques within planemaking exhibit a very high standard.

regards Stewie;

 

[G S Haydon]

It was great to follow your videos on YT David. I must try and finish mine although I know it won't look this good or work as well. Top class work and well done for promoting both the making of and using these fantastic tools.

 

[D_W]

It was great to follow your videos on YT David. I must try and finish mine although I know it won't look this good or work as well. Top class work and well done for promoting both the making of and using these fantastic tools.

If you're ever in the states, let me know. I'll throw something together for you to take back.

It would cost a mint to ship one to the UK, but it wouldn't weigh much if you could pack it in a bag.

 

[D_W]

Thanks David. Appreciate your thoughts on the subject. Your traditional techniques within planemaking exhibit a very high standard.

regards Stewie;

Thanks again for the nice comments, Stewie. It's nice to build something enough times to get incremental improvement. Hopefully nobody looks too closely at the eyes on the one in the back....or the fat top horn. I shortcutted some things on that plane because it was for me to have both just to have a new and tight open handled jack, as well as to test an offset handle (which I can live without, but I've gotten used to it). It's probably deserving of a little bit of correction to bring some parts up to spec, but it's the principle of the mechanic never takes very good care of his own car, I suppose.

I doubt that plane would stand a drop, but I leave the horns fat on my personal planes just in case - I've already dropped a closed handle fore on its handle, and fortunately it landed vertically on it - and survived with just some dinging on the top of the horn. I'm convinced most planes with broken handles were just dropped and not broken out of brute strength (that's not a very bold statement, but when you first start building, you wonder what the breaking point is - as big george - as well call him - muscled the stop strap of his maple jointer into a break. that was a delicate handle, a more delicate wood, and probably a stronger user than me, though I horse my own personal planes as hard as I can reasonably go).

 

[G S Haydon]

I'll start saving air miles David.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Good seeing you over here "D W"! Saw your planes on another forum, top job!

Now, are you going to get "G W" posting here also??????

 

[G S Haydon]

It'd be nice to se "W M" as well

 

[D_W]

I'll check with George. I don't think anyone has any influence on Warren, though.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I'll check with George. I don't think anyone has any influence on Warren, though.

A PM from you would help: this forum is far less than a bunch of bloggers and more of a place of craftspeople.

 

[Benchwayze]

D W,

I never mastered wooden planes, but you know; I think a nice piece of kit like either of those, could make the difference!
Lovely work. =D>

John