plane adjusting hammers

[condeesteso]

I have some nice hex and round stock of brass, bronze and gunmetal. I want to make a new plane hammer some time. I currently use a lignum one I made but could do with a bit more mass. On my travels I've seen many variants in use - I know without doubt mine will have a short shaft (maybe 120-150mm) but I am considering leather (or maybe lignum) one end.
Has anyone got the ultimate plane-adjusting hammer, I need some ideas here.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Douglas

This is the one I made and use.

The head is about 7 oz of brass, approx 50mm long and 20mm diameter. The other side is hard nylon (off a cutting board) ...

The head is attached with a wedge and the mortice is tapered.

The nylon is held on with a tapped bolt, and the shoulders are coped to fit tightly under the brass rod ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Hi Douglas,

a few years ago I had a machinist to make a few hammer heads according to my wishes. Amongst these a little one that is designed for plane adjusting. I handeled this one with ebony, one side is ebony filled as well.

Today I'd fill the wooden side of the head rather with lignum vitae, it's less brittle than ebony. Although the ebony face isn't impacted so long.

Cheers
Klaus

 

[condeesteso]

Wow, this is getting good!! The hard nylon infill is a very practical idea Derek. And Klaus has gone to the trouble to have the flats on the centre of head.
These hammers say a lot about the owners/makers =D> =D>
Klaus, has the ebony behaved OK?, I would have been slightly concerned of it's brittle nature.

I can see I will need to relax my view regarding handle length, these both look around 260 - 280mm (a guess).
I'm keen on getting a really good one out of the gunmetal, but may do a bronze one first for a dry-run (just in case).

 

[Klaus Kretschmar]

You've a keen eye, Douglas. The overall length of the handle indeed is 260 mm

 

[Jacob]

They are more or less essential with the retro design LN/LV planes with Norris style adjusters, which were always ineffective compared to the Stanley Bailey design.
Any small hammer (like the ornamental ones above, or a pin hammer) will do for these, but for woodies you need something much bigger; a normal flat face mallet is best for hitting the body and a hammer for tapping the blade.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Have to admit that I tend to use whatever hammer happens to come to hand (20oz claw hammer is fine if that's what's to hand I've found - it's easy to tap gently with a bigger hammer), and a wooden mallet for shocking the wedge out. That said, I can quite see the appeal of a dedicated tool; finding a mallet and a hammer on a busy bench might not suit some ways of working.

If I was going to make one, I'd have one face large - say 1 1/2" or so - and faced with either wood or thick leather, and the other face about 3/4" of hard brass. I'd make the hammer head balance dead on the handle centre-line, and I'd make it quite heavy, so that shocking the wedge out doesn't need too much whacking - something like 24oz. I'd have the handle about normal hammer length - say 12".

 

[MIGNAL]

I use a small deadblow hammer, brass face at one end, plastic the other. About a 1 inch diameter face. The plastic is fine for hitting the wood, The brass does mark when hitting the iron but it can always be re-polished. they can be had on the auction site for just north of a tenner. Best hammer I've had for adjusting wooden planes.

 

[bugbear]

I use a small deadblow hammer, brass face at one end, plastic the other. About a 1 inch diameter face. The plastic is fine for hitting the wood, The brass does mark when hitting the iron but it can always be re-polished. they can be had on the auction site for just north of a tenner. Best hammer I've had for adjusting wooden planes.

Yes - a nice small THOR soft face mallet is my adjuster of choice. About the right weight for adjustrment, no mushrooming.

http://www.thorhammer.com/Hammers/Plastic/

50p at a car boot, if you're patient.

I'm sure we've all seen (and filed away!) the results of adjustment using steel faced hammers.

BugBear

 

[MIGNAL]

This one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sealey-BFH12- ... 5aedb09b28

Has a bit of lead shot in the head. No idea if that helps.
Yes, yes I know it's bright Orange and looks naff. I can picture the toolies p'ing themselves laughing. I originally bought it for tapping in Guitar frets but I didn't like it for that purpose. I was using a small ball pein hammer to adjust Planes. Then I thought I would try the deadblow on the Planes. Bingo! The deadblow is better for Planes and the ball pein is better for frets.

 

[Jacob]

You could buy wood grain Fablon and stick it all over the handle. Nobody would know. Very handy stuff.

 

[lanemaux]

Once again I find myself in the less than enviable position of using the least cool of all solutions. My Japanese style kanna and 2 other woodies of western extraction get adjusted with the butt end of my largest and cheapest nylon handled screwdriver . Strangely , it works quite well and never leaves a mark of any sort. Sort of a poor-mans carving mallet. For extraction I tap the rear end of the plane in use on my bench (with my other hand poised to catch any overly loosened bits).

 

[monkeybiter]

screwdriver

How dare you?

 

[Biliphuster]

I use one of these

http://www.thorhammer.com/Hammers/Rawhide/

Rawhide for the wood, copper for the blade, works well and the copper face seems to hold up. The leather side also makes a fantastic morticing mallet.

 

[Jacob]

Has anybody used one of these?

 

[Vann]

Has anybody used one of these?

Yes. I attack both daughters with one from time to time (hammer) .

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I use a small deadblow hammer, brass face at one end, plastic the other. About a 1 inch diameter face. The plastic is fine for hitting the wood, The brass does mark when hitting the iron but it can always be re-polished. they can be had on the auction site for just north of a tenner. Best hammer I've had for adjusting wooden planes.

Yes - a nice small THOR soft face mallet is my adjuster of choice. About the right weight for adjustrment, no mushrooming.

http://www.thorhammer.com/Hammers/Plastic/

50p at a car boot, if you're patient.

I'm sure we've all seen (and filed away!) the results of adjustment using steel faced hammers.

BugBear

It's certainly true that many a vintage plane iron suffers from a surfeit of mushrooms, but I can't see how that could happen from adjusting alone - to advance an iron needs only a gentle tap, after all. My suspicion - unconfirmed - is that many an iron has been removed from the plane in the past by driving it down and out through the mouth. That would cause a bit more damage.

Edit - maybe not. I've just tried it. On a wide-mouthed plane, you can get the iron and cap-iron through, but not the cap-iron nut. On a narrower-mouthed plane, only the iron will come through (obvious when you think about it - or try it!).

Still don't think all that damage to the top-end of plane irons is down to normal adjusting, though. Must be something else going on...

 

[Jacob]

I use a small deadblow hammer, brass face at one end, plastic the other. About a 1 inch diameter face. The plastic is fine for hitting the wood, The brass does mark when hitting the iron but it can always be re-polished. they can be had on the auction site for just north of a tenner. Best hammer I've had for adjusting wooden planes.

Yes - a nice small THOR soft face mallet is my adjuster of choice. About the right weight for adjustrment, no mushrooming.

http://www.thorhammer.com/Hammers/Plastic/

50p at a car boot, if you're patient.

I'm sure we've all seen (and filed away!) the results of adjustment using steel faced hammers.

BugBear

It's certainly true that many a vintage plane iron suffers from a surfeit of mushrooms, but I can't see how that could happen from adjusting alone - to advance an iron needs only a gentle tap, after all. My suspicion - unconfirmed - is that many an iron has been removed from the plane in the past by driving it down and out through the mouth. That would cause a bit more damage.

Edit - maybe not. I've just tried it. On a wide-mouthed plane, you can get the iron and cap-iron through, but not the cap-iron nut. On a narrower-mouthed plane, only the iron will come through (obvious when you think about it - or try it!).

Still don't think all that damage to the top-end of plane irons is down to normal adjusting, though. Must be something else going on...

Yep, they get hammered when used for other things; mainly as a wedge. I once wedged the cylinder head off a BSA M21 with a blade from a woody. Still got the plane, bike well gone.

 

[Racers]

I think they got used for hinge mortices, its a handy 2"+ chisel.

Pete

 

[MIGNAL]

Being used as a chisel makes much more sense. Just under half of my old woodie blades show fairly significant mushrooms, one dreadfully so. The rest have very minimal damage.