# plane adjusting hammers



## condeesteso (10 May 2015)

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.


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## Derek Cohen (Perth Oz) (10 May 2015)

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


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## Klaus Kretschmar (10 May 2015)

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


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## condeesteso (10 May 2015)

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).


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## Klaus Kretschmar (10 May 2015)

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


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## Jacob (10 May 2015)

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.


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## Cheshirechappie (10 May 2015)

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".


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## MIGNAL (10 May 2015)

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.


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## bugbear (10 May 2015)

MIGNAL":2iiqyb0h said:


> 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


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## MIGNAL (10 May 2015)

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.


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## Jacob (10 May 2015)

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


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## lanemaux (11 May 2015)

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).


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## monkeybiter (11 May 2015)

lanemaux":32pyeb6a said:


> *screwdriver*



How dare you?


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## Biliphuster (11 May 2015)

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.


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## Jacob (11 May 2015)

Has anybody used one of these?


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## Vann (11 May 2015)

Jacob":2z11v12q said:


> Has anybody used one of these?


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

Cheers, Vann.


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## Cheshirechappie (11 May 2015)

bugbear":2jlfzoxx said:


> MIGNAL":2jlfzoxx said:
> 
> 
> > 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.
> ...




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...


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## Jacob (11 May 2015)

Cheshirechappie":1i5ix5s0 said:


> bugbear":1i5ix5s0 said:
> 
> 
> > MIGNAL":1i5ix5s0 said:
> ...


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.


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## Racers (11 May 2015)

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

Pete


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## MIGNAL (11 May 2015)

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.


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## bugbear (11 May 2015)

MIGNAL":h5jlv79r said:


> 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.



I've seen woodie blades with mushrooming on the sides, from lateral adjustment.

Whilst one might come up with plausible non-adjustment uses for straight-line mushroom,
I really can't see any thing other than adjustment causing side mushrooming.

And (of course) once we accept that lateral adjustment causes side mushrooming, we
must surely accept that the most obvious cause of straight-on mushrooming is also
the adjustment process.

BugBear


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## JohnPW (11 May 2015)

I suspect the mushrooming is caused by hitting it with a hammer with the wedge still tight. I don't know if that's just to save time (couldn't be bothered to first loosen the wedge), or the user just didn't know any better.

Wouldn't a hammer be harder than the relatively soft iron on a laminted blade, therefore even soft taps will gradually make it mushroomed?

I always use a mallet, just the ordinary carpenter's type. For very small planes, I use a small block of wood.


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## MIGNAL (11 May 2015)

You are supposed to advance it with the wedge tight. Not much use advancing it with the wedge loose, you'll lose any sort of control. Having said that it only needs to be fairly light taps.


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## Phil Pascoe (11 May 2015)

"I've seen woodie blades with mushrooming on the sides, from lateral adjustment."
Surely that's an assumpion, BB?


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## bugbear (11 May 2015)

phil.p":oxw1imal said:


> "I've seen woodie blades with mushrooming on the sides, from lateral adjustment."
> Surely that's an assumpion, BB?



Oh yes, as is _anything_ but a fully controlled experiment.

Call it a paucity of imagination, but I haven't come up
with any other plausible explanation for the side-mushrooming.

If I'm missing the obvious, I'm sure it will be along shortly; it's what
discussion forums are for!

BugBear


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## JohnPW (11 May 2015)

MIGNAL":1fn2wwzp said:


> You are supposed to advance it with the wedge tight. Not much use advancing it with the wedge loose, you'll lose any sort of control. Having said that it only needs to be fairly light taps.



Maybe I've been doing it wrong, but I thought the wedge needs loosening a bit, obviously not completely loose, but just enough so the blade moves a tiny bit when you tap it. 

If the wedge is fully tight then surely light taps are not going to move the blade. And also, after setting the blade, the wedge needs a final tap to fully tighten it, or is that wrong as well?


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## Derek Cohen (Perth Oz) (11 May 2015)

With a tapered blade, tapping it down to increase projection will loosen the wedge. That is why you tap the wedge after tapping the blade.

There is no point in loosening the blade before tapping it.

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## Doug B (11 May 2015)

I use this little hand made brass headed hammer when adjusting my planer blades







Along with a block of wood


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## Phil Pascoe (11 May 2015)

I wonder if the sides of many irons have mushroomed due then being beaten sideways after jamming when being used to split firewood and waste off large scale rough and ready carpentry? If you hit the plane sideways hard enough to mushroom the steel, you'd likely send the plane through the nearest window.


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## Jacob (11 May 2015)

Doug B":2yv1loby said:


> I use this little hand made brass headed hammer when adjusting my planer blades
> 
> 
> 
> ...


TBH I've got one exactly the same - kindly made for us each, by Ed. It's perfect for the job and very handy for all those metal planes which don't have Stanley/Bailey adjusters, especially block planes, but too small for a woody - they have to be thrashed a bit harder.


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## condeesteso (11 May 2015)

Excellent responses thank you all. It can't really be the dayglo deadblow or fablon, there was a clue in the OP re lumps of bronze and gunmetal. I'm happy generally with the bigger mallet I use for the woodies, so this is for the smaller smoothers of various types.
There's quite a bit in common between the ones Ed made, and Derek's and Klaus'. I think I'll knock a first attempt up with the brass I have and fine tune from there.

Thanks all, lots of knowledge and experience here!


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## G S Haydon (11 May 2015)

The top of plane irons are quite soft when compared to typical hammer you would have on the bench. A full time user would doubtless mushroom even with light adjusting over a number of years. Depends how bad the damage is I guess but I find something like this reassuring rather than something to file off.


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## MIGNAL (11 May 2015)

Oh look, a wonky stamp. How utterly terrible.


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## rxh (22 May 2015)

I made this simple one. It does the job but I soon found myself using it for rougher tasks.....


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## custard (24 May 2015)

Jacob":35qai7bp said:


> Has anybody used one of these?



I'm still mopping up the coffee from my keyboard because that made me laugh so much!


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## condeesteso (9 Jun 2015)

Sorted!! Not at all in the way I expected... miles better than that.
This arrived from Germany this morning:










and here with the Spiers I just got from Bill Carter, one of the hammer's first victims





Klaus (Two Lawyers Tools) had very kindly undertaken to get me some UHU Endfest epoxy (oddly not available in the UK) and this jaw-dropping hammer was in the box. Obviously the design and workmanship is ... words fail me. It's good :shock: =D>
Obviously it's a lifetime tool, cherished but used as well. 

I'm reminded again how very generous and considerate our woodworking community can be.

A very genuine big thank you Klaus. (I'm off to adjust a few planes now)


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## RogerP (9 Jun 2015)

> UHU Endfest epoxy (oddly not available in the UK)


 Yes it is eBay item 371336594775.

Nice hammer.


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## n0legs (9 Jun 2015)

Beautiful hammer. 

:arrow: Kiaus, nice one =D> =D>


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## condeesteso (9 Jun 2015)

RogerP":3qvk8un6 said:


> > UHU Endfest epoxy (oddly not available in the UK)
> 
> 
> Yes it is eBay item 371336594775.
> ...



I expected that. Was not a short while ago when I looked but it has recently changed its name. This isn't a Google competition, more my way of thanking Klaus.


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## Klaus Kretschmar (9 Jun 2015)

Douglas is a very honorable man for sure. He didn't mention, that the plane hammer was my "Thank you, mate" to him. Why? He sent me one of his double-screw vices a few days ago. I want to show the stunning piece in another thread, it deserves it for sure.

So I've to thank you, Douglas!


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