Best way to store planes?

[Stan]

What is the best way to store planes? New boy here starting out, and I don't want to wreck my investment in tools through ignorance.

I don't mean caring for them with oil/wax etc, but should they be flat, on their side, on end(!) ? Or what? Does storing them the wrong way eventually distort them?

I'm not asking for display purposes, but for workshop use.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jacob]

Just pile them up somewhere dry.
You could lie them down all aligned towards Sheffield perhaps.

 

[Doug B]

It really doesn’t matter, flat, side, end, all mine sit on a shelf with a slip of wood under the toe to keep the blade off the shelf, it just seems logical to me but others will disagree.
Keeping them clean & dry is far more important.

 

[D_W]

Keep your really nice ones in a dry living area for now. For the rest, if you manage to get an older tool with bare surfaces, keep it somewhere and see if it rusts .If it does, put it somewhere else until it doesn't.

It's hard to work much with tools if you're not working with them every day and rust becomes a real consideration. Learned this the hard way about 15 years ago after getting a set of premium planes - it seemed like checking for rust would be a sort of always looking for it thing (it is if you use waterstones only and have an unheated shop).

I got less nice tools over time and started using oilstones and that went away. Oil in an amount that will be on your hands and protect against rust and so on is very persistent - and in an amount that you generally won't see on finishes. Strange thing how much using oilstones cuts down on rust, even after you wipe a tool off (you have to wipe about 10 times with clean sections of a cloth to really get every last bit of oil off, and you don't want to do that, anyway).

 

[fezman]

I use my planes all the time and clean them occasionally. They are stored in my single brick garage workshop. About once a month i give them a quick costing of camellia oil and I haven't seen any rust since.

I recently got a copy of Robert Wearings book on woodwork aids and devices and saw the Oil Pad tip there. Basically, take a strip of carpet, fix it to some scrap wood, and then put some oil on the carpet. You can then store your planes on top of this. I've started to place the oil pad on the bench when i am using the plane, and place the plane on top - not had to lubricate a plane since, as each time i put the plane down it oils itself.

 

[thetyreman]

dont put them on their side, paul sellers says it's wrong and not what working craftsman did, I think he's right, if you have a plane on its side and swipe your hand across a razor sharp blade you'll learn the hard way just how badly this can cut you up. I have found keeping them in a tool chest cuts down on rust but doesn't eliminate it entirely, you have to keep an eye on them if not using them regularly.

 

[D_W]

dont put them on their side, paul sellers says it's wrong and not what working craftsman did, I think he's right, if you have a plane on its side and swipe your hand across a razor sharp blade you'll learn the hard way just how badly this can cut you up. I have found keeping them in a tool chest cuts down on rust but doesn't eliminate it entirely, you have to keep an eye on them if not using them regularly.

It's weird to see assertions like this - not that it's wrong in his area. He's probably relaying what he saw.

I spent time around an Amish trim carpenter here at one point and he stores all of his planes on their sides. It'd be a challenge to find many other people still using planes, and he didn't use them much, but I'm sure his ancestors did.

They're fully entrenched in the world of diesel, hydraulics and pneumatics now to avoid using electricity where it's not allowed (but still have and use planes a little - just more for fitting and not for finish).

I'll say this, though - a jack plane can take a pretty solid slice out of you. If the cap iron is set on the other planes, the iron won't have enough relief to make much of a cut. I've learned this by experience (at time planing bits when pulling wood across a plane set in a vise upside down - but that's done on any quality work with the cap set as it's a sizing operation, and finishing at the same time as getting to size).

The only real rule I could say is don't lay the plane iron on something hard sticking out of the plane (it will deflect) and don't put the plane down in dirt.

A friend of mine who hardly ever uses planes has a "plane bar" on his bench to set the nose of the planes on. I have no hard and fast rules and have not been cut by the jack to my recollection but i have more than once run one of my outside fingers into a dog or something else on the bench, and the result of that is bad.

 

[Jacob]

Oily rags are very traditional. You can probably buy them ready oiled from Veritas or Dieter Schmidt.
I should do a video on how to oil a rag.

 

[mikej460]

I'm making one of these this week as it's a good, simple idea. I will fill mine with camellia oil
How to make a Rag-in-a-can Oiler | Paul Sellers - YouTube

and notice that he doesn't put his plane on its side!

 

[Inspector]

Keep them in the hangar but if you do have to keep them outside make sure they are tied down.

 

[Jacob]

Nobody has mentioned plane socks?

 

[segovia]

I made a cabinet last weekend, I'll post a picture soon. My planes were kept in their boxes for protection and it was a pain to lift them in and out when I used them. Note, planes in an unheated garage or shed will most likely rust if not adequately protected.

 

[owen]

Best place to store a plane is in a hangar...

 

[Phil Russell]

All good advice about keeping planes on their sides; it is what I was taught at school. But, and it is a big but: they need turning every week. Why? Well the sharpening process induces minute molecular level electrical / magnetic charges in the blade which concentrate around the cutting edge. This leads, due to the magnetic forces involved and the gravitational pull on the micromolecular structure of the cutting edge to a slow movement of molecules down the edge such that the bottom of the edge becomes duller due to a build up of micromolecules while the upper part of the edge suffers from molecular migration, again leading to a loss of sharpness. Overall this leads to a dulling of the cutting edge. The only remedy is to regularly turn your planes such that what was the bottom face becomes the top face; preferably weekly. In this way the micromolecules simply move up and down the cutting edge and effectively cancel each other out. The result is a perfectly sharp blade whenever you need it.
Happy to help.
PS: I keep a small magnet on top of the plane to counteract these effects so only need to turn the plane once a month ... bit like fine champagne.
Cheers, Phil

 

[novocaine]

All good advice about keeping planes on their sides; it is what I was taught at school. But, and it is a big but: they need turning every week. Why? Well the sharpening process induces minute molecular level electrical / magnetic charges in the blade which concentrate around the cutting edge. This leads, due to the magnetic forces involved and the gravitational pull on the micromolecular structure of the cutting edge to a slow movement of molecules down the edge such that the bottom of the edge becomes duller due to a build up of micromolecules while the upper part of the edge suffers from molecular migration, again leading to a loss of sharpness. Overall this leads to a dulling of the cutting edge. The only remedy is to regularly turn your planes such that what was the bottom face becomes the top face; preferably weekly. In this way the micromolecules simply move up and down the cutting edge and effectively cancel each other out. The result is a perfectly sharp blade whenever you need it.
Happy to help.
PS: I keep a small magnet on top of the plane to counteract these effects so only need to turn the plane once a month ... bit like fine champagne.
Cheers, Phil

that happens if you leave them on there sole too, non sharpened micro molecules migrate from the top of the iron to the leading edge resulting in blunt blades. it's one of the selling features of a low angle plane as the reduced angle means they move slower.

 

[Stan]

When you turn the plane you have to do it gently so as not to disturb the silt. Perhaps if I store them under a pyramid they will self-sharpen?

Thanks for the above. I'll keep them under the mattress with my stash of £100 notes.

 

[pe2dave]

For ease of access (and a bit of pride?), make up a sloping tray to take them. You know where each resides
and you can add oily carpet, that funny paper that keeps rust at bay, whatever.

 

[owen]

If you're feeling flash you can store them in an egg incubator, the heat keeps the rust at bay and they get turned automatically so you don't need to worry

 

[Cabinetman]

Sounds to me as if everybody has too many planes that don’t get used enough lol

 

[Bm101]

The whole keeping a plane on its sides is a bit weird to me. At schools that is one way to stop 30 kids throwing tools about and teach a little tool respect and consideration. As a grown man surely you can place a plane down gently. I can understand keeping the iron up in storage as a precaution but even then unless you are throwing your tools at your plane holder/storage you are not going to damage the iron unless it's in transit. On the bench does no one else get shavings to rest the plane on? Am I doing summat wrong to get shavings?!?
I'm off to look at youtube...