Lie Neilsen 97 1/2

[Chip shop]

So; over the course of the last year I've been working for a guy, on and off, who is doing a grade one listed cock-up/refurb. I've made a few windows, some beading and other bits and pieces (matching skirting and that). Christmas Eve he turns up with a parcel rapped in brown paper and wishes me a happy Christmas.

It comes in a Lie Neilsen Toolworks box, and it's a chisel plane. What is it that this plane actually does? I've tossed about with it for a bit and I'm still utterly clueless.

The internet suggests cleaning glue blobs up, but surely this isn't really a thing, is it?

There must be a killer app, but I'm not getting it.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Lie-Nielsen, on their website, state: "It makes a wonderful clean up tool, excellent at removing dry glue, flush-trimming plugs or joints, smoothing rabbets, and reaching into right-angle corners."

That just about sums it up, and it's use has some similarities with the Stanley 92 shoulder plane. The Stanley has a removable front section that converts it into a chisel plane.

Your employer's gift doesn't really have a "killer app" - it's not an iPhone, and iPhones, along with their rival smart phones, are all generally missing an 'app' capable of working wood successfully (ha, ha), but like every hand plane it has its uses, as described above. Slainte.

 

[custard]

I've got one rattling around somewhere in the workshop...and it's almost totally unused!. Personally I think it's one of those tools that sounds really useful, but in reality is a bit of a white elephant.

The problem is that, unless you maintain masses of downward pressure at the rear, the blade simply digs in like a plough or an anchor would. In practise I'd much rather clean up plugs etc with a paring chisel.

 

[large red]

I have one......ornament

 

[woodbloke66]

I've got one rattling around somewhere in the workshop...and it's almost totally unused!. Personally I think it's one of those tools that sounds really useful, but in reality is a bit of a white elephant.

The problem is that, unless you maintain masses of downward pressure at the rear, the blade simply digs in like a plough or an anchor would. In practise I'd much rather clean up plugs etc with a paring chisel.

I completely disagree! I found it absolutely invaluable for all sorts cleaning up jobs in awkward places where I couldn't use a chisel. The trick with these bad badgers is to use sheets of printer paper underneath the sole to regulate the thickness of the shaving. Simply remove a bit each time to drop the plane and take another shaving. Agreed, you need to be careful where hand pressure is applied and you MUST (when setting the blade) also ensure that the edge just kisses the wood when you apply finger pressure in the middle of the plane body. The instructions given by LN are quite specific on how to set it up so I found it worthwhile to go through them a couple of times.
It is a learning curve, but not a steep one. I was a bit sceptical when I bought mine, but I definitely wouldn't be without it now - Rob

 

[Dangermouse 2nd]

Ive seen them around, but never needed one, a nice pairing chisel does the same job and does it better and easier..

 

[woodbloke66]

Ive seen them around, but never needed one, a nice pairing chisel does the same job and does it better and easier..

Sometimes, but not always. I made a table last year where it was impossible to use a pairing chisel but a chisel plane was the perfick tool for the job. Horses for dooberies - Rob

 

[D_W]

If you clean glue bobs up with one, you'll pull up fibers.

They're a tool that looks like a great idea to beginners, and one in twenty or so experienced woodworkers finds them handy.

I prefer everything I'd do with them to be done with an english bullnose plane and the work right up to a corner with a chisel.

If they were the bees knees, the stanley version would've been common. Just like the small scraper. There are a few applications where either is probably invaluable, but it's the last thing i'd add to my kit after I managed to make or buy all of the joinery and moulding planes I'd ever use. Which is after everything else.

 

[woodbloke66]

one in twenty or so experienced woodworkers finds them handy.

I prefer everything I'd do with them to be done with an english bullnose plane and the work right up to a corner with a chisel.

If they were the bees knees, the stanley version would've been common. Just like the small scraper. There are a few applications where either is probably invaluable, but it's the last thing i'd add to my kit after I managed to make or buy all of the joinery and moulding planes I'd ever use. Which is after everything else.

I'd suggest that you haven't yet come across a situation where it's the only tool that will do the job. This is the underframe of one of a pair of small bedside tables I made last year;

This pic shows the inside of the frame and the blocks which were glued onto the legs and then template routed to shape. The problem I faced was cleaning up the inside faces into the corner of the leg. It was impossible to use a chisel; it's the inside of the frame and there was no room to manoeuvre even a short Japanese chisel, bevel side down. A small bullnose plane couldn't be used because it wouldn't get right into the corner, but the LN chisel plane was absolutely perfect. I used it by laying it on the inside face of the rail and then took very thin slicing cuts (as recommended by LN) to bring each curved block co-planar with the rail, finishing right into the corner. If the plane is set up correctly and you use thin printer paper (or thinner) to regulate the thickness of the shaving, the chisel plane works an absolute treat and in this instance, there was no other way I could level those blocks.
It took a long time to do, but there was really no other way - Rob

 

[thetyreman]

I use the vertias version, and really like it,

it's perfect for trimming inlay, wood plugs and perfling, but it has to be ultra sharp, the veritas one has adjustable screws on the side in case you're slightly out of square with your sharpening, they're really nice tools, amazing for cleaning up glue as well.

 

[woodbloke66]

I use the vertias version, and really like it,

it's perfect for trimming inlay, wood plugs and perfling, but it has to be ultra sharp, the veritas one has adjustable screws on the side in case you're slightly out of square with your sharpening, they're really nice tools, amazing for cleaning up glue as well.

The problem with the Veritas one is that there's a bit missing from the side of each cutter which might mean it's a bit more tricky to hone the edge dead square in a guide. That's the only reason I opted for the LN version, where the sides are parallel all the way to the edge - Rob

 

[D_W]

one in twenty or so experienced woodworkers finds them handy.

I prefer everything I'd do with them to be done with an english bullnose plane and the work right up to a corner with a chisel.

If they were the bees knees, the stanley version would've been common. Just like the small scraper. There are a few applications where either is probably invaluable, but it's the last thing i'd add to my kit after I managed to make or buy all of the joinery and moulding planes I'd ever use. Which is after everything else.

I'd suggest that you haven't yet come across a situation where it's the only tool that will do the job. This is the underframe of one of a pair of small bedside tables I made last year;



This pic shows the inside of the frame and the blocks which were glued onto the legs and then template routed to shape. The problem I faced was cleaning up the inside faces into the corner of the leg. It was impossible to use a chisel; it's the inside of the frame and there was no room to manoeuvre even a short Japanese chisel, bevel side down. A small bullnose plane couldn't be used because it wouldn't get right into the corner, but the LN chisel plane was absolutely perfect. I used it by laying it on the inside face of the rail and then took very thin slicing cuts (as recommended by LN) to bring each curved block co-planar with the rail, finishing right into the corner. If the plane is set up correctly and you use thin printer paper (or thinner) to regulate the thickness of the shaving, the chisel plane works an absolute treat and in this instance, there was no other way I could level those blocks.
It took a long time to do, but there was really no other way - Rob

Hi, Rob. I would float or scrape that, or potentially use a crank neck chisel. But float and scrape would probably be it. I suspect a lot of people don't have something like a bed float, but it's a tool that I'd put ahead of a chisel plane because it's much faster to the same end.

I know there are specialty joinery floats that are made like crank neck chisels, but I don't have them.

There are a lot of trapped cuts like that in planemaking. When you chisel parallel to the legs, you end up with a little bit of flotsam right in the joint, but you can relieve it cleanly coming into it perpendicularly with a chisel bevel.

Not suggestion some won't find a chisel plane useful, though. In a world where we had the statistics of everything, it'd be nice to know what percentage tools people found useful.

I've got 1 1/2" skew paring chisels (because they're useful for planes). I wouldn't anticipate the average person would find use for them, and i don't *need* them, but they make the relief cuts on plane cheeks a lot easier.

(and not surprisingly, a couple of older kits from planemakers that I've seen published included very few floats and many specialty chisels - likely a necessity due to speed and production requirements - not to mention that bruising some part of a plane making a cut somewhere else is not allowable).

 

[AJB Temple]

I have one of these. I've used it quite a bit for cleaning up glue marks around braces on the bottom of flat guitar tops. It's not strictly necessary to do this as no one will ever see them following assembly, but I have perfectionist tendencies. I also use it for cleaning up oak plugs that I have used when fitting solid oak door frames. It would not be on the top of my acquisition list but like many people I have a bit of a tool addiction.

 

[woodbloke66]

Hi, Rob. I would float or scrape that, or potentially use a crank neck chisel.

There was about 2mm or so to come off each of those blocks, 16 on each table and 32 in total. The amount of space to wield any sort of a tool was very limited, say around 300mm or less so the only tool that would comfortably do the job was the LN chisel plane - Rob

 

[sunnybob]

I've just looked this up and its for sale at 170 quid :shock:
In the words of the late sir Wogan...
put it in a glass case on the wall and throw sugar at it. =D> =D> =D>

 

[Brtone]

Looked at these time and again, looks like it would be handy once in a while to clean where nobody’s going to ever see, then, visions of ripped fibre, just think it lacks proper functionality but each to their own.

 

[shed9]

I've got one too, bought it to clean glue lines along 8ft+ plus glue-ups. Takes some faffing about and needs to be especially sharp and kept sharp. It has it's uses and sometimes it comes in handy but not my best purchase (I didn't pay full whack for it mind, got it quite cheap through Dictum).

 

[woodbloke66]

Looked at these time and again, looks like it would be handy once in a while to clean where nobody’s going to ever see, then, visions of ripped fibre, just think it lacks proper functionality but each to their own.

Look at this LN video which is what I used to set up and use my 97.5. If you set the plane up as shown it works perfectly; the slicing action to cut is crucial, if you don't you'll liable to get huge amounts of ripped and torn grain - Rob

 

[D_W]

Hi, Rob. I would float or scrape that, or potentially use a crank neck chisel.

There was about 2mm or so to come off each of those blocks, 16 on each table and 32 in total. The amount of space to wield any sort of a tool was very limited, say around 300mm or less so the only tool that would comfortably do the job was the LN chisel plane - Rob

It looks like there's a lot of room in the direction of the leg, rather than perpendicular to it. Floating that would be done parallel to the leg, scraping depends on what you're using and how.

You did very neat tidy work, but there are lots of other ways to do it. 2mm isn't an issue for a float - they're more or less a dimensioning tool. Nicholson shear cut files are also great for that kind of work. They would leave a little bit of scuzz into the corner of the joint, but you can release whatever would be left with a chisel cut.

I'm not a furniture maker, I'm more of a plane maker and now guitars, so there's a lot of this oddball trimming going on. Sometimes in inconvenient places, but not the same way as yours is inconvenient.

Here is a spruce telecaster that i've made recently, varnish finish (I made the varnish), no power tools on the neck other than a cordless drill for the peghead holes. Instruments and tools kind of build up your toolkit for this kind of corner work. (actually, the neck pocket on a guitar like this is easily fitted with floats and scrapers, too - roughed out either by hand or with a power router. )

 

[woodbloke66]

The current small project in the 'shop is a bedside table (here very roughly assembled) made from an assortment of odds n'ends of gash oak (really just to use up all the offcuts) with blocks added to the inside of the stand;

One task is to level the inside face of the blocks after the profile has been has been bearing cut using a router/template combo, so firstly most of the waste is gouged away;

Then using the LN chisel plane, the rough gouged surface is gradually lowered to the level of the rail, using slips of printer paper to regulate the depth of cut;

Most of the waste in the corner is removed with a wide chisel;

...so that once the final piece of paper is removed, the chisel plane is resting directly on the inside of the rail and the last slicing cut....

...can be made. I've tried using a wide paring chisel to do this job, but it's much, much easier and more controlled with a chisel plane - Rob