My first infill

[G S Haydon]

A £55 pound gamble from the bay. Clearly needs work (understatement). I was very surprised to find the infill was lighter than my Bailey by a good few grams and yes I did include the handle when weighing

 

[D_W]

Should work a treat. I have had perhaps 15 infills and still have a good number of them. The original mathiesons, spiers, norris no 2s, etc, were nimble and quite often not more than the weight of a stanley plane.

7 pound smoothers, or even 5.5 pound 2" smoothers and such is kind of a modern thing, but that weight will feel good to a beginner at a trade show.

These are actually practical for work, like lots of it in a row.

 

[G S Haydon]

I could only simulate holding the plane due to the damage, but holding the fore part felt more relaxed than a Bailey. A Bailey is all knob...
I look forward to trying it in due course.

 

[D_W]

no suggestion from me on the handle other than I'd bet a good glue would hold it just fine. I've epoxied jack plane (of my own make, not a good one I'm only careless with tools that I've made) handle back on a plane to see if I really needed to remove the original handle and remake it. It's right up in the rise of the handle unsupported like that break and several years later, it has never let go.

Iron looks like a marples. Marples irons are generally a touch soft, but he parallel irons that I've had marked marples are not. The only soft parallel irons that I can think of (consistently soft) are the robt. sorby irons in later norris planes and the revilo HSS replacement irons retailed for infills long ago. They are HSS, but soft and they don't wear sweetly or last any better than a plain steel iron.

At any rate, you'll like that plane. You can feel the handle spring a little while you're using it, but it orients your hand well to rotate the plane while planing (provide a downward force without trying to) and you can sort of set it and forget it with the cap set on them.

You can show jacob how the mouth is filed away on the inside toward the front bun to ensure that you can set the cap pretty much at the edge and still not clog the plane. That's not by accident.

You didn't photo that, but I'm sure it's there. They weren't stupid when they made those planes.

 

[D_W]

I just noticed looking at this that the body is mahogany. Kind of curious as to its make if you ever find out.

It wouldn't be hard for someone making a round sided dovetailed infill to make one like this, but it's not kit fodder. I've made a few infills, but haven't made a fixture to accurately bend sides and make one with curved sides.

Raney Nelson said something to me long ago "if you make 7, but #7 of the lot, you'll probably have one that you can like". or something like that.

mahogany wasn't uncommon in infills - the stability and relatively low shrinkage compared to other non-rosewoods is desirable, and nothing really works like mahogany for detail work in a moderate hardwood, but I've had a lot of infills and don't recall getting one with a mahogany body.

There's not enough wood in a plane of that type for the density of the wood to make much difference, so that's off the table. And mahogany is plenty hard in good stock to make a stable-working plane.

the quirky design of the cheeks puzzles me, though.
Spiers and norris were generally pretty careful about leaving some curvature at the back of the cheek, even if sometimes very tight, so as not to have an abrupt looking corner.

Once you get the handle sorted out, if you have thoughts about refreshing the fitting of the iron, etc, or questions, let me know. you could get lucky and have it behave ideally, but it may also be a little uneven in fitting and not adjust nicely. The terminus of a good fit is:
1) when you adjust the iron from the center with a tap, it advances evenly without favoring a side under varying lever cap tension
2) when you tighten the lever cap, the screw will have a tiny bias to want to adjust laterally. You'll get used to that.

Sometimes a plane will increase its depth of cut ever so slightly with more lever cap tension, but you can use that to your advantage.

if the bottom isn't really dead flat, it'll be worth correcting that, too. lapping steel is slow compared to cast iron, but I'd be surprised if it was out far enough to warrant draw filing.

ultimately, it will be a match for the stanley in everything except convenience of adjustment - if the stanley is running to its full potential. But it'll look a lot more interesting and the fact that adjustment isn't as convenient can push learning the cap iron setup a little bit. One of those things where something that seems to be less nice to use can teach you a good habit - just like an iron that's a little too soft will send you looking for a way to get more life out of said iron (cap iron again and slightly thicker shavings to make up for the squishy apex). then, what's learned translates well to being used elsewhere.

 

[G S Haydon]

Thanks David. I had assumed mahogany and mentioned that on another forum too so I'm glad I'm not wide of the mark.

My experience with mahogany is very limited!

The iron is a Marples parallel although the stamp is very faded. I think the plane was abused at some point, the rust abraded away and then polished, a shame but that's why it's cheap!

It's just a bit of fun, I've always fancied one and I can hopefully mend it with things hanging around.

 

[D_W]

To find an infill with bright metal and that hasn't got rust or hasn't had it abraded off is difficult. Anything with only minimal pitting brings money and bright clean metal usually indicates skilled refurbishment even if claimed otherwise.

mahogany is a wood we'd all use more of if it wasn't expensive in nice footage. Can vary a lot in density, but the workability, the way it planes, splits, cuts, sands, files, floats (like with a hand float), etc, is above just about anything else. Silica and drastic density and orientation variance in ribboning is the only thing about it that can be a little difficult. It's a great choice for a plane.

 

[G S Haydon]

The only couple of times I've used the real McCoy was as an apprentice and the plank had be bought speculatively when a local firm closed. We used it to make a wreathed handrail, I had virtually no involvement in that. I had to join some curved glazing bars in a borrowed light, the kind of thing you see above a Georgian door.

It's buttery! I've used a lot of Sapele in the past, and by comparison the Sapele is second rate by some margin, even if visually it can be pleasing.

 

[D_W]

The only couple of times I've used the real McCoy was as an apprentice and the plank had be bought speculatively when a local firm closed. We used it to make a wreathed handrail, I had virtually no involvement in that. I had to join some curved glazing bars in a borrowed light, the kind of thing you see above a Georgian door.

It's buttery! I've used a lot of Sapele in the past, and by comparison the Sapele is second rate by some margin, even if visually it can be pleasing.

Sapele and khaya can look like mahogany, though sapele is always too read to fool anyone.

Khaya can look dead on in some cases if you hide end grain, but the workability and working properties are way different. It's far more dry and stringy feeling in general.

I've cut a neck blank out of sapele in the past, ribboned, dead quartered, straight in every direction I could see. After cutting, it still twisted. I left enough on to correct it but never used it. It's nice stuff, and harder to dent. i've got a small piece of cuban mahogany and hear that it's much the same, but I've not used it and the piece I have is wild grain from a tree junction, and extremely dense.

your homeboys planted a lot of honduran mahogany in fiji during and shortly after WWII (and maybe before?) Not sure if they were the only ones to do it. There's no shortage of it now, it just is coming generally from smaller trees. I have only had three guitar blanks from the new stuff that had stability issues - they weren't the kind of issues that would be a problem with furniture joined together, just guitar parts. It's nice stuff, but I'm thinking with boards of any width, in the US it's typically about $15 a board foot. So, it's out.

You can do unholy things making a guitar if you want, like running a router bit at full depth for a roundover without paying any attention to direction, and honduran will tolerate that without issue. Anyone working a lifetime with it would probably consider most other woods "difficult to work". gibson guitar company made a big deal about limba and about how tricky it is to work. It's not bad, but to hear them talk about it, you would think it was almost impossible to work without dealing with cracking or chipout.

I think they are spoiled running mahogany through routing stations. I wish it was $5 a board foot like cherry.

 

[Thingybob]

Not in the same league as you guys but a pal gave me these a few years ago ,He said you might get some use out of these your a joiner

 

[IWW]

I can only vaguely see the back of the plane body G.S., but it looks like a small fillet in the corner between side & sole, which would indicate it's cast, not fabricated. That should make it a better plane, imo, due to the slightly lower friction of CI vs steel as D.W. mentioned. In any case, just keep a cake of paraffin wax by the bench; a few swipes over the sole every minute or so makes a huge difference to effort expended. After a bit it becomes such a habit, you don't notice you're doing it..

I've always worried about those "open" handles - despite the reinforcing screw they obviously won't stand a determined assault (but I suppose even "closed" handles can be busted if yu try hard enough). I notice the sharpish edge on the rear of the front bun of your plane. The Norris I had was even sharper, making it uncomfortable to use with my palm on top of the bun, which is my preferred grip.

D.W., bending the sides for a fabricated coffin-shaped plane isn't difficult at all. A very simple form does the trick:


The only difficulty is estimating the amount of spring-back, to allow for in the form. It's a very variable feast, depending on the alloy & how thick it is, & even the batch of material. In the pic. above, I used 380 brass which is a "hard' brass & very springy - the gap you see is the spring-back after fully clamping the form.

But you can always adjust the form & re-clamp 'til you get it close:


The closer the better as it makes scribing & fitting the D/Ts infinitely easier. The side in the form is for a tiny (~5 inch sole) plane and I think the smaller sides are tougher to get the bend right. Note too that at this stage I haven't cut the "scoop" out around the throat - this is to minimise the chance of the side kinking at the 'low' spot when the form is clamped.

I made that plane just to use up some scraps, not intending to keep it, but it turned out a really sweet little user (after some fiddling with the lever cap which I initially made a fraction too long at the toe end). I've found all sorts of uses for it, so it's staying with me for now...



I used to think the Stanley #1 was purely a toy, but now I'm not so sure....

Cheers,

 

[D_W]

I see what looks like two telegraphing pins if you look at the bottom of the plane in the first picture, but they could both be scratches that just happen to be at pin height.

Raney is particular. I may have taken his advice as too absolute, but also right around that time finished the last infill that I have on hand at this point, so it's also a matter of the planes being crowded out by making other things.

Something for me to keep in mind, especially after retirement when I can indulge in more than one thing at a time. Thanks.

 

[IWW]

I see what looks like two telegraphing pins if you look at the bottom of the plane in the first picture, but they could both be scratches that just happen to be at pin height.

No, I think you are absolutely correct - I didn't blow the pic up enough to see those lines, but after reading your post I did & they are suspiciously like D/T lines alright!

I usually look for a good end-on shot to see if it looks like a cast or fabricated body, but it can be very hard to tell sometimes, even with the plane in your hand. The A5 I had was definitely cast, but what I could see from back & front where sides & sole meet had only the merest suggestion of a fillet, unlike an old casting I rebuilt, which had very rounded corners. I wondered if the Norris crew scraped or filed the corners of the casting to square it up a bit? It would make fitting the stuffing easier.

The old casting I got was missing blade & lever-cap & had very poorly-fitted woodwork, & I presume it was from a one-off or small batch from a local foundry. I certainly had to scrape/chisel some ugly blobs out of the chassis to get the stuffing to sit down firmly:



The mouth was really rough and I could only tidy it up to a tolerable degree without making it huge. As you've pointed out, filing & lapping cast iron is a whole lot easier than mild steel or gauge-plate, but messy! I had fine black metal dust everywhere! I infilled it with some spalted "river she-oak" (Allocasuarina cunninhamiana), a tough, hard wood that was once favoured for the yokes of bullock teams. It polishes up nicely & makes excellent tool handles.

It turned out a quite decent, but not brilliant user and its new owner seems pleased with it from the feedback I've had...



Cheers,
Ian