New wooden plane...

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Jameshow

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I picked up this wooden plane on eBay for £4....

Obviously it's a rebate plane with a depth stop but what's the front blade for?

How and when would I use it.

I have a 78 copy which works well so am not totally green....

Cheers James
 

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Are you talking about the nicker for cutting cross grain?
Looks like it was possibly used like a router table at some time, by those imprints from a metalwork vice.
On the wood and shop youtube channel, Bill Anderson has some good videos on the subject.

Not a bad deal for the price of a pint, but maybe not nowadays, by local shebeen standards? :)
 
The photo doesn't show all the details, but I think it's a dado plane, used to sink cross-grain housings or dados. The nicker iron should have two cutting edges, very slightly wider than the narrow part of the sole and the iron, and that obviously is the width of the groove cut. The depth stop does just that - sets the depth of the groove. Usually used against a guide stick clamped (or nailed) to the work.
 
I'm just guessing here:
Unless it's got a pair of knickers and a narrower blade, as CC suggests-
I don't think it's for dados its just a rebate pane with a nicker and a depth stop. The nicker will work to start the rebate cut cleanly, going right to left, the depth stop will work going the other way with the nicker drawn up out of the way. You wouldn't use them simultaneously.
Thing about rebate planes, including the 78, is that all the add ons; nickers, fence, depth stop, can be managed quite well without, if you work to gauge lines.
 
Oh so you cut using the nicker only first??

Then the main blade - that makes sense......

Had a go cuts a neat dado have make sure the nicker blade cuts first I sharpened using a saw file.

Cheers James ..
 

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Oh so you cut using the nicker only first??

Then the main blade - that makes sense......

Had a go cuts a neat dado have make sure the nicker blade cuts first I hardened using a saw file.

Cheers James ..
How did you do that then? Did you scribe two lines with the nicker and then use the cutting blade between them? Maybe it IS for dados!
 
As Jacob said, if the plane has a two-sided front nicker - either a single blade with two sharpened 'ears' or two blades mounted either side of the body, then it is intended to produce a trench across the grain, (or dado). Some rebate planes, a Fillister or Rebate plane just have a single nicker on the starboard side and usually an adjustable fence- a look-alike plane but a different tool.

If you can get your hands on a copy of R A Salaman's dictionary of Tools, he has an illustrated description of each type and its uses.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Woodworking-Tools-R-Salaman/dp/1879335794
On a dado plane, this entails getting and maintaining each side of the front nicker to exactly the same height, each side with exactly the same edge geometry and the cutters have to be exactly the right distance apart which is exactly the width of the main cutter...... Derek Cohen's note that you found above explains very well the faff involved in getting all this right.

The knack (and main difficulty) is to get these things to do what you want it to do - that is to pre-cut two clean edges and remove a cross-grain shaving from one side of the plank to the other on each stroke.
One thing that works well is to sharpen both edges of the nicker, front and back, and to draw it backward toward you at the start of the stroke once or twice to sever the cross grain members before pushing in to a cutting stroke.

If your work doesn't entail a clean cut edge, then it's a good tool to use this way. However, all the tools that I've seen with front end nickers tend to tear out the wood rather than to give a clean cut. Getting the nickers to a sharp dependable edge is difficult. On this basis I'm never yet convinced that this type of tool was ever intended to do all of that in one stroke and leave a shatter-free edge.

A roughing out tool? Probably. Finishing to an acceptable meeting edge designed to be seen? No, probably not.

There are other ways - admittedly not as quick - to get clean sharp dado/trench edges with hand tools.
 
Oh so you cut using the nicker only first??

Then the main blade - that makes sense......

Had a go cuts a neat dado have make sure the nicker blade cuts first I hardened using a saw file.

Cheers James ..

The idea is that when making a cross grain cut, you start by drawing the plane back allowing the nicker to score a line across the grain. Then when you push forward there is a small shoulder that shouldn't tear. You don't need the nicker for with the grain cuts.

Nigel.
 
The idea is that when making a cross grain cut, you start by drawing the plane back allowing the nicker to score a line across the grain. Then when you push forward there is a small shoulder that shouldn't tear. You don't need the nicker for with the grain cuts.

Nigel.
With-the-grain cuts it helps to have a deep gauge line to kick off with
 
............. to get your nickers right, it needs to be pin-sharp at the back and the front and cut so that the compression or bruising side is innermost on the waste part of the wood. On each of the pre-cut stroke(s) the intention is to score deeper than the blade will cut. The blade then just scoops out the central material.

Just as you would if you cut each side with a knife or saw and sliced out the middle with a chisel or router.
 
All good stuff.

I found sharpening the nicker like a saw tooth worked well.

I need to remember to make sure the nicker cuts at the start of the stroke.

It was only £4 So a really nice find.

Cheers James
 
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Thanks, James.

according to Jane Rees/Goodman's British Planemakers, P 425.

"H Lyon - 13 Hurst Street Birmingham. Later in partnership with John Birch as Lyons and Birch in Conybere Street in 1888. Not a lot else noted by her."

At least 130 years old....... look after it!

All best
 

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