Old Planes

[TRITON]

Do you not find it a bit depressing, the sate of old hand planes I mean.

I'm currently cleaning up a Record No 078 rebate plane and its the state of it got me to thinking about its previous owner, who must have bought it, and spent time flattening the back of the blade, and fettling it for use, then looking after it.
Theres a bit of rust here and there, thankfully not on the sole, but the cap iron, the blade and on parts of the internal section.
It will be nice to put it back into order, to hone the cap flat, to redo the blade and then sharpen that to a keen edge.
Only cost me a tenner, though the fence and depth stop are missing, and the snicker screw* is seized in and will probably need drilled out to free it. along with the depth stop screw which looks to have snapped at some point and is stuck in, but even if I dont manage to sort those bits, it will be nice all the same to have it operational, and I can probably fabricate a fence to at least give me that option, which is probably an integral part of its use.

Theres a local renovations shop(up market junk shop) i've got a bit or rapport going with the owner as its newly opened so I'll likely be buying other tools from him as they arrive in. He told me it was from the wife of the owner who's recently passed, but its still a shame it's been left to get into such condition.
I like the fact i will make it work again, and will look after it, maybe even fix those parts that are missing and broken, as the original owner would no doubt be happy to know.

* I see Faithful do a parts kit for this version of this plance and it all looks to be exactly the same, and is possibly taken from the 078 pattern, but does anyone know if those parts will in fact fit ?
It has the snicker, and importantly the depth stop, just wondering if the threads are the same for the missing bolts.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/37340039...MIj92YgrTn7gIVUNPtCh3U4AfWEAQYBSABEgLk8PD_BwE

 

[Jacob]

78s are really useful and get used/misused a lot for all sorts of jobs other than rebates e.g. cleaning up faces of big tenons or rougher jobs where you wouldn't be bothered about flattening faces. Often without the add-on bits which is why they go missing, but there's nothing you can't do without them - basically by working to lines rather than relying on the fence or depth stop.
It isn't a "finishing" plane so fine tuning not really needed, if it cuts at all.
PS the nicker is fairly useless anyway - you can use the plane as a marking gauge but once you've got the line you don't need it and it's better without.

 

[Doug B]

On the flip side if it was in pristine condition you wouldn’t have got it for a tenner

 

[Jameshow]

I think the faithful set should work.

The fence imho is useful.
The depth stop less so.

Cheers James

 

[Nigel Burden]

I picked up a Woden W78 and a Millers Falls block plane at the Stock Gaylard Oak Fair a couple of years ago for £3. Both were quite rusty but the Woden cleaned up well. It had no fence, no depth stop, and no front knob, but it did have a nicker and the blade sharpened up well. I made a depth stop and a fence out of a piece of oak and as I had some 5/16 steel rod I made the fence rods. For £3 I don't think I did too badly.

Nigel.

 

[paullippo]

Hello all I found a record T5 in the loft someone gave me years ago and I'm restoring it to use as a shooting plane now I've built my workshop. anyone know of where I can get parts like screws as they are a bit battered and need replacing and possibly a new blade, also the side handle is missing so I need one of those as well, great full for any help.


Paul

 

[D_W]

It speaks to the tools' worth at some point - it's worse in the states (or was). People embraced modernity here for a while, and then the nostalgic periods here were mechanized (e.g, people pine for the 1950s or 1980s).

The tools were used at one point, no longer and they're cast aside. If you think about it in general, nobody seems to pine for electrical tools made in the 1930s through 1970s, but at some point, they may become stylish. There's a bit of restoration here and there, but it seems to stop at that - little bits of it. In 20 years, will people be using the early porta planers and circular saws because they're pretty? don't know.

They're worth something to us now for play (the hand tools) so we see things through a different lens.

My grandfather grew up during the depression and bought his first farm around 1938 - He spent his youth and early farm years using tractors for heavy work and cultivating with mules over 150 acres. Their nostalgia period was the old west, so they had converted gas lights in their house for lighting. I can guarantee they had no wish for the old ways otherwise and embraced coming technology because decades of prior work had broken them down. My grandmother spent days when men didn't show up sewing wheat bags shut on a combine and moving them to the edge of a platform to be transferred to trucks. The bags were 110 pounds - she was 100. Her last several decades were loaded with back pain and hand pain.

we get to play at this stuff, and if our hands hurt, we skip playing for a few days and all is well. The tools have some residual value now, but to the generation who put them aside, they served their purpose (converting effort to food, shelter, etc) and nobody wanted them - the outcome is predictable.

 

[thetyreman]

I got a cracking no78 from a member on here in its original box, one of the best tools I own, it gets used a lot.

 

[pitch pine]

Ben I am really pleased you use that 78. It was sitting on a shelf doing nothing.

 

[G S Haydon]

If you want a Faithful 078 let me know. You can have mine, just pay the postage.

 

[D_W]

If you want a Faithful 078 let me know. You can have mine, just pay the postage.

Ringing endorsement for the pattern!! I would always suggest anyone intent on doing much work with this type of plane get a good english moving fillister for about the same price, but my suggestion is rarely taken unless I'm offering a refitted one. Something I'll gladly do in the states, but that leaves most out here. A well made boxed moving fillister plane is a tool of pure joy and productivity once learned.

 

[G S Haydon]

Yup. 78 and 078 are a good carpentry tools but my moving filisters made them redundant at my home workshop. I would like to try the Veritas version.

 

[D_W]

The veritas version is very precise, but sticky on the wood compared to a moving fillister. I had the left and right versions and they were forgettable for anyone working by hand. Their precision and tightness makes them fiddly and slow, and we use the moving fillister either to cut a joint quickly or to cut just shy of the mark to be cleaned up with a rabbet plane for a joint that may show.

I realize this is likely to find unfavorable sentiment, but in getting anything done, the friction from the metal veritas plane is almost crippling - cutting a rebate using one after the other the difference is so stark that i couldn't find any reason to keep the LV plane unless one couldn't set up a wooden moving fillister properly.

We've gotten into the idea that hand tools should work like machine tools where the accuracy is in the adjustments and stops, and the punishment is in parts that don't move or adjust on the fly that well, along with the friction of the metal.

If someone has one that you can try, that's not a bad idea (the veritas), but do try to use it in the context of getting something made vs. taking a few test shavings. The nuance of the wooden type isn't there - the most wonderful thing about the wooden type is the iron is proud of the sole, and the nicker is proud of the iron just a tiny bit. The quality of the side cut is superb even in heavy fast cutting, and only the bottom may have tearout (which can be mitigated either by keeping a separate rabbet plane for the last couple of passes, or by doing the whole of the work in a row and setting bits aside to take final passes with the fillister set for a thinner cut. I prefer the former).