plane adjusting hammers

[bugbear]

Being used as a chisel makes much more sense. Just under half of my old woodie blades show fairly significant mushrooms, one dreadfully so. The rest have very minimal damage.

I've seen woodie blades with mushrooming on the sides, from lateral adjustment.

Whilst one might come up with plausible non-adjustment uses for straight-line mushroom,
I really can't see any thing other than adjustment causing side mushrooming.

And (of course) once we accept that lateral adjustment causes side mushrooming, we
must surely accept that the most obvious cause of straight-on mushrooming is also
the adjustment process.

BugBear

 

[JohnPW]

I suspect the mushrooming is caused by hitting it with a hammer with the wedge still tight. I don't know if that's just to save time (couldn't be bothered to first loosen the wedge), or the user just didn't know any better.

Wouldn't a hammer be harder than the relatively soft iron on a laminted blade, therefore even soft taps will gradually make it mushroomed?

I always use a mallet, just the ordinary carpenter's type. For very small planes, I use a small block of wood.

 

[MIGNAL]

You are supposed to advance it with the wedge tight. Not much use advancing it with the wedge loose, you'll lose any sort of control. Having said that it only needs to be fairly light taps.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"I've seen woodie blades with mushrooming on the sides, from lateral adjustment."
Surely that's an assumpion, BB?

 

[bugbear]

"I've seen woodie blades with mushrooming on the sides, from lateral adjustment."
Surely that's an assumpion, BB?

Oh yes, as is anything but a fully controlled experiment.

Call it a paucity of imagination, but I haven't come up
with any other plausible explanation for the side-mushrooming.

If I'm missing the obvious, I'm sure it will be along shortly; it's what
discussion forums are for!

BugBear

 

[JohnPW]

You are supposed to advance it with the wedge tight. Not much use advancing it with the wedge loose, you'll lose any sort of control. Having said that it only needs to be fairly light taps.

Maybe I've been doing it wrong, but I thought the wedge needs loosening a bit, obviously not completely loose, but just enough so the blade moves a tiny bit when you tap it.

If the wedge is fully tight then surely light taps are not going to move the blade. And also, after setting the blade, the wedge needs a final tap to fully tighten it, or is that wrong as well?

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

With a tapered blade, tapping it down to increase projection will loosen the wedge. That is why you tap the wedge after tapping the blade.

There is no point in loosening the blade before tapping it.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Doug B]

I use this little hand made brass headed hammer when adjusting my planer blades

Along with a block of wood

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wonder if the sides of many irons have mushroomed due then being beaten sideways after jamming when being used to split firewood and waste off large scale rough and ready carpentry? If you hit the plane sideways hard enough to mushroom the steel, you'd likely send the plane through the nearest window.

 

[Jacob]

I use this little hand made brass headed hammer when adjusting my planer blades

Along with a block of wood

TBH I've got one exactly the same - kindly made for us each, by Ed. It's perfect for the job and very handy for all those metal planes which don't have Stanley/Bailey adjusters, especially block planes, but too small for a woody - they have to be thrashed a bit harder.

 

[condeesteso]

Excellent responses thank you all. It can't really be the dayglo deadblow or fablon, there was a clue in the OP re lumps of bronze and gunmetal. I'm happy generally with the bigger mallet I use for the woodies, so this is for the smaller smoothers of various types.
There's quite a bit in common between the ones Ed made, and Derek's and Klaus'. I think I'll knock a first attempt up with the brass I have and fine tune from there.

Thanks all, lots of knowledge and experience here!

 

[G S Haydon]

The top of plane irons are quite soft when compared to typical hammer you would have on the bench. A full time user would doubtless mushroom even with light adjusting over a number of years. Depends how bad the damage is I guess but I find something like this reassuring rather than something to file off.

 

[MIGNAL]

Oh look, a wonky stamp. How utterly terrible.

 

[rxh]

I made this simple one. It does the job but I soon found myself using it for rougher tasks.....

 

[custard]

Has anybody used one of these?

I'm still mopping up the coffee from my keyboard because that made me laugh so much!

 

[condeesteso]

Sorted!! Not at all in the way I expected... miles better than that.
This arrived from Germany this morning:

and here with the Spiers I just got from Bill Carter, one of the hammer's first victims

Klaus (Two Lawyers Tools) had very kindly undertaken to get me some UHU Endfest epoxy (oddly not available in the UK) and this jaw-dropping hammer was in the box. Obviously the design and workmanship is ... words fail me. It's good :shock: =D>
Obviously it's a lifetime tool, cherished but used as well.

I'm reminded again how very generous and considerate our woodworking community can be.

A very genuine big thank you Klaus. (I'm off to adjust a few planes now)

 

[RogerP]

UHU Endfest epoxy (oddly not available in the UK)

Yes it is eBay item 371336594775.

Nice hammer.

 

[n0legs]

Beautiful hammer.

:arrow: Kiaus, nice one =D> =D>

 

[condeesteso]

UHU Endfest epoxy (oddly not available in the UK)

Yes it is eBay item 371336594775.

Nice hammer.

I expected that. Was not a short while ago when I looked but it has recently changed its name. This isn't a Google competition, more my way of thanking Klaus.

 

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Douglas is a very honorable man for sure. He didn't mention, that the plane hammer was my "Thank you, mate" to him. Why? He sent me one of his double-screw vices a few days ago. I want to show the stunning piece in another thread, it deserves it for sure.

So I've to thank you, Douglas!