Setting up a plane

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Well all I can suggest is start with the blade withdrawn and gradually advance it downwards a tiny bit at a time till it starts to cut, I’m talking about a 20th of a turn on the wheel at a time. I know it will take a while but without being there that’s all you can do really. You could scribble a candle on the sole as well, it’s always a good idea.
That is what I was doing. The moment it gets to be able to contact the wood it starts stopping dead. It's got a ton of oil on the sole already. I think I'm going to just admit that it's a waste of time and money and send it back, then wait until I can afford a refurbished one from a proper brand. That way I know that any issue is down to me and the setup not a fault that I don't know enough to identify.
 
There is a trend setting in here, did @BarbaraT not have an issue with a Faithfull No7 recently.

I bought a No 10 for site work, with very low expectations but knowing it was going to get trashed, out of the box it would just about make a usable doorstop, but I needed one, so fixed it, blade and cap were miles out of set, probably took me an hour to re jig it, works now, for my site needs, moral of the tale is don't buy a Faithfull branded tool....
 
I returned my Faithfull to Amazon. Really poor casting made it unusable. If you do decide to go secondhand, Tooltique have some reconditioned Stanley #3, #4 and #4.5s in stock at the moment. They seem to go pretty quick, so you might want get moving!
 
I returned my Faithfull to Amazon. Really poor casting made it unusable. If you do decide to go secondhand, Tooltique have some reconditioned Stanley #3, #4 and #4.5s in stock at the moment. They seem to go pretty quick, so you might want get moving!
They've got a record no4 on there for £13 more and a Stanley for £15 more than I paid for that peice of junk. Not much more than I've seen ones that need a lot of refurbishment going for on ebay. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have another look on there on payday.
 
I have a rather shameful habit of buying Record No. 4's off ebay because I keep forgetting that I have one already. I don't like to pay more than £18 inc postage and some of them have been absolute beauties with rosewood handles.
 
Sounds like there's more than one problem with the plane. They're never much cop straight out of the box unless you shell out for a Lie Nielsen, but you can get a Record to produce amazing results with some work - at college we spent 4 days tuning our jack planes, so see if you can find some Youtube tutorials. I'd recommend getting a 560 x 230mm piece of 8 or 10mm float glass, spraymount two sheets of 80 grit wet & dry on it and you'll have a means of getting the sole, frog, plane iron etc. dead flat, then you can progress through fine tuning.
 
I would set the faithful aside and have a go at getting the record going. Often all that good old planes need is a clean and the blade sharpening. Sharp has to be sharp however, like shave hairs off your arm sharp. As others have said faithfull planes have little quality control so its a bit of a lottery. All the right bits are there but it takes a bit of knowhow to get some of then performing. Come back to it later.
Regards
John
 
I would set the faithful aside and have a go at getting the record going. Often all that good old planes need is a clean and the blade sharpening. Sharp has to be sharp however, like shave hairs off your arm sharp. As others have said faithfull planes have little quality control so its a bit of a lottery. All the right bits are there but it takes a bit of knowhow to get some of then performing. Come back to it later.
Regards
John
Convert it to a scrub plane.
 
The 3rd pic in your OP shows a bright line on the back of the blade edge. Have you put a second bevel on the blade back? The 7th and 8th pics show wood that has not been cut, wrapped over the edge of the blade. I think that you need to check your method of sharpening, as there is only one way to sharpen a plane blade.
 
That is what I was doing. The moment it gets to be able to contact the wood it starts stopping dead. It's got a ton of oil on the sole already. I think I'm going to just admit that it's a waste of time and money and send it back, then wait until I can afford a refurbished one from a proper brand. That way I know that any issue is down to me and the setup not a fault that I don't know enough to identify.
With respect, whatever plane you own, you really need to understand how it works to get the best out of it - whether or not it's currently set up in a 'useable' state! Once you understand how a plane is supposed to work, you can 'fine tune' any plane...
 
The 3rd pic in your OP shows a bright line on the back of the blade edge. Have you put a second bevel on the blade back? The 7th and 8th pics show wood that has not been cut, wrapped over the edge of the blade. I think that you need to check your method of sharpening, as there is only one way to sharpen a plane blade.
Really!

Only one way to sharpen a plane blade.

Tell us how?*

*Asking for a friend.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top