Sharpening wooden moulding planes.

[Corset]

After purchasing 20 or so moulding planes i have begun to sharpen them. Well its safe to say its quite a big job. After looking on the web and at ALf pages it was obvious that some degree of skill was required and this left me a little worried. So after some lateral thinking i have come up with a technique that needs little skill and works particuarly well with hollow and rounds.
I was concerned with grinding to a marked line or guessing the angle by hand etc. So after looking on the web i found something that was a thermoplastic it is available on ebay etc and you drop crystal of it into hot water it then becomes malleable for a period of time. You then mould it to the plane and let it cool. UNlike epoxy there is no mess and if you get it wrong you heat it up again. When cool label the plane it is for and wrap a bit of wet and dry over it and sharpen the plane.
For someone of my skills it is perfect, no hunting for dowels or hand shaping blocks and it only takes five minutes
ebay link

Owen

 

[Alf]

Owen,

Clever - sort of lateral thinking I fall down on. Only problem is the shape of the sole isn't actually the shape of the bevel, 'cos of the angle... (I know, I'm a stinker, ain't I?) As I'm already being a PITA, I'm gonna ask - did you actually try the "difficult" way? Or did you just crumple at the thought and not attempt it? I don't blame you if you did the latter - you're not alone. But really, it's not that hard and hand/eye coordination like this is part of what hand tool woodworking is all about. Give it a go - what can you lose?

Cheers, Alf

 

[Corset]

Whoops, didn't realize that!!
No i didn't try the other way i was too scared. I will have a try when i am next in the shop. I have to say the difference on the angle must be small as they worked so well Plus i need some slipstones or something.
One small question when using the planes are you running them up against a fence and are they used at 45 degrees as in the cut away to the side of the plane or are they used vertically.

 

[Alf]

Yeah, you can get away with it to start with, but after a while you'll lose the clearance angle. Rather than slipstones many people have much better results with abrasives wrapped round various dowels (Scary Sharp Onna Stick (TM) :wink: ) or there's... well there's a few options and ideas to help here.

How you use them depends on the various types; f'rinstance a hollow or round could be used upright or tilted depending on what overall profile you were trying to achieve, or against a fence if you didn't, say, plough a groove to guide it first. Planes with built-in fences for working edges might be upright like a side bead, or "sprung" like an ovolo. That is it's designed to be held at an angle to the work and the fence and depth stop are also so designed. See if this pic works - you should just about be able to make out the scored lines to indicate the spring.



Hopefully some more knowledgable wooden moulding plane user will chime in, 'cos I have them but frankly these days actually using any tools seems like a distant memory.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Corset]

Sorry to sound dense, but whats a clearance angle.
Sorry to hear you are not getting much done.
Owen

 

[Alf]

Ah, definitely calls for a link. In essence, if the bevel of your blade is rubbing on the surface of the wood, the natural springiness of wood will bounce the bevel surface off the board and prevent the edge cutting without a lot of downward pressure from the user. That's a very non-scientific explanation; call it the Ladybird book version...

Cheers, Alf

 

[bugbear]

Ah, definitely calls for a link. In essence, if the bevel of your blade is rubbing on the surface of the wood, the natural springiness of wood will bounce the bevel surface off the board and prevent the edge cutting without a lot of downward pressure from the user. That's a very non-scientific explanation; call it the Ladybird book version...

Cheers, Alf

IIRC Dunbar covers Clearance and Relief "issues" in some detail.

link

(ouch!)

BugBear

 

[Alf]

(ouch!)

Cripes. :shock: Ouch indeed. Slightly better prices here thank goodness.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Corset]

Now you understand why i was scared, its like science! Interesting book might pick up a copy.
Owen

 

[Alf]

Now you understand why i was scared, its like science!

To be fair everything's like science, but you don't have to understand the science to make it work. Heck, that Whelan stuff scares the heck out of me too, although it's a fascinating book (thanks again, Wiley).

Cheers, Alf