Try-plane with lead in its nose

[D_W]

"Said in context" innit.

Ahh...I'll admit I never looked up the definition of the acronym. It's used differently here (in the US) as mentioned above, but may be used more properly in an academic circle (rather than as a way to parrot something rotten that someone said and blame it on them, or to point out someone's inability to spell or use proper grammar).

As Richard said, there's plenty of expressions that don't translate over here where we supposedly speak the same language. If you told someone to hump something, they may pick it up and carry it, or they may get the wrong idea and who knows what next. Nobody would ever use it here with making someone upset or inferring something of that sort.

I'd imagine at least half of the population in the US thinks that when you use the phrase "taking the ___" or "____ taking", they think you're collecting actual urine. Perhaps robbing a toilet bowl with a ladle.

 

[D_W]

My humble apologies for interrupting the general conversation, but I'd like to ask a question, if I may.

Dr W posted pictures of a fairly standard wooden try plane with a gob of lead stuffed up it's nose. A few posts later, John PW posted pictures of an unusual looking shortish wooden plane with a very high angle double iron, a ludicrously tight escapement and stuffed with gobs of lead front and back. My personal suspicion is that the latter plane wouldn't function very well, if at all; but, nonetheless, somebody went to some trouble making it, including the added lead.

Erm - I'm curious, and don't know why - what's the added lead there for? More weight, presumably - but why?

back to my comment about weight. before making planes, I probably said a different number, but I know I bought at least 10 try planes and who knows what else.

The planes in the 7-8 pound range were definitely much better for heavy work in medium hardwoods than some that were exceptionally dry feeling and 5 1/2 - 6 pounds but same or similar size. The difference in feel was drastic. If that plane weighs 6 1/2 *with* the lead in it, I'd suspect someone found it not very favorable in use with hardwoods and wanted to correct the issue. Lead is nice and linear and easy to install (and cheap, especially if it's scrap) . If the plane is mostly used on the board (vs. being lifted and carried around), the nose weight is probably not that much of an issue.

Lead shot was more recently used here just because it's cheap to find - drill a hole, fill with lead shot, plug the end of the hole with wood or whatever else (epoxy). The objective usually with smoothers was to make a wooden smoother that felt smoother through the cut and not so much battering.

I find little favor in hardwoods with a beech coffin smoother. In softwoods, they're great. I quite like woods in a coffin smoother if their specific gravity is closer to 1 or a little greater, but changing the wood is an expensive way to solve the problem and you have to be a planemaker to take advantage of it.

How would a typical user have known the difference if they weren't try plane shopping and comparing like I did? Just by having another plane that they liked better or using a friend's tools and noticing the difference.

Just in coffin smoothers, a 2 pound plane vs. a 3 pound plane or even a little less significant than that will make for an enormous difference in feel.