Wooden plane mouth metal insert

[JohnPW]

I've got a wooden jack plane that has a (user added) brass mouth insert attached with 2 brass screws.

I need to flatten the sole, luckily the screws and brass plate came straight off. If I were to re-use the brass insert after I've flatten the sole, it would then stick out a bit. I would then need to make the plate thinner or deepen the recess. That would be more complicated than glueing in a new wooden insert and simply planing it level when flattening the sole.

So why use metal instead of wood for the insert?

 

[Corneel]

They were probably hoping that the brass wouldn't wear as quickly as the wood? Just in front of the mouth is the area where the sole wears the most.
When you flatten the plane on a piece of glass with sandpaper, just like you would flatten a metal plane, then you don't need to remove the brass plate.

 

[MIGNAL]

Just glue in a wooden piece. I use Hide glue partly because if I ever need to remove or replace it's an easy task.

 

[Argus]

Just glue in a wooden piece. I use Hide glue partly because if I ever need to remove or replace it's an easy task.

Agreed.

Metal sounds like a good idea, but it's best to use the same wood as the rest of the sole so that they wear at the same rate; besides, you can then re-flatten the lot in one go. If it is a wooden plane, then it is probably made of Beech.

For what it's worth and if it's any use, I did the exercise on a couple of old coffin planes and described it here:

http://handmadeinwood.wordpress.com/201 ... fin-plane/

but it is a straightforward exercise and used to be routine judging by some of the old re-mouthed planes that crop up on the second hand market.

Hope this helps.