Yet another wooden planemaking question.

[woodbloke]

People often refer to Chippendale as a master craftsman etc, but in fact he wasn't, he was a business man who employed people on a piece rate basis, every time you stopped to sharpen a tool you were losing money!

Roy.

Spot on Roy, but he was one of the first (if not the first) to publish a book of designs in 1754, which was the first time that anything like it had ever been seen by the aristo's, who were really the only people who could afford his stuff. He wasn't, as far as I know, a maker, but if he was and you could prove the provenance of a piece, I wonder what it would go for? - Rob

 

[Digit]

I wonder what it would go for?

A damn sight more than it's really worth I'd guess. A bit like some oil paintings, quite a few were done by trainees, at least in part, and then signed by the 'master'!

Roy.

 

[David C]

Adam,

A great tip from Alan Peters, was to convert wooden jack planes to round planes.
I wrote this up in my second book of articles "Furniture Making Techniques Vol 2".
It worked very well and I show a jig for grinding radiused blades on Tormek (or Jet etc). It ground the chipbreaker as well.
It is better if the blade corners do not protrude, so exact fit not required.

best wishes,
David Charlesworth
http://www.davidcharlesworth.co.uk

 

[Kalimna]

David - as it happens, I have a copy of your book, mentioning the conversion of a wooden jack. The jig you describe does seem rather adaptable and not too difficult for a newbie like myself to construct.
As it also happens, it was reading (yet again) your account of Grete's cabinet that prompted me to consider building a curved-bottom plane - I intend at some point this year before July to build a rocking chair along Hal Taylors' plans, and thought that this style of plane would be a more satisfactory approach to fairing the headrest.
And whilst a conversion is, I imagine, a relatively economical (in both time and money) way of doing this, I would prefer to build one from scratch.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Aled Dafis]

When tempering in a "controlled environment" (your oven) there is no risk of overtempering so there's no harm in leaving the iron in for 1-2 hours, but I see no real need for it.

That's all that's required is that the iron is heated through it's entire thickness to 220 C, so I would have thought that 15 mins would be sufficient. Maybe for a large/thick iron you could leave it in a little longer to be on the safe side.

Cheers

Aled

I was just checking something in the "Hardening, Tempering and Heat Treatment" book by Tubal Cain, and came across this information in the Tempering section.

The tool should be held for one hour per inch of thickness once it's up to the required temeprature (generally about 220 degrees C for plane irons).

I knew I'd read it somewhere, that must have been where I got my 15 minute recomendation from.

Cheers
Aled

 

[woodbloke]

Adam,

A great tip from Alan Peters, was to convert wooden jack planes to round planes.
I wrote this up in my second book of articles "Furniture Making Techniques Vol 2".
It worked very well and I show a jig for grinding radiused blades on Tormek (or Jet etc). It ground the chipbreaker as well.
It is better if the blade corners do not protrude, so exact fit not required.

best wishes,
David Charlesworth
http://www.davidcharlesworth.co.uk

One of my jobs for this year is to convert a wooden jack into a convex soled plane. I made a smaller plane a couple of years ago:

with a curved sole and built Davids jig for the Torkmek to grind the blade...worked very well - Rob

 

[David C]

Rob,

Thanks for posting the picture of the Jig.

If the less adventurous wanted top quality, thick, curved Irons and Chipbreakers, Ron Hock makes these.

David C

 

[Mr Ed]

If the less adventurous wanted top quality, thick, curved Irons and Chipbreakers, Ron Hock makes these.

I used the straight edged version of those blades in my Secret Santa plane;

(never knowingly miss a chance to post a picture of it!)

The blade and chipbreaker from Ron are both excellent. Only issue is that when I last looked no-one in the UK stocks these, so I had to import from the US.

Ed

 

[Boothie14]

does anyone know where to find ready made parts for infill planes eg norris adjuster etc

 

[AndyT]

does anyone know where to find ready made parts for infill planes eg norris adjuster etc

Charles Sterling sells them in his Bristol shop - you'll need to ring and ask - 0117 929 1740 - he's not really got a web presence - http://www.bristol-design.co.uk/.

 

[Harbo]

Ray Iles used to sell them - they have a finer adjustment than the Bristol ones.
They used to cost about £30?

Karl Holtey sold them as well but they were about £120 I think?

Rod

 

[xy mosian]

These people show a "SUPERB QUALITY RAY ILES NORRIS TYPE BLADE ADJUSTERS"

http://www.toolbazaar.co.uk/Spares.asp#4

Unfortunately I have been unable to find the same on the Old Tools Web Site.

xy

 

[Harbo]

It is always better to ring Ray - he his not very good with the internet

Rod