Jeremy,
It’s great that you have the collection of planes that you have...you need to get your hands on a scrub plane. I have a LN, but there should be some old stanley’s out there.
If I have a board too wide for my 6" jointer, I will pull out the scrub to get the twist out of it and get the board as flat as possible than run it through a planer. In my opinion the scrub is one of the most go to and hards working hand tools in the shop. It one of those tools most woodworker never think about, until the own one and start using it.
As far as refurbishing old planes and their performance, I would be the first to say that yea they can perform as well as a new LN. However, refurbishing an old plane is not that inexpensive, as most people believe. Unless you think your time is free. In my case, I have different demands placed on my time, so any time in the shop is important to me. I will still probability have more shop time than the average hobbyist.
Lets look at a cost comparison a LN #5 cost between $280.00 to $300 and similar Bailey Bedrock 605 on e-bay sell for a low of $100 to $200 depending on condition (a refurbished will sell in the $225 range). Even the refurbished planes will have stamped carbon irons, where as the LN has an A2 steel iron and thicker chip breaker. You may ask so what the big difference between the A2 steel vs the carbon steel iron? The difference is the time needed between having to stop and hone your iron, and the reduction of blade chatter (A2 blades are much thicker than a carbon iron ).
And to tell you the truth, refurbishing a plane is more than cleaning the rust, putting on new japanning and flatting the sole. The front edge of the mouth should be filed vertical to provide forward at a 15 degrees to provide shaving clearance, while at the same time insuring that the opening of the mouth not be made any larger, Cap irons need to be worked so full contact is made on the chip breaker (another source for chatter, lever-cap should be smoothed and flatten so that iron adjustments operates smoothly, if you don’t want to spend the money for a replacement cap iron…than you need to clean that up so it has solid contact on the iron (blade) so chips do not get lodge between the iron and cap iron (by the way this is 45 to 50 degrees). Oh I forgot one more thing…the steel used in the old planes is like wood there is always some movement…the modern metallurgy is much better than it was when those old planes were built. This means that you can look forward to having to tune-up that old plane more often than a modern LN plane, which also will need to be tuned-up every so often.
Again, I have refurbished planes and sold all of them except one and purchased LN replacements. I just rather work at building furniture with tools that do not require a lot fussing. I know that the tools do not make you a better woodworker, but it sure makes it more enjoyable. Jeremy, I know when I first started out money was an issue. I was happy with any tool I purchase and learned a lot about how to tune it up the best I could. Heck… I think if there was no more to learn I would sell all my tools and find another hobby. But we have woodworkers like The Chizz and Neil out there teaching us and push us in building our skills in both techniques and design. So I don’t think I am in any danger of having to sell my tools any time soon.
Chuck |
Member Since
02/15/2008
Total Contributions
106 Posts
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