Your Favorite LOW ANGLE Hand Plane is.......?

General Discussion
21

Yep, 'agree with all of the above; when doing my ding repairs the thought went through my mind about just how risky it would be if I was trying to do things with a power tool; they take stuff off much faster and are much harder to control the speed of, so if a mistake was made, it’d be a lot bigger and harder to fix than the mistakes I was making using just hand tools. And when doing a whole board that way as a first time? No thanks; slow and easy baby steps for me please.

As well, every power tool has its roots in a hand tool. When you understand the hand tool, when you’re comfortable wth it, you’re well on your way to mastering the power tool. 

A little while ago I dug out one of my grandad’s old hand planes to trim the bottom of a door that was jamming whenever the humidity levels swelled the wood up. All I needed to take off was 1mm.

Holy cow. Loved it. Smooth, precise, able to adjust it to a really fine cut so that it’d take several passes to take the wood down in total to that 1mm amount (i.e. made it much easier to take off the amount I wanted while taking off as little as possible beyond that).

Only downside was when I got to a knot in the wood it’d jam there. Could have been the blade was a bit dull or just the edge had corroded over time (wouldn’t be surprised if it hadn’t been used since before I was born). Didn’t have the tools with me at the time to sharpen it. A bit of extra oomph could bust you through the knot, but doing that made me wonder if it was damaging the edge of the blade a bit. After doing a bit of experimenting I found a better way was to keep pressure in the direction you were going and wiggling the plane left a bit and then right a bit to slowly work your way through the knot.

Any tips on how I could better be doing this?

Importantly, you thought of sharpening first, And yes, you probably wouldn’t have helped it forcing things. 

How to tackle it? Set the iron even lighter, maybe, take less per pass, or the wiggle you used, take that to the next step, rather than pushing straight at the thing go at an angle, think of a shear rather than a chisel.  Speaking of chisels-

So I dug out one of my grandad’s old narrow chisels and sharpened it up.

Again. Holy cow. Worked a dream. Easy as pie to widen the hole to what I wanted and in the shape I wanted, and (even more importantly in this case), the depth I wanted. Smooth. Precise. Accurate as. Loved it. Even sharpening it was fun.

Sharpening is an absolute gas, it really is. There’s something about making things right, the way they should be. And when you don’t have to beat on them with a mallet, when you just pare away fine shavings of wood with only the push your hand does…

Think I might go dig out the my grandad’s old Bit and Brace drill, give it some attention, and have a play with that to see how it compares with the electric drill; much easier to take it slow and see what the drillbit is doing with something like that.

I worked with a guy who just couldn’t understand how to sharpen drill bits. Now, I said that every power tool is the descendant of a hand tool? Okay, now, every hand woodworking tool is pretty much a descendant of a chisel. Auger bits can be sharpened very nicely with a fine file, I like the triangular ones you use for sharpening hand saws. Think of what you sharpen on a chisel and what you don’t.

The brace- I love a good bit brace. Had a job one winter, repairing and improving a commercial fishing boat. Put in 7000 plus 2 1/2" #16 flat head galvanized slotted wood screws (you can imagine why I have that stamped into my brain) with what became the smoothest running bit brace on the US East Coast. A nice light lubricating oil like sewing machine oil is good if it’s good to begin with, otherwise a thinner oil to get it loostened up, like kerosene (paraffin) and then the sewing machine oil.  

And I’m definitely going to go for a dive into one of my grandad’s old tool boxes that I saw a few planers in; didn’t pay too much attention to them at the time, but I think I saw what might have been a jointer plane in there, probably a jack plane or two, and (fingers crossed) maybe a block plane or two?

What’s more, if there is such a thing as an afterlife, I reckon my grandad’s would be stoked to see me picking up their old tools and putting them to good use, because, like I said earlier, I suspect at least some of them hadn’t been used since before I was born.

Again, the paraffin and the sewing machine oil are your friends here, plus those abrasive pads. Polish the parts that slide, then shiny, bright and lightly oiled, as the instructions go for an Enfield rifle. 

Those old tools were made to be used for several lifetimes, occasionally neglected and abused a bit and then brought back. And like sharpening, it’s good for your head, making things right again

doc…

 

 

 

22

Sharp is the key. Sharpen it the best you can, You’ll see a lot of videos on Youtube, avoid the ones that involve some sort of jig, instead train your eye and your hand to get the bevel right, feel when the bevelled edge of your plane iron ( or chisel, or…) is nice and flat on the stone and hold that. Slow, and smooth and steady and careful is where it’s at.

If your sharpening stones are a bit swaybacked from wear it may throw you off. But you can replace them or fix them. There’s stuff for that too. a coarse silicon carbide paper, a heavy piece of glass or flat stone (granite or marble countertop scraps are good) and back and forth until it’s good.

Now, I dunno how well it will work on your foam once it’s sharp. But try it and see. Gouging and tearing come from dull tools, in wood and presumably in your foam.

hope that’s of use

doc…

23

Sure, why not?      The first board I ever shaped, was done with Draw Knife, Jack Plane, Block Plane, and Sandpaper.       The Jack Plane was the primary tool.

24

Thanks Doc,

When I was looking at the edge when tackling the knot I did notice some small nicks in it afterwards; wasn’t sure if it was from my efforts on the knot, but I suspect previous use by someone else running into a buried tack or nail or something was a more likely culprit for it. Would need to look at it again to check but I’m thinking I’d need to take a fair bit off the blade (“iron”?) in order to eliminate them; does having a few small nicks cause much of a problem when cutting, or can I just give it a tune-up and live with them?

Bought a combination sharpening stone a while back that’s hardly been used (probably not a good thing for me to be admitting to here), so it should at least be a properly flat surface for me to work off when learning how to sharpen up the edge of the “iron”; am guessing as long as the edge I produce is straight, it doesn’t have to be at perfect right angles to the sides of the iron (can use the tilt mechanism on the plane to tilt it left or right to adjust it to be straight when in use), and having a perfectly flat surface should produce this straight edge (even if I goof up a bit by putting slightly more pressure on one side of the iron when sharpening than the other, and the line of the edge produced wanders away from right angles to the sides of the iron)?

25

Fantastic! Thanks Bill.

By the way, you never mentioned in the original or later posts what the appeal to you is of a low-angle block plane is over a Jack, Smoothing, etc plane; just that you loved 'em.

The low-angle blade slices the foam easier? Less likely to tear the foam? Short length allows you to tackle the convex curves on a deck-side railband better than a longer Jack or Smoothing plane (i.e. shorter plane doesn’t “bottom out” as easily in a convex curve)? The fact it can be used one-handed while a Jack or Smoothing plane demands two hands?

And how about the Japanese planes? What’s the appeal there (especially as you mentioned doing an entire board with one was “not for the faint of heart”)? Is it something to do with the fact there’s a lot of sole in front of the blade and very little behind it on a Japanese Plane?

Cheers!

26

Ohhhhkaaay, some  stuff-

When I was looking at the edge when tackling the knot I did notice some small nicks in it afterwards; wasn’t sure if it was from my efforts on the knot, but I suspect previous use by someone else running into a buried tack or nail or something was a more likely culprit for it. Would need to look at it again to check but I’m thinking I’d need to take a fair bit off the blade (“iron”?) in order to eliminate them; does having a few small nicks cause much of a problem when cutting, or can I just give it a tune-up and live with them?

First, terminology. A nice diagram here

Now, my rule of thumb is I’ll accept a nick for a moment or two, but the little ridges it leaves tend to piss me off. And it’s sloppy. Fix them. Imagine your grandfathers looking over your shoulder.

There are times when you can’t do it perfectly. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. There are times when you shouldn’t do it perfectly, but it takes time and experience to know what those are. 

Loosen the screw,remove the cap, sharpen patiently. That’s why you have coarse stones, for chips and coarse cutting steel. 

Yeah, it’s a pain. But it really encourages you to carefully check what you’re planing. Which is a good habit to get into.   

Also, when you’re not planing with the thing, lie the plane on its side or with one end on a piece of wood. Preserves the edge. Another good habit to get into.

Bought a combination sharpening stone a while back that’s hardly been used (probably not a good thing for me to be admitting to here), so it should at least be a properly flat surface for me to work off when learning how to sharpen up the edge of the “iron”; am guessing as long as the edge I produce is straight, it doesn’t have to be at perfect right angles to the sides of the iron (can use the tilt mechanism on the plane to tilt it left or right to adjust it to be straight when in use), and having a perfectly flat surface should produce this straight edge (even if I goof up a bit by putting slightly more pressure on one side of the iron when sharpening than the other, and the line of the edge produced wanders away from right angles to the sides of the iron)?

Ummmm- not bad that it hasn’t been used a lot. And we can assume it’s flat. It should be wider than your plane iron and long enough to give a good long stroke as you sharpen. Use full length strokes so you don’t wear a belly in it.

Now, is it an oilstone or a water stone? Water stones use water, unsurprisingly, to both lubricate your cutting process and to float away the wee bits of metal that the stone cuts on every pass.You see the stone getting grayish? That’s fine steel and you need to sluice it off.  The cliche rinse, repeat comes in here.

Oilstones - use a very light oil, not really much thicker than kerosene/paraffin. Not lubricating oil.And definitely not WD40 or similar. The latter is what you use to clean a stone if somebody gummed it up by leaving oil on it or using lube oil. Use it on my oilstones and you should be prepared to duck.

Never, ever use a stone dry. 

Now, combination stone. Yeah, but which combination? You can get ( for example) 120 grit and 250 grit combination stones, or 4000/8000 and lots in between. The former are coarse and cobby, the latter are for finish sharpening straight razors. For a chipped plane iron, I’ll work out the chips ( almost all the way, the finer stones will finish 'em) with a 250 grit, then work through to 1000 or so, which is plenty for most woodworking tools, kitchen knives and so on. Most, your finest chisels or some Japanese planes, sashimi kives you can take to 4000. 8000? I own and use straight razors. 

When you’re done, carefully clean and dry your stones. Blot dry, don’t rub, you get fibers in the stone if you rub.

Now, the 90 degree edge Yeah, you can get away with a little deviation from that but you don’'t want to develop bad habits. There’s situations where you might want to have the angle off some, but you don’t know about those yet and won’t run across them making a surfboard. 

That lever on the plane that adjusts the cant of the iron? It’s there to angle it a little if you in fact want some for a particular cut. It presupposes a 90 degree edge.

If the way you hold the iron while sharpening puts the angle off? You are holding it wrong, so change that. Again, kill bad habits early, when it’s easy to do that. Hold it gently and precisely, angle to the stone consistent, not a lot of pressure, let the stone do the work.

Check the angle and how straight the edge is. Just by eye isn’t good enough, especially if you haven’t trained your eye to see when it’s off by, say, less than one degree. Never fear, it comes with time. Easiest way to get it smack on is with a square, a combination square, a try square or if you are lucky enough to have one, a machinist’s square. Check your Granddads’ tool boxes, they had them You’ll need them anyhow. The combo squares with the center finders and protractors really come in handy for interesting stuff. Don’t lose any pieces. 

You hold the side of the iron against the body of the square (the thick part) and carefully bring the edge to the blade of the square. With a light behind it. You don’t want to see any light.

Buddy of mine trained as a machinist. And one of the first things they had him do was they gave him a piece of rough steel plate about half a meter long and a file and had him file, by hand, a nice square flat straight edge that ran the length of the plate. 

His instructors checked it against a granite surface plate, light tight like I mentioned above. Those plates are really, really flat, milled or ground to around 1/10,000 of an inch or better. 

Something like that, and yes, it can be done with a file, Stan passed that test,  it develops technique, skill, patience. You learn to control the material, the tools and maybe most importantly you learn to control yourself. I think it makes you a better human. 

And maybe sometime I’ll tell the story about Stan and me, setting up two tons of diesel pump in the belly of a fishboat to within less than 1/1000 of an inch.

Or maybe I should say we tried to…

doc…

 

27

  L.I.T.  to your questions.       Low Angle block planes are sooooo good at taking down stringers, next to soft foam.     Sharp blades, clean cuts, short length for nose work.     ALWAYS with two hands.    Precission.       Japanese planes?     Simplicity.       Scary sharp.      Tissue paper thin shavings, when you know how to adjust them.     Did I mention how sharp they are?       Again, ALWAYS two hands, for precise cut control.      My big Kanna plane was purchased new in Hawaii in 1963, at a hardware store, where no english was spoken.      My small curved Japanese plane, from a boat builder in Okinawa, is at least 120 yrs old.      Just a pleasure to use tools with such history.

28

First board I ever shaped out of a real surfboard blank purchased from Mitch in La Jolla;  was shaped in my backyard, under a tree on Missouri St. in PB.  Shaped with a Stanley Surform, and sandpaper.  Can’t remember if I had a Stanley “Mini” or not(for stringer only).  Probably,   just don’t remember.   Lowel

29

I don’t do it, but I have watched a shaper who is a pretty well known “ghost” carve out lots of “fish tails” with a “right angle” grinder.  Something I could probably do, but wouldn’t.   That’s like firing up a doobie with a flame thrower.

30

Thanks for the heads up gents.  Been looking for a good low angle block plane.

On eBay, I just picked up a vintage, never been used Stanley 118 – in its old box with original Stanley tag still attached.  (Iron has clearly never been used.)

31

Dear doc,

         first up, thank you for link to the diagram of the terminology for the different parts of a hand-plane. Got that one tucked away so I can talk accurately about hand-planes and their parts from now on.

After reading the above I went back and had a look at the edge on the plane I used to trim down the bottom of the door with (and which I thought I might have damaged by trying to “bust through” the knot I encountered). Good news; turns out what I thought were a few “small nicks” on it’s edge were in fact just some persistent bits of dirt or grime (the light was fading at the time I first looked at it, hence the mistake on identifying it). Thankfully they disappeared under a bit of rubbing from my thumb.

Will give the edge on it a touch up anyway, partly because while the edge on it isn’t bad, I think I could be better, plus, it’ll be good practice for sharpening up the edge on another very nice old plane I have (but haven’t used yet) on which I discovered an actual small nick. The nick is quite shallow on that one, so I shouldn’t have to remove too much to eliminate it, but I’d like to have them both ship-shape and ready to go.

Will get onto it.

'Didn’t notice any metal items or bulges from them in the paint on the bottom of the door when I started shaving through it with the plane, but I couldn’t say I was looking hard for it at the time either, so thanks doc for the tip on that one; something else for me to make a habit out of. I did at least think to protect the edge by taking care to lie the plane down on it’s side when not being used, so at least the brain was working on that one.

Pretty sure it’s an oilstone (oil-filled silicon carbide benchstone), but not sure what the grits in it are; have some digging to do to find it; we had some flooding a while ago and everything got madly piled onto the nearest dry spots in a haphazard fashion, so have been working on sorting things out and putting them back where they belong; am fairly sure the combo stone is in one of these piles.

:slight_smile: Consider me warned!

Have some sewing machine oil on hand (I believe that’s basically refined paraffin oil?), and pretty sure there’s some kerosene too, so it sounds like these should be fine.

Ah, good; 'figured that was what the lever was for when I first checked out the hand-plane to get it ready for working on the door. So I knew I was being a bit naughty using it to straighten up the edge but didn’t have enough time or access to the interwebs to find these things out. Have since pulled out the irons on my hand-planes and taken the time to practice putting them back in straight.

:slight_smile: Thanks doc; had a dig through the toolboxes and turned up a combination and a try square. Looooots of surface rust on them though, so I’ve got some work ahead of me getting them cleaned up well enough to use.

Am making sure nothing gets lost along the way.

Ouch!! Mind you, I’ve done a few things myself that demanded more patience and self-disciple than the average punter is willing to put in, so I can relate to that.

Thanks doc!!

32

:slight_smile: Thanks Bill!

Nice!!!

Using my granddad’s old chisel was a blast and I loved the history in it, but it’s certainly got a “patina” to it, and tools that look that way have a habit of disappearing into the bin if whoever inherits them doesn’t know what they are or doesn’t appreciate them.

Or perhaps they’d rather have the money they’re worth than hang onto them; I remember a while back going to a garage sale of my uncle’s where he was selling off a bunch of stuff and I had to helplessly stand off to the side watching random guys blow in and hoover up my granddad’s old tools.

Man that hurt; at the start of the sale I’d already managed to salvage a couple of things I wanted the most with the money I had in my pocket at the time, but it wasn’t enough for everything… I remember watching one guy go through what was still on offer, picking out the cream of it, and loading them one after another, after another, after another (you get the gist), into a big cardboard box, and then watching him and all that family history disappear out the door.

Sucked, but one of the things I salvaged that day was the hand-plane I trimmed the door with, so that’s a good thing!

If you haven’t already, 'might be an idea to make sure you’ve got some info about your Kanna plane and especially the old curved Japanese plane documented and a descendant lined up who can appreciate it, give it a good home and keep the ball rolling.

And speaking of old tools, it’s amazing just how long some of these tools we’re talking about have been around for, and that while some things have changed over time, some things about tools (and people) haven’t changed one iota.

For instance I was reading the Wikipedia page for the “try square” that doc posted the link to and spotted the photo of this old wooden one on it (at the bottom of this post after my signoff).

How old is it?

This one was dated as being from the 20th century BC.

That’s right.

Not AD.

20 whole centuries.

BC!!!

It was found in the tomb of Meketre, an ancient Epytian nobleman who was chief pen-pusher to the Pharoah’s Mentuhotep II and Mentuhotep III.

The square’s haven’t changed much since then, and it looks like apprentices haven’t changed much either; I can just imagine it, they’ve finished the job, packed up, and they’ve headed off to the next job-site,… and wouldn’t you know it, one of the apprentices has left one of the boss’ tools back at the job-site they’ve just left, so he gets sent back to retrieve it,… but when he gets there, hang on, the tomb’s all sealed up!

Mind you, after a 3,920 year wait, Winlock excavated the tomb in 1920, and the apprentice could nip in, pick up the try square and get it back to the boss.

I wonder if that’s the origin of the “long weight” (i.e. wait) prank that bosses like to play on their new apprentices these days came from?

Man, you guys are a bad influence on me; now you’ve got me wanting to head out, prowling the garage sales like doc for low-angle block planes, Japanese planes and heaven knows whatever else gets posted next…

… 'still, there’s worse ways to spend a no-surf Saturday morning :slight_smile:

Cheers!

33

Yep, shear was what I thought of first and tried pushing with the plane at an angle, but as the door frame was only a bit over an inch wide, and with the front and back of the plane a fair way over opposite sides of it, there was way more leverage to accidentally get lopsided and shave down one side of the wood leaving the other side largely untouched. With more practice I’d probably learn to control it, but at the time I found the gentle wiggle eased me through the knot in the safest and most reliable manner. But you’re right; with enough control, pushing at an angle should get through it quicker.

Time for a sharpen and a bit of practice with angled strokes!

Yes!! Got that exact feeling when sharpening up the chisel.

And (literally) a jaw-dropping moment when I tried it on the gate-post hole. Just slid through the wood with only my hand pushing it for most of the time and only the occasional gentle few taps from a hammer (I know in hindsight I should have been using a mallet; will have to go digging for that one too) to encourage it through a sticky bit. SUCH a difference compared to the pressure and dodgy stuff I was having to do with the electric drill.

Pulled out the brace; in fairly good nick, but will have pull out the kero and sewing machine oil to unstick things down at the bit end.

Thanks! By abrasive pads, are you talking metallic ones like 0000 steel wool, or do you mean non-metallic ones like Scotchbrite pads (https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/metalworking-us/products/flat-stock/hand-pads/)? Does it make a difference (if traces of a metallic pad get left behind in a groove on a tool’s surface it could provide a place for rust to start off again, whereas traces of non-metallic pad would be okay)? Am guessing probably not?

Well, I gotta make tracks; am afraid I’ll be offline until mid-next week.

So a big thanks to all who’ve replied to my questions; this stuff has been gold, so anytime you’re in my neck of the woods, there’s a beer waiting for you & am happy to steer you towards your best chance at a wave for the conditions at the time.

Cheers!

34

This has been a very satisfying thread.  Thanks to everyone.

all the best

35

Keep your eyes out for a Stanley #65 or a Craftsman #3732 and you’ll probably never use the 118.  ;^}

36

I’m going to go out to the house today and dig out some planes.  I know nothing about any of them.  But I may try to check them for #'s and comparison to pictures posted here.  Got a few of them.

37

De nada, You want some real fun, old tool manuals. Absolutely love 'em. 

There ya go. The edge could always be better. Indeed, sharpening things is a good way to start any job, or during the job as a little distraction. Dunno about you, me, I’m famous for overthinking things, a little distraction is good. 

As well- if there’s a little smeg on the edge, there’s smeg in the guts of the plane and more. Clean it to shiny metal, kerosene is good, and then lightly lubricate it. Al the surfaces, all the threads, you don’t have to take it apart to the last screw but all the working parts. 

I know what you mean. Me, for a while I was getting back to the shop after a job and going right back out, . Stacks of boxes, duplicates of things and more. Now I’m ‘retired’, I can maybe get things organized. In my dreams. 

Right, when in doubt the kerosene is the way to go. You’re looking for a viscocity no more than, say, whole milk. I would blend my own, gallon at a time, and there I’d be. 

Good-typically you can use a really flat surface to line them up. 

Ha- yep, I think you found that uout the same way I did. Those magnetic parts dishes are your friend there.  More on cleaning the rust in a bit. 

Again, de nada. 

and now for Part 2

doc…

38

And again, touch up the iron some. 

Practice is good, getting the feel for it.

Also,the diagonal strokes? Nice thing about a block plane is it’s short. You can do straight edges, but you can also work a concave, or at least more of a concave than a longer plane…when you use it straight ahead. But the effective length of that longer plane, held diagonal, see where this is going?

Right? Imagine how nice your plane will be when it’s sharpened to that degree. 

Good mallets are a beeyotch to find. A dense hardwood head, comfortable handle, as opposed to the artist/sculptor things. You can fake it with a dead blow mallet, the plastic things, but…I may wind up making a batch of them for my own use. 

And power drill bits get dull too. If you have to brute them in, they’re dull. Me, I can’t sharpen one of those by hand but if you use them a lot investing in a drill bit sharpener is a good thing. As I found out one winter, working in a municipal shop. Drill Doctor, used ones are okay, you can get replacement grindy grindy wheels for them. 

 

I said in a previous reply I’d get back to you on rust removal on the squares? It applies here too, and plane bodies and so forth, You’re exactly right, the non metallic 3M ones, that’s the ticket, in varying ‘grits’. Steel fabricator buddy of mine uses them to polish stainless, you can get a really nice finish without worrying about ugly little bits of steel getting in the works. 

And when they’re pretty, I like to give them a coat of wax, say like furniture paste wax. Preserves them if you don’t use hem for a while. Preserves them in humidity too. Also good for the cast iron tables on shop tools. I have used paste wax plus graphite powder to ‘grease’ the guts of shop tools when for-real grease would attract and gum up the works with sawdust and so on. I use Butcher’s brand, you may have similar there. 

All good- 

doc…

39

My Stanley# 65, was purchased for my production work at HANSEN, and SURF SYSTEMS.      I have used that hand plane on THOUSANDS of surfboards.      Yet I still gravitate to the slightly smaller #60 1/2, and the #118, as my go to instrument.     Just my personal preference.      All those low angle Stanley block planes are OUTSTANDING.    

40

These have set in an old house that was dry, but still susceptible to Oregon weather due to its dilapidated condition.  They could all use a good bead blast and RnR.  I can easily tell that the three on the left are Stanley.  The two “Jacks” to the right of those appear to be Stanley, but not 100% positive.  I am making that call based on the shape of the handle.  Which is a pretty good indication when it comes to Stanley.  I’ll clean them up when I get the time and see if I can find some ID and some model #'s.  The two to the far right are clearly marked"made in India".  So those to are a wash.  Lowel

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