Et voila!
Below is the old bench. Just a little bit warped, but at least the new surface is flat.
And I think there ought to be a smile:
Thursday 28 March 2013
Few words
Et voila!
Below is the old bench. Just a little bit warped, but at least the new surface is flat.
And I think there ought to be a smile:
Wednesday 27 March 2013
Stanley Bailey Five and a Half
This was the last of the old eBay planes that I wanted to get back into working order, the biggest and heaviest one, a Stanley Bailey 5 1/2. It's fifteen inches long and has a two and three-eighths inch wide cutter. The US version of this plane ceased production in 1958, and I'd guess this English one also dates from the 1950s. The No 5 plane (which I already had) was slightly shorter and had a two-inch cutter, and continued in production in the US for another thirty years - presumably because users preferred a slightly lighter jack-plane.
Before I started on it, it looked like this:
The pitting in the sole has resulted from the plane being stored in damp conditions for too long. I didn't photograph the cutter, but the whole plane really was pretty badly treated.
It came apart very easily, and luckily neither of the two handles was damaged. In fact, they were both the older style in proper rosewood, and the larger handle still had most of the "Stanley" transfer to be seen on the top.
Here's how it looks now:
The sole doesn't look perfect, but really it doesn't need to be mirror-smooth.
This shows the other view:
The handles are held on with brass screws (rather than the cheaper steel ones found on later planes) and the rosewood polished up quite well, and - as usual - with an hour or so of work, it was possible to get the cutter reasonably sharp too. I went only as far as the 1200 grit wet-and-dry - later on I will do the really sharp finish when I am actually about to start a real piece of work. The proof of the pudding, of course, is how well it works, and I found that it cut a nice long and transparent curl of wood from a piece of scrap wood.
As it was the last plane and now it's been done, I hope tomorrow to re-arrange the workshop, get rid of the old and temporary "bench" supported on concrete blocks, and move my new bench into its proper place. From then on, it should be carpentry rather than fettling tools.
Before I started on it, it looked like this:
The pitting in the sole has resulted from the plane being stored in damp conditions for too long. I didn't photograph the cutter, but the whole plane really was pretty badly treated.
It came apart very easily, and luckily neither of the two handles was damaged. In fact, they were both the older style in proper rosewood, and the larger handle still had most of the "Stanley" transfer to be seen on the top.
Here's how it looks now:
The sole doesn't look perfect, but really it doesn't need to be mirror-smooth.
This shows the other view:
The handles are held on with brass screws (rather than the cheaper steel ones found on later planes) and the rosewood polished up quite well, and - as usual - with an hour or so of work, it was possible to get the cutter reasonably sharp too. I went only as far as the 1200 grit wet-and-dry - later on I will do the really sharp finish when I am actually about to start a real piece of work. The proof of the pudding, of course, is how well it works, and I found that it cut a nice long and transparent curl of wood from a piece of scrap wood.
As it was the last plane and now it's been done, I hope tomorrow to re-arrange the workshop, get rid of the old and temporary "bench" supported on concrete blocks, and move my new bench into its proper place. From then on, it should be carpentry rather than fettling tools.
Saturday 23 March 2013
Getting to the cutting edge
I took a chance and bid on a job lot of woodworking planes (and chisels) on e-bay, and got them for £65. As there were eight steel planes and three wooden ones, I thought there would be a chance of salvaging something useful - it's difficult to really wreck a plane. But in this case someone had had a good go at it.
Mostly they looked like this:
Or like this:
But after a bit of work, I was able to clean up the one above into a nice Record 4 1/2 plane, with just a bit of pitting on the sole and some parts of the cutter - luckily not the sharp end of it:
I glued the broken handle (the one at the right hand end - known in the US as the "tote"), and gave it a coat of varnish. It's an early post-war model - 1950s or 1960s - and the wooden handles are made of rosewood. The original varnish was quite thick and I didn't succeed in sanding it all off.
This one, which is the smaller Stanley No 4, was in very poor condition, and now I think it will be a very useful plane.
It is a later model, from the 1970s or after, and the handles are made of a dyed wood, stained and heavily varnished to look like rosewood. I cleaned them up and didn't try to re-stain them, and the look and feel is pretty good. I also bought a new Veritas sharpening guide, which has helped me get some good sharp cutters. Here is the one from this small plane:
I didn't quite remove all the parallel scratches created in the sharpening process, but despite those small blemishes this one has a mirror surface that quite surprised me. The little patches of rust near the sharpened edge I will hope to polish out eventually, but there was a lot of rust all over this plane and it took a couple of hours to get rid of most of it. What's left goes a little deeper than the surface. It is very sharp.
The Veritas guide has a detachable stop that lets you set the same angle each time, and which helps you get the edge at a good right-angle to the side of the cutter. It grips the blades much better, and has a large roller to ensure that you don't tip the cutter and grind of its edges. It is far, far better than the little gadget sold in B and Q. I've been using it on a thick sheet of glass, with progressively finer abrasive papers - the finest is a 5 micron one, which has put this polish on the edge.
The chisels that came with the planes were largely scrap, but the one or two that had good metal and handles in solid (unchipped) wood I have kept and I have sharpened those too with the new Veritas guide.
I have still a couple more planes to do, but they will all be waiting a while before they get any attention. There were two useful wooden planes, one of which i have cleaned and sharpened, and old "coffin" plane. But this metal one I shall be giving the treatment to:
It is a Stanley 5 1/2: this is a long plane with a wide blade - the biggest metal plane I have, in fact. I also have a number 5, the same length but with a narrower blade, and noticeably lighter. The extra weight of the 5 1/2 can help in getting a nice finish.
Mostly they looked like this:
Or like this:
But after a bit of work, I was able to clean up the one above into a nice Record 4 1/2 plane, with just a bit of pitting on the sole and some parts of the cutter - luckily not the sharp end of it:
I glued the broken handle (the one at the right hand end - known in the US as the "tote"), and gave it a coat of varnish. It's an early post-war model - 1950s or 1960s - and the wooden handles are made of rosewood. The original varnish was quite thick and I didn't succeed in sanding it all off.
This one, which is the smaller Stanley No 4, was in very poor condition, and now I think it will be a very useful plane.
It is a later model, from the 1970s or after, and the handles are made of a dyed wood, stained and heavily varnished to look like rosewood. I cleaned them up and didn't try to re-stain them, and the look and feel is pretty good. I also bought a new Veritas sharpening guide, which has helped me get some good sharp cutters. Here is the one from this small plane:
I didn't quite remove all the parallel scratches created in the sharpening process, but despite those small blemishes this one has a mirror surface that quite surprised me. The little patches of rust near the sharpened edge I will hope to polish out eventually, but there was a lot of rust all over this plane and it took a couple of hours to get rid of most of it. What's left goes a little deeper than the surface. It is very sharp.
The Veritas guide has a detachable stop that lets you set the same angle each time, and which helps you get the edge at a good right-angle to the side of the cutter. It grips the blades much better, and has a large roller to ensure that you don't tip the cutter and grind of its edges. It is far, far better than the little gadget sold in B and Q. I've been using it on a thick sheet of glass, with progressively finer abrasive papers - the finest is a 5 micron one, which has put this polish on the edge.
The chisels that came with the planes were largely scrap, but the one or two that had good metal and handles in solid (unchipped) wood I have kept and I have sharpened those too with the new Veritas guide.
I have still a couple more planes to do, but they will all be waiting a while before they get any attention. There were two useful wooden planes, one of which i have cleaned and sharpened, and old "coffin" plane. But this metal one I shall be giving the treatment to:
It is a Stanley 5 1/2: this is a long plane with a wide blade - the biggest metal plane I have, in fact. I also have a number 5, the same length but with a narrower blade, and noticeably lighter. The extra weight of the 5 1/2 can help in getting a nice finish.
Saturday 9 March 2013
Only a detail to go
This is the bench I've been building, and it's now one that's been used for actual carpentry work - so it must count as being pretty well finished.
The latest additions were the two trays at the back for tools that are likely to roll off, and a shelf underneath for storage.
There was a minor issue with the leg vice: when clamped tight, it would push the worksurface back about 5mm on the framework, creating a small shelf on the leg. This was because the tenons on the top of the legs were a little smaller than the mortices in the worksurface. So I glued a small piece of wood to the front edge of each tenon at the vice end of the bench, and I hope that has cured the movement.
The idea with the tool trays is that they can be lifted out, so that it is possible to clamp large pieces of wood to the back of the work surface.
The final detail is that the "garter" for the leg vice screw has yet to be brought back from the UK and fitted. This will mean - or so I hope - that the vice will both open and shut using the vice screw. At present it shuts, but to open it you need to unscrew and then pull the vice jaw out separately. I am off tomorrow in the car to go and get the garter.
I'll need to move the bench over to my proper carpentry workshop now that the weather is getting warmer - I'll need someone strong to shift it. Even in two pieces it's very heavy. Then I'll have to get rid of the old bench - this one:
And although dragging it out and unscrewing the various bits fastened to it won't be that difficult, bringing myself to breaking it up, after it's been such a long time in use (I'd guess a good hundred years), will be difficult. Maybe I can make something out of the pieces?
The latest additions were the two trays at the back for tools that are likely to roll off, and a shelf underneath for storage.
There was a minor issue with the leg vice: when clamped tight, it would push the worksurface back about 5mm on the framework, creating a small shelf on the leg. This was because the tenons on the top of the legs were a little smaller than the mortices in the worksurface. So I glued a small piece of wood to the front edge of each tenon at the vice end of the bench, and I hope that has cured the movement.
The idea with the tool trays is that they can be lifted out, so that it is possible to clamp large pieces of wood to the back of the work surface.
The final detail is that the "garter" for the leg vice screw has yet to be brought back from the UK and fitted. This will mean - or so I hope - that the vice will both open and shut using the vice screw. At present it shuts, but to open it you need to unscrew and then pull the vice jaw out separately. I am off tomorrow in the car to go and get the garter.
I'll need to move the bench over to my proper carpentry workshop now that the weather is getting warmer - I'll need someone strong to shift it. Even in two pieces it's very heavy. Then I'll have to get rid of the old bench - this one:
And although dragging it out and unscrewing the various bits fastened to it won't be that difficult, bringing myself to breaking it up, after it's been such a long time in use (I'd guess a good hundred years), will be difficult. Maybe I can make something out of the pieces?
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