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Hand Planes
Bill Houghton:
You can get citrus-based cleaning products that are, in my experience, hugely effective on pitch. Your hardware store, if it's any good at all, will have them.
gibsontool:
I agree 100% with Bill. Several years ago we built a new sawmill for a company in northern British Columbia. After the new mill was up any running we dismantle the old mill and the owner sold one of the main breakdown lines to a Chinese company. This was is the time period when the Mountain pine beetle was devastating our forests. We had given the Chinese company a firm price to clean and load out the equipment. they were adamant that all the pitch had to be removed 100% to prevent the spread of the beetle or it's eggs embedded in the pitch. Our older steam cleaner wasn't doing the job so we bought a new high powered steam cleaner and tried many many different cleaning products and finally after several weeks we tried a citrus based cleaner made by Zip and it was the ONLY product that worked. We went thru cases and cases of the stuff and I still use to this day.
Jim C.:
Believe it or not, I’ve had really good results soaking pitch encrusted machine parts, saw blades and cutting irons in warm water infused with plain old ordinary liquid laundry detergent. Fully immerse the part, blade, iron for about 20-30 minutes. The pitch gets soft and comes right off.
Jim C.
Jim C.:
Hello Hand Plane Enthusiasts,
I hope everyone is off to a great start in 2022. I’m doing okay, and do engage in a lot of woodworking since retiring almost three years ago. Last summer we moved from the Midwest to the east coast. It took a few months just to pack up my shop. Anyway, I have a new shop and it’s just about 100% up and running. I’m out in the shop between four and six hours every day working on a few different projects from furniture building to machinery rehab/restoration, etc. And yes I’m still collecting and using and making hand planes……
At least 15+ years ago I started making a queen size bed. For whatever reason, the project stalled about halfway to the finish line. Maybe it was work, kids activities and sports, or just a combination of things, but my woodworking sort lost momentum for several years. The bed project was the victim of bad timing in my life. I had too many other priorities. So, I wrapped all the parts in movers blankets and set them aside for a long time. Well, when I was packing up my shop, I had to decide what to do with this half finished bed. I hated to scrap it because the wood is really beautiful, and I already had a lot of time into it. I decided I’d move it with the rest of the contents of my shop. Wrapped in the blankets, the bed parts made the trip in the ramp compartment beneath the trailer along with some other long planks. Fortunately the bed parts made it here without a scratch. I spent a good part of the summer and fall setting up my new work space and vowed that once I got things operational I’d get going on the bed. So after fifteen or more years the bed project is nearing the finish line.
The bed construction is almost exclusively accomplished using mortise and tenon joinery. As a result, one can imagine what type of planes I’m using to accurately fit the joints together. I hope you’re thinking shoulder planes. With the right combination of carefully adjusted planes, set for a light pass, I can make joints that fit perfectly. Recently I used a Stanley #90, a #92 and and a #60 1/2R Lie-Nielsen rabbeting block plane modeled after the Sargent #507, to fit the tenons on two natural edge boards that will act as center stretchers in the headboard and footboard. Check out the photos below.
Jim C.
coolford:
Jim-C---I'm glad you have adjusted to the wilds of New Jersey. Certainly you appear to have made great progress on the bed using "planes", and maybe some other old tools. I have missed your posts even though I have moved on from planes. By the way, I have yet to find the drive tool you need for the Walden socket set.----Charles
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