Hand Planes

[Jim C.]

Navaja,

I hear you.  Writing about this stuff isn’t as easy as one may think.  Trying to keep it sort of interesting, informative, accurate, to the point, and sensible can be tricky business.  After posting a long write up, which typically took several hours to compose, I’d go back and read, and re-read, and re-read, and still re-read, for errors, clarity, etc.  That took time as well.  So, don’t worry too much about it.  Take your best shot at it and it’s all good.  If questions arise, then maybe make some edits to your post.  I can say for sure that no one here will get out of hand.  Luckily the gang here is full of vintage tool enthusiast who are very knowledgeable and willing to share their experience in a well mannered fashion.  There was one guy that used to keep me on my toes, but that made it interesting.

I’m looking forward to seeing your shop made scraper.  I used Hock blades for the cutting irons in the planes and scrapers I made. You can now find them at Lee Valley.  They’re a bit expensive but you won’t be disappointed in them.  I’d say they’re worth the investment.

Jim C.

[Jim C.]

Just a few posts above, we were briefly discussing a couple scraper planes that I made out in my shop.  Making the planes is fun and sort of rewarding when there’s an opportunity to use them successfully on a project.  Over the years, I’ve come to know that when working with cherry, there’s a very good chance that I’ll get a burn mark or two on the surface of the wood.   It seems like cherry is really prone to getting burned no matter how careful one may be.  It’s unsightly, and can ruin the aesthetic beauty of the grain immediately. While there are likely several ways to eliminate those burn marks, my favorite “burn buster” is a scraper plane.  Outfitted with a thick, well sharpened iron, a scraper plane can remove those burns easily.  When using, I like to pull the scraper towards me, versus pushing it, like is done with other planes.  If the plane is set up correctly, the user should be peeling off less than paper thick shavings that are like fine lace and float to the floor.  In just a few pulls, the burn marks are gone and the beauty of the grain is restored.

Jim C.

[Yadda]

Looks similar to Japanese planes.  They pull their hand planes. Nice work!

[Jim C.]

Hello hand plane enthusiasts!  I hope everyone is well and enjoying some sort of woodworking activity that involves using at least one or two planes.  I very recently completed a small wall hung cabinet that has a door and two drawer fronts made from one panel that consists of several (18) strips of 1/4” thick, varying types of wood.  The strips are different heights, and faced glued together, showing the long edge of each strip of wood.  Consequently, when faced glued, the difference between the heights of each strip created valleys, and of course some glue squeeze out.  As hard as I try to use just the right amount of glue, I almost always get some squeeze out. 

Well, in this particular instance, I used a Stanley #238 outfitted with 1/4” wide cutter to clean the excess glue out of each valley.  Worked like a charm. 

Jim C.

[Yadda]

Nice job!  I like the design and implementation. 

[Jim C.]

Hey Yadda,

Thanks for checking out my project.  I hope I was able to demonstrate another way to use those weather stripping planes.

Jim C.

[lptools]

Hello, Jim C. Stunning work , once again! Great use of the Stanley 238!!

[Jim C.]

Many thanks Lou! 

Jim C.

[Jim C.]

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had happy holidays and 2025 is off to a great start.  With the exception of a badly needed knee replacement, which will be addressed in the next few weeks, I’m still out in the shop everyday making sawdust and of course, hand plane shavings.  This Christmas, like many others from the past, usually includes at least one hand plane that was given to me as a gift.  Can you you ever have too many?  This year was no different.  My son added a few more to my collection….. Veritas mini planes.

Although I was only tacitly aware of Veritas mini hand planes and might not have considered buying them, I now have three.  Before I go any further into this post, if you look back in the thread, you may recall that I totally panned Veritas planes strictly based on their physical appearance.  I just don’t like the way they look. I know, that’s just as dumb today as it was when I first started said it several years ago in this thread.  But I still feel the same way about Veritas hand planes.  From a purely esthetic perspective, I don’t like them.  Anyway, the three minis depicted below were a gift and I figured it must the hand plane Gods telling me to check out Veritas planes based on performance versus visual appearance. Okay.

For their size, they might be tough to use if you have big hands.  I’m average so the planes are still relatively comfortable to use.  They didn’t cut so great right out of the box, but with just a little honing they worked well enough to make me consider using them for small stuff.  I guess good enough to make me seriously consider buying the mini router. Like any other plane, large or small, as long as one stays inside the parameters for which the tool was designed, while taking a light pass with a sharp iron, the Veritas minis deliver a better than satisfactory result.

Jim C.

[coolford]

Jim---I sent you a message a few days ago but got no reply.  Coolford, I'm still alive!

[Jim C.]

Coolford,

It’s really great to hear from you!  I’ll admit that having not heard from you for some time, I did fear the worst.  I did receive your message and I thought I responded.  Well, I did write a response but I’m not sure why you didn’t get it.  Regardless, I’m really happy to hear from you.

Jim C.

[Jim C.]

I made this tea box for my wife.  As always, hand planes were heavily involved with the construction of the project. 

Jim C.

[Yadda]

Nice work!

[Jim C.]

Thanks Yadda!  It was a good project.  I tried to use the Veritas mini planes I featured back in the thread a few days earlier. They’re okay, and they do work as designed.  I’ll use them again at some when they’re the perfect tool for the job at hand.  I don’t see them as the go to planes.  I think their small size really limits their versatility.

Jim C.

[Jim C.]

I got into a private conversation with a guy a few days ago about Stanley block planes.  It was his belief that Stanley made approximately twenty or so different model block planes through years.  I told him the number was probably somewhere closer to between thirty and forty.  I think I’m missing a few that come to mind, but here’s twenty eight for sure. 

Jim C.