I began by soaking the plane body and frog in a bath of white spirit for half an hour or so, just to get rid of any oil and grease and loosen all the crud that had built up in the nooks and crannies.
To help things along I scrubbed them with a wire brush, and rinsed them off with some clean white spirit. I then patted them down with a paper towel and let the residue evaporate for a few minutes. Continue reading “Plane restoration #4 – Plane body and frog”
Well, here we are all disassembled and ready to go. This is the plan of attack:
This first thing to do when you want to flatten the sole of a plane is to check whether it needs flattening at all. There are two reasons that you might choose not to flatten the sole 1. It is too far gone to be worth bothering with 2. It is perfectly flat enough for your purposes.
I employ two tests to before deciding what to do. First, I make sure the iron is fully retracted and I lay the plane sole down on a flat surface (in this case a ceramic tile that I’ve checked with a straight edge). I then use a 5 thou (.127 mm) feeler gauge and se if I can slide it underneath the plane at any point. If I can, then I probably won’t go any further with flattening, I’d consider turning it into a scrub plane, for really rough work (something that I might do with one of my #4s or my#5½).
Continue reading “Plane restoration #2 – Flattening the sole”
Here is what we’re up against. It doesn’t look too bad is this picture, but things aren’t quite so rosy when you take a closer look. Continue reading “Plane restoration #1 – Here goes…”
Before we begin our restoration project, I thought it would be appropriate to talk a little about our hand plane, and to find out some information about it. It turns out that there are two important numbers associated with Stanley hand planes – one tells you their size, the other their age.
Once the glue was dry and the lid all finished, it was time to fit the hinges. I began with the lid first, and then moved on to the box. As with hanging doors, it is easier this way round. Continue reading “Fitting hinges – Dovetail box #4”
This box began as merely an exercise in practising dovetails. I had no idea of my first efforts at dovetailing would be good enough for this project to be anything other than scrap. Now I’m not saying that my maiden dovetails are 
perfect, or even that they are good. All I know is that they are not bad, and so I thought that they would be good enough for something.
Then, it came to me. I have a number of small tools that I use for marking out – dividers, compasses, square, knife, and my dovetail template among them. This box would be perfect to store them in. It could sit on my bench, keeping dust and moisture off these tools until they are needed. Continue reading “Lid inlay – Dovetail box #3”
Roy Underhill is an old school woodworker. His TV show, The Woodwright’s Shop, has been on air since 1979 and there have been over 400 episodes.
Christopher Schwarz is a contributing editor to Popular Woodworking magazine, and a strong advocate of traditional woodworking. His books on workbenches are my main inspiration for wanting to build a Roubo style workbench. Continue reading “Sawing Secrets”
goatboys woodshop 