Popular Woodworking 2007-06 № 162, страница 50
his patents for cast iron planes to the Stanley Rule and Level Co., which for a long time continued to call its planes "Bailey Patent." The term is still used and understood today. For many decades, Stanley produced high-quality iron planes in prodigious quantities. By 1897, the company had sold more than 3 million planes. Until the 1930s, the company introduced numerous improvements to Bailey's original design. Quality began to decline after World War II, and this decline accelerated after 1960. For that reason, the best of Stanley's products are referred to as ""pre-war planes." These are the examples preferred by the most experienced handplane users. Stanley numbered its line of bench planes No. 1 through No. 8. The number designates the plane's size and purpose. No. 1 through No. 4 are smooth planes. However, the No. 1 and No. 2 are so small as to be impractical, and so we will ignore them. No. 5 and No. 6 are jack planes, while No. 7 and No. 8 are both jointers. The words smooth, jack and jointer describes a plane's most common purpose. A smooth plane is typically used for finish work. The word jack is a bit archaic, but once designated things that were used for heavy work. Thus, a jack plane is designed for heavy stock removal. Like its powered namesake, the jointer straightens the edges of boards, frequently in preparation for gluing. There are three other less common bench planes in the series, designated No. 41/2, No. 5V4, and No. 5V2. The No. 41/2 is a wider smooth plane. The No. 51/4 is a smaller jack than the No. 5, while the No. 5V2 is larger. Stanley also produced a Cadillac series of planes that it Some of the many bench planes produced by Stanley. The three planes shown directly above are Bed Rock planes - the top of the line. The rest of the planes are grouped by function. From left to right: smooth planes, jack planes and jointers. Stanley made bench planes in many sizes from the diminutive No. 1 to the massive No. 8 jointer plane. sold under the name Bed Rock. These are high-quality tools and rank among the best handplanes ever produced in the world. The Bed Rock planes used the same numbering system as Stanley's Bailey Patent planes, except that the plane's number was preceded by the number 60. Thus, aNo. 604 is a Bed Rock smooth plane, while a No. 605 is a jack. After Bailey's patents expired, other companies produced copies of Stanley planes. Some of these companies include Sargent, Keen Cutter, Millers Falls and Record. Some even used numbering systems that mimicked Stanley's. Plane Anatomy 101 A bench plane is essentially a mechanism for securing a chisellike blade so it can take a controlled cut. The tool also permits the cutter to be adjusted to a desired setting. Since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians, all handplanes have had certain elements or parts. The main part is the body, which on a wooden plane is also called its stock. The bottom surface of the body that runs on the wood is the sole. The front end of the body is the toe, and the rear the heel. The sole has an opening in it through which the cutting edge projects. This opening is called the mouth. The handle that is used to push a plane is the tote, and sometimes there is a knob. The blade is also called The iron (right) and the chip-breaker, sometimes called the cap iron or back iron. The chipbreaker was designed to prevent the wood from tearing out ahead of the iron's cutting edge. the iron or the cutter. In a wooden plane, the mouth is the bottom of a larger opening called the throat. The cutter is secured on the back surface of the throat, called the bed, by a wedge. The cutter had to be adjusted by a light hammer. Bailey's genius was to create a whole new way of holding and adjusting the cutter. His method relied on a removable 45° bedding platform called a frog. A Bailey-type plane's cutter is secured to the frog, which is then secured to the body. The frog also includes two important adjustments, and because it is secured to the body, it is itself adjustable. As a result, a Bailey-type plane is very easy to set up and very accurate. However, it is easier to understand the adjustments if you understand how a plane works. How it Works The plane blade's cutting edge projects below the sole. When the plane is pushed forward, this sharp edge engages the wood and severs a shaving. Imagine a chisel being pushed over wood. While its sharp edge would engage the wood, the shaving would quickly become long enough to ride up the chisel's inclined body. Then, instead of cutting, the chisel would begin to act as a lever, lifting the wood. The split would extend ahead of the cutting edge, so instead of being cut, the chip would tear away from the board. The result would be no 10 Popular Woodworking June 2007 |
