Popular Woodworking 2008-04 № 168, страница 30

Tight mouthed. This plane performed fairly well on curly wood, but I'm going to inlay a patch to tighten the mouth and see if that improves its performance. I recommend trying each plane as-is first. You may find the mouth is good enough. In my experience, you can go a long way with a sharp blade.

Fit the Blade

The blade should seat well on the bed of the plane. If a cap iron is present, ensure the slot for its retaining screw is deep enough for the screw's head. Fit the wedge and inspect for gaps along the abutments - I use an angled feeler gauge. The ends of the wedge should be faired to allow shavings to pass easily.

Sole: How Flat?

Smoothers and try planes need fairly flat soles. You should periodically check your wooden planes with a straightedge. Small corrections can be made with sandpaper glued to a flat surface. Unlike as with metal planes, sandpaper cuts wooden soles quickly, so be careful and check the sole frequently.

For a smoother especially, I think it is important to have the area in front of the blade (called the wear) in the same plane as the toe and heel. Hollow spots between these three areas can be tolerated. Realize that the sole of your wooden plane won't remain flat. It will wear and it will move seasonally. I recommend that you do as little as possible to your plane's sole and see how it works. True the sole only when the plane's performance demands it. When my planes' soles go concave, the planes either don't cut or cut too thick a shaving. So if you are having either problem, check the sole. The clogging happens to planes with tight mouths so this fundamentally isn't an issue for a jack plane with a VV'-wide mouth.

Mouth Patches

It's my understanding that tight-mouthed planes perform better on curly woods. The tight mouth stops the blade from splitting chunks from the board. Worn wooden planes

Arts & Mysteries

Excavate. I use a center bit to excavate for the patch. Chisel to the lines with a sharp chisel.

Matched patches. I like to match the species and grain orientation when I make a patch. That means I need rift-sawn beech. This isn't easy to get in my area. So I save spare wedges for just this sort of thing. Make sure the patch is wide enough to cover the mouth. I can get several patches out of this one wedge. Saw a piece off, hold it in place and knife around it carefully.

typically have wide mouths, but you can inlay a piece of wood (metal? plastic?) to effectively tighten the mouth of your plane.

Conclusion: The Plane Truth

I really like using antique wooden planes - the way they work and feel. But I especially like the lessons they've taught me. Invariably, antique wooden handplanes are imperfect tools. Using them despite their imperfections has taught me to understand what is really required in a plane. I've found that j ack planes need little but a sharp blade. And that the blade really doesn't need a flat back. For me, a nicely shaped tote is a jack plane's most important feature.

The key attribute of a try plane is its length - the longer the better. It needn't have an especially tight mouth. I think it's difficult to get an edge really straight if the sole isn't flat. My advice is to check it often, and check your work. I think you'll find that there is a "good enough" sole flatness. With smooth planes you can experiment how a back bevel, a re ally flat sole, or a tight mouth affect performance. All of these are fairly easy to adjust and readjust.

We should probably ask whether it's necessary to fully understand how planes work,

Taper for tight fit. I taper the sides of the patch to help me get a good fit. If I make a mistake and chisel beyond the line, I simply plane the bottom of the patch. The fit doesn't really have to be perfect though. The patch just has to stay there.

Flush it up. Finish the job by sawing off the excess and planing the patch flush. If you did it right, the patch will cover too much of the mouth and will have to get opened up. I chisel most of the excess, then use a fine mill file for the rest. The chiseling and filing should be roughly parallel to the bed angle, not square with the sole.

and what features are required to make them perform at different levels to be able to use them effectively. There are new planes available today that are so superb that one needn't worry about such issues. I think the problem with these planes lies not with their performance but in their variety. And herein lies another use for wooden planes. If you aren't sure which new plane to buy, buy and use a wooden plane until you figure it out. PW

Visit Adam's blog at artsandmysteries.com for more discussion of traditional woodworking techniques.

28 ■ Popular Woodworking April 2008 MX