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15 March 2019 at 7:51 pm #555564
Hollow grinding is usually produced off grinding wheels, not hand sharpening. Nothing wrong with the technique really, some like it, some don’t. I used to have a wet grinder machine but now I prefer hand sharpening as I find it faster, though obviously not with the harder steels. That’s why I find the carbon steel blades in the Stanleys easier to work with.
There’s a million and one ways to sharpen which all have their perks and pitfalls and supporters and detractors but that’s probably for another thread!
One thing about tools like Veritas is they really hold their value so if you bought one and didn’t like it you could always sell it on Ebay and probably won’t loose all that much. Veritas do offer conventional steel blades as an option for some of their planes but they will be thicker.
I would agree that Clifton tools are really nice too. More traditional looking than the modern styling of the Veritas planes but top quality
.15 March 2019 at 2:21 pm #555548I have built up and refurbished a set of #3,#4,#4.5,#5,#5.5,#6 and #7 Stanley’s and have also aquired some really good quality new Quangsheng planes namely a #3,#4,#4.5 and a #7 (which is fantastic) from workshop heaven in the UK (well worth a look if you are in uk and a fair bit cheaper than Veritas). Mind, I do have a bit of a plane problem!
I have to be honest, whilst the new planes are beautiful to look at and do a great job, I do still find I reach for the Stanleys more often than not. I find the Stanley’s are lighter in the hand and have a slightly better feel to them. The blades are cheap as chips in comparison to the Quangshengs. They are also a lot easier to hone and grind by hand if you want to have different cambers. Both the Quangsheng and stanleys use normal steel though the Quangsheng blades are a lot thicker and take much longer to sharpen/hone. The Veritas and Lie Nielsen planes often have special steel alloys which hold an edge longer but (in my opinion) are a nightmare to hone without waterstones. Waterstones are just to messy for my liking.
There is also an abundence of spares available for Stanleys as there are so many of them in circulation.
If I were you I would have a go at refurbishing some old stanleys or Records and build up your own set. When you tune them yourself you start to get quite attached to them! Once properly tuned there is nothing the Veritas planes can do that the Stanleys can’t. Paul has done a great video on renovating a #4 and its well worth a watch.
All that said I wouldn’t swap my Veritas router for all the tea in china!
I really should sell the Quangshengs but they do look pretty…..
18 September 2018 at 6:15 pm #551771Hi Kirsty,
Here’s a link to an eclipse honing guide on Ebay if you aren’t sure what everyone is one about!
Harry is dead right in what he says about the cap iron being vitally important to avoid chatter and he gives some very good and detailed instructions on how to set one up but since your plane was initially planing fine I would suggest the cap iron is at least passable (It wouldn’t hurt to check it anyway though). Setting the cap iron up is what you would typically need to do when you buy an old plane or blade off ebay or from a car boot sale. Tooltique, I think, would/should have set this up when they refurbished it.
I think it is likely a sharpening issue as it sounds like that is the only thing to have changed since you were last merrily planning away. Personally, I would get the honing guide as that will definitely allow you to sharpen the chisel to the correct bevel then at least you can rule that out of the equation as a cause of your problem. It doesn’t have to be an eclipse (many people swear by the Veritas Mk2) but I, like others have mentioned find the Eclipse pretty fuss free and easy to use. It’s a tool that you will find useful for the future anyway.
John
17 September 2018 at 10:41 pm #551680Hi Kirsty,
For what its worth here’s my (somewhat inexperienced) two pence worth!
The lever cap screw does look like it has been cast off centre. Never seen that before! If you are worried you can pick a replacement frog up on ebay for about a fiver but to be honest, if the plane was working initially it probably wasn’t having a negative effect on your planing anyway.
Have you checked the lever cap screw is set correctly? With everything in place, the lever on the cap should firmly snap in place. If it is too loose you might be getting chatter ie the plane feels like its bouncing along the wood. It shouldn’t be too tight either or you will struggle to use the depth adjuster. Once set, you rarely need to touch the lever cap screw. Also, when backing off the cut using the depth adjuster, always remove the excess play from the adjuster by turning it back until its starts trying to tighten again.
If that’s all set ok, I think it’s possible you aren’t applying enough downward pressure on the planing stroke. You need to press down on the front of the plane when starting the stoke, balance the pressure through the stroke and put pressure on the rear of the plane at the end. Some people describe it as trying to plane a hollow in the middle of the board.
With regards to sharpening, If you have gradually created a steeper bevel it could make the plane harder to push through the stroke and could be causing a lack of control. Veritas do a cheap(ish) brass bevel guide which I find very useful for checking angles. You could probably benefit from picking up an eclipse style honing guide. They are dirt cheap, easy to use and will give you an idea of what the bevel should look like. You can always try freehand sharpening later but many people stick with the guides permanently (no shame in that!). Paul has a canny video on using the Eclipse guides somewhere in the video library.
I’m sure others on here will have other suggestions to help too.
Cheers
John
28 August 2018 at 8:35 pm #550695For what its worth I live up in Newcastle and my workshop is in a 11×8 shed with no insulation and until recently a leaking roof! It probably comes as no surprise that this winter I had a problem with tools rusting due to condensation. It was mainly the planes that were badly affected as they were on open shelves.
Half way through the winter I cleaned the rust off and nipped to a charity furniture shop and bought a second hand vintage chest of drawers with ply bottoms to the drawers for strength. I put all the planes in there and not one has rusted since. I didn’t bother oiling them but this would have been a belt and braces approach. It seems to me that if you want to stop rust, get your tools under cover in a chest or a tool cabinet (top of my list for my next project).
I did fit a greenhouse tube heater running off a thermostat but I think its questionable how effective it has been. I have also used those single use de-humidifier tubs and they have helped take moisture out all year round. Oh and fixing the roof may have helped a bit too!
26 August 2018 at 7:43 pm #550594For what it’s worth I have a small workshop and can’t really fit a bandsaw in (as much as I want one) so have no choice but to do it by hand.
Re-sawing with a 26″ 4.5 PPI rip saw works well if you have a lot to remove but if you can handle the wastage I would strongly recommend trying an old beat up wooden jack plane and cambering the iron. These old planes often have really worn wide open throats which, when combined with a cambered iron hog off loads of wood fast and effortless (way more than a #4 scrub conversion). I can easily remove around a 1/16-1/8 inch in a single pass and it has been a revelation to me. As a bonus you can pick them up for a song too! Bit of a learning curve to set the iron up but it’s not actually all that hard once you’ve done it a few times, just taps with a hammer in the right places and away you go. You would of course still need to smooth the surface with a standard plane to get to the final thickness but that only takes a few passes.
Just noticed how old this post is! Sorry for resurrecting it!
26 August 2018 at 8:56 am #550580Blimey, Prices in the US (and OZ it seems) do vary a lot. Some things are way cheaper but these plane prices seem very high. I bought a Stanley #50 in good condition complete with a full range of cutters in a hardwood cutter box for £28.00 (+2.95 postage) and I had a choice of three different planes. Mind, try getting US/Canadian tools second hand over here and the opposite is true and don’t get me started on timber(lumber) costs!
Another option is to buy two incomplete planes and combine the parts to make one whole plane. You can cherry pick the best components and end up with a better plane than if you got a complete unit. You can also sell the remaining parts as spares to other people who are missing those parts. It can work out about the same cost or cheaper overall.
I would say you don’t need pretty tools to start out with either. Just get tools you can get working with minimum set up/ restoration. This will help keep costs down as this can start to become an expensive hobby over time.
Brian is right, you don’t need a workbench to get started but it is a good project to begin with as you learn so much and if the joints aren’t perfect then hey, its a workbench after all! I’m not actually building Paul’s bench but it looks to be a simple project. Brian is also right that you don’t need a huge tool collection to start with. You can do a lot with a chisel and mallet!
Thinking about it, I would build Paul’s trestles first as they are cheap, quick and fun to build (they are one of his free videos). I realised I needed them halfway through my build. You will find them invaluable for bench building and can use them as a base for a makeshift bench if you don’t want to take the plunge with the full workbench yet.
25 August 2018 at 11:14 pm #550569No worries Kirsty. I’m a newbie too just further up the tool buying ladder I think!
Good idea on attempting the workbench as a first project though. As daunting as it may appear, it can be more forgiving to novice mistakes. I’m nearing completion of mine (first project also) and have learned so much. Fantastic for practicing planing. Good luck!
25 August 2018 at 10:45 pm #550567Hi Kirsty,
Yes, the plating relates to the chrome surface plating. It’s mainly cosmetic and wouldn’t affect the use of the plane. The plating actually doesn’t look that bad to me but the price tag is pretty high in my opinion especially with the high postage and the fact it is missing a cutter. Everything else seems to be there but you can pick these up for around the £20-£30 mark on ebay if you keep your eyes peeled (possibly cheaper if you are lucky at a flea market).
Don’t discount the Stanley #50 plane either which is basically the same plane but with a wooden handle. I have owned both and I sold the record as I found the wooden handle to be more comfortable. Both planes are good planes though so either would be a useful addition. I have only really used it for cutting grooves so can’t comment on using it as a rebate plane.
2 April 2018 at 2:14 pm #516165I have had a virtually identical experience with diamond plates. Initially I invested in the 3 EZElap plates as Paul recommends and after a few weeks, same thing, coarse plate just stopped cutting. Tried cleaning etc but, having read around the subject, I believe I was using too much pressure and effectively de-bonded the diamonds from the resin used to attach them to the steel. Once that happens they are just very expensive paper weights!
I have since tried a DMT extra coarse plate and have been extra light with pressure (weight of arms only) but I would still say that after a couple of weeks or so the cutting action was severely reduced. To be fair the manufacturer states there will be a drop off in performance but I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad. It is definitely way to slow for re-grinding a bevel on an old tool.
Like you I tried wet and dry sandpaper (60 grit stuck to float glass) and got much more rapid results.
I believe these plates are hopeless for grinding bevels beyond the initial bedding in period and would definitely not use them for flattening. In my opinion, if you are restoring old tools then forget about diamond plates, they are best suited for honing once a blade is in good condition. Even then, I am not hugely impressed considering the cost of these things!
Since I have had such success with wet and dry on glass I am thinking of switching to a mix of wet and dry and 3M microfinishing film (scary sharpening). Will probably use a grinder if there is too much material to grind away.
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