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You are not restricted to using square-shank bits if the jaws on the brace are working well (assuming a Jennings style brace).
Hex shank bits grip fine. You can insert screw drive tips and really go to town, square-drive/Roberston screws work great with a brace as the driver.
As do larger round-shank bits (i.e. Forsner bits with full 3/8″ shanks). No problems.
Absolutely you can re-file the saw. I believe that one is 11 point so it is still on the fine side.
But I suggest that since you bought the cross-cut version, you leave it alone for a little bit. It will work fine as a cross-cut (obviously) and you can rip with a cross-cut at the expense of efficiency. The efficiency falls off the thicker the material you try to rip cut.
Try it for a week or two or several dozen tenons and then decide what you want to do with it.
[quote quote=8654]Hey all. I’ve got a slight problem when planing I hope someone can answer. When planing down the grain, I get what looks like chatter marks at the beginning of the board for about 1/4″ to 1/2″. The wood is planing smooth as silk after that.
*** snip to save space ***
Any help?[/quote]
Late answer
1) More downward force on toe of plane when starting
2) As plane sole is fully supported, shift weight to even distribution between both hands
3) As plane exits, weight is at the back of plane (tote/toat/handle) to prevent snipe on exit.
4) Skew plane as you enter the board and then straighten up in the first few inches of the stroke.
The above 4 items appear, stated various ways, in lots of old texts and in lots of old woodworkers. And danged if they don’t work. Experiment, and do your best to change only one parameter at a time in your planing stroke to see what effect it has. An afternoon spent this way on a piece of mild hardwood will pay off big time.
And Ken is gonna love this…
As you have a center beading plane, you need to sharpen/hone the two quirk portions too. But those you do just like any other straight blade.
Also, if your bead is 1/4″ then use a 1/4″ dowel to start. The paper thickness won’t make enough difference. If you look at your blade square on, the curve is an ellipse. As you slowly tilt over to its bevel angle (30 to 35 degrees usually) it will become the 1/4″ circle.
And finally, all of this work on the bevel is done with the iron OUT of the plane body. You really don’t want to modify the shape of the plane sole unless it has become damaged. A nifty trick that wooden molding planes do is burnish the surface because the sole matches the profile of the iron.
TLN’s video is emphasizing the cutters used in a scraping plane. These are typically sharpened by creating a dead square edge around the profile.
The original poster is asking about a plane with a bedded iron so it has a profiled bevel.
As this is a beading plane, it is pretty easy to sharpen and even restore a damaged blade, short of severe damage to the quirk cutting portion.
Using an appropriately sized dowel wrapped in grits of sandpaper is a good start. Glue on the sandpaper so you can then put the dowel in a vice. Angle the dowel so that you match the bevel and thus hold the iron dead horizontal or dead vertical during the sharpening and honing. This works well for an iron that has been damaged. Once you restore the bevel shape (check it against the shape of the plane sole) you can stick with honing.
You can free-hand hone using slip stones (black Arkansas ones are good and not terribly expensive, just don’t drop it). Or you can take the blade after using your highest grit of wet-dry (1,000 or 1,500 maybe) and use the plane to create a profile in some hard wood. Pick good clear grain and work the right direction. Go slow and take light cuts. You now have an exact shaped hone. Rub on your green compound crayon, remove the iron from the plane and draw it back across the profiled hone (at the right angle of course).
Polish off the back again and enjoy.
As a followup to my statement above about wooden body planes with low bed angles and wedges, there is a discussion here : http://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/original-wooden-low-angle-plane-described-t36198.html that meanders a bit but starts out talking about a coffin body plane with a 36.5 degree bedding angle. It seems that in this case it was a specialty plane intended for the box making trade. That would, I assume, entail the use of soft woods (deal) and much exposed endgrain.
Return that combination square to the store if you can. If you can’t, then do something to dispose of it.
You can find used Starrett, Brown & Sharpe, Muitoyio (spelling?) and several other machinist grade combination squares on eBay in the USA and UK. A missing scriber or damaged bubble level is of little consequence to their usefulness in woodworking but will generally lower the cost. Likewise, a little corrosion on the blade isn’t a big deal if the marks are incised. A quick scrub and you are back in business.
Baring finding a quality used square, one brand to look for is PEC but I’m not sure if it is distributed in the UK. I can get factory second PEC combination squares, 12″ for $20US and they are of good quality. Just have the occasional ding or dent that will not affect their use in woodworking. Here is the mail-order side of the store where I’ve purchased PEC squares: http://store.harryepstein.com/cp/Squares/7131-4R.html
Good quality squares have a rib running through the slot in the head that can be filed to fine-tune the angle of the beam and thus the squareness. A quality 12″ combination square should be less than 0.01″ out over its full extension length (11″) for woodworking, and less than 0.005″ is the “B” grade machinist square.
One additional note on vintage combination squares, there are cast iron heads that can be rather brittle, cracking or breaking if dropped. Starrett still offers one model with a cast head that (I believe) is not ductile cast-iron. So as always with used tools, caveat emptor.
A few rambling thoughts:
The term “low angle” is a bit of a misnomer, it refers to the BEDDING ANGLE, not necessarily the effective cutting angle. Typically, one sharpens an iron at 25 degrees or higher. Bedded at 12-1/2 degrees, that is a minimum of 37-1/2 degrees. Some “low angle planes” use a bedding angle of 20 degrees, for a minimum cutting angle of 45 degrees, same as your garden variety bench plane (Stanley #4). Most steel alloys used hold their edge better at 30 degrees or more so unless you really enjoy sharpening, plan on a minimum of 42-1/2 degrees. Skewing changes the effective cutting angle and is left as an exercise to the reader.
For me, the two greatest advantages of the low angle jack plane and low angle smoothing plane designs are that you can modify the effective cutting angle almost at will all the way to nearly 70 degrees. That is the blurry line between a planing cut and a scraping cut. And many designs let you fiddle with the size of the mouth opening, meaning you can go wide open to tiny sliver. Useful for modifying the behavior of the plane from jack/scrub/fore to small jointer to finishing (polishing) plane without changing the bevel angle. Although I expect to sharpen the blade after using it as a fore or small jointer plane and before starting in on smoothing.
With respect to bevel up JOINTER planes (Lie-Nielsen 7-1/2 or the Lee Valley model), I think it is somewhat telling that there seem to be no classic versions around. That is to say, they are modern inventions.
To me this says two things:
1) The machining technology and materials technology did not exist until the late 20th century to support such manufacture. I’m speaking of CNC machining and quality ductile iron, precision heat treating, “fancy” steel alloys, etc.
2) They didn’t exist because they weren’t needed.
I could very well be wrong on both of these points.
This is NOT to say they, the low angle jointers, don’t work. They work very well. Furthermore, the low angle jack (LAJ) designs similar to the Stanley 62 and low angle smoothers work very, very well. But they work differently from bench planes. They feel different in the hands, adjust differently for various cuts and sharpen differently.
Also, it is very difficult to properly use a wooden body plane that beds the iron at angles below 40 degrees (bevel up or down) and use friction fit wedges. They have a strong tendency to loosen during use and the blade pushes back. The bevel down design (cap iron or no cap iron) with its higher bedding angle works better in wooden bodies, of which there is a much greater history of manufacture. Yes, I’m aware there were very early metal body planes from Rome and whatnot. I’m thinking more in terms of volume here.
On the whole, I think that the successful bevel up designs are metal body planes and arrived on the scene in the late 19th century. Painting that timeline in very broad strokes.
If you can afford a bevel up jack plane (the new Stanley SW62 is inexpensive as these things go, and quality block planes can be had new for less than $100 from Stanley, LN and I think LV) they are worth your time to experiment with. Worst case is you keep it in good condition while experimenting and sell it after a year at maybe 80% of your purchase price. Think of that as a rental fee.
Full disclosure, I have a LN62 and a few extra blades for it so that I can quickly switch between a jack/fore plane to a large body smoothing plane with high effective cutting angles. I enjoy working (when I can) with figured hardwoods. For me, the mass difference isn’t important. YMMV
For a non-show area, they will probably work fine. Just be sure they are tight knots and not loose. Your super-glue or a little epoxy or even just flooding them with liquid hide glue will work.
Be aware they are tough on your plane irons and chisels being endgrain. And expect some wacky grain in their general vicinity. So plan on some extra sharpening when flattening and thicknessing around them and maybe skip the smoothing.
That said, if I had my choice, I would avoid them in any project, exposed or hiden.
As a follow-up, if your OCD (or CDO, in alphabetical order as it should be) is such that it really, really grinds on your soul that the edge isn’t square, then don’t be ashamed to have a simple jig handy. Something cheap like the Eclipse style jig (actual jigs made by Eclipse are getting pricey) for $10 and a few strokes on the course stone will get you back to square. Remove from the jig and proceed free-hand. The jig is nice for when things have gotten completely out of whack and you need a reality check.
But free-hand sharpening will nearly always be faster and you can get back to work making smaller bits of wood from larger ones.
In the USA, there is a cleaner called “Simple Green” which comes in either concentrated form or pre-mixed in a spray bottle. Most people use it to clean kitchen counters, etc. It works well for pitch removal. Spray, allow to soak a moment or two and scrub with a brush (nail brush or tooth brush is good). Lather, rinse and repeat. Since it is water based, you will need to dry well and re-oil the metal to stop rust.
For really troublesome stuff, get some citric acid powder (home canning supplies), mix a saturated solution and soak parts, checking frequently and giving a little scrub. Dry and oil. Same stuff works well to remove rust. Vinegar works too. But this can sometimes leave the metal looking dark. The citric acid or vinegar can be sent down the drain followed by plenty of water. Won’t harm the traps.
No serious problems using these things with the windows closed other than perhaps some lingering smell of vinegar. Likewise, a little splash on the fingers isn’t (probably) going to grow you a third eye.
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