Thanks Richard. Us Brits get really embarrassed about saying "I'm proud of what I've done"' but you certainly should be proud of your achievement here! 'Off the shelf' 1980s Stanley planes are horrible things to use, I was given one which I set up as a rough scrub plane but I still ended up having to put a lot of work into tuning it even for that basic task. You've taken a mass-produced piece of crap and turned it into a beautiful precision tool which I suspect you will use and enjoy for the rest of your life. That sounds pretty rewarding to me! 🙂
Hi Richard, perhaps you might look into videos about how to make or use a "Shooting Board" You can use it to make sure the ends of boards are exactly square. You can use it to make the sides of planks exactly parallel. It uses a plane similar to your No. 5 but with the added check that rge corner between the sole and one side of the plane are exactly square, if you are right handed that would be the right hand side of the plane. I managed to get hold of a new Clifton No. 7 when they were sold with green paint on the bodies. I use this plane for shooting accurate sides and joints. I also bought a Hand Shaper made by Alexander but have not laid a hand on it for several years. Best wishes. Laurence Norwin-Allen
Thanks Laurence, you can see my shooting board to my right (your left) in the video with a Stanley #4½ on it 👍I've heard good things about Clifton planes, would be interesting to try one.
Higher Grade of Flatness needed on my standard Cast Iron bench plate to “A+” Level - Is this possible? with hand tools? - would be great to see you show the process to upgrade one! All your Engineering Knowledge appreciated in your videos even simple things like how to use a micrometer/callipers or drilling - tapping - cutting threads etc. All the Engineering basic Gems that I am ignorant of!
nice work. I've got some plans for a workbench that folds flat but is solid as a rock when you pop it together which takes about 30 seconds. Uses 2 sheets of 18mm plywood and a few bits of 20 x 20mm square stock. Needs some robust hinges too. Anyway I'll email you the plans I made if you want to take a look.
Superb work on the plane body. Now you have to attend to the seating of the frog and lever-cap ,blade/chipbreaker. Essentially, a Stanley hand plane should be considered as a kit of parts. It needs a few hours work to fettle it and tune it up. Unless you buy a hugely expensive piece of kit, it won't work properly straight out of the box - unless you want it just to knock the arises off of a piece of timber.
Thanks, yes I gave it a fair old tune up before making this video. The largest part was getting the back of the iron flat, without that there's no chance of getting a scary edge on it 👍
You referred to the plane as a "Jack Plane" but it seemed to be a "Smoothing Plane" to me. I was taught that the difference between the two was not in the body of the plane but in the way the iron was ground. Flat planes having a straight cutting edge, while a Jack plane had one with a slight radius. If I'm wrong, please feel free to tell me to go away and play. Anyway! An excellent follow up to the scraping vid'. Please keep 'em coming.
AFAIK the No.5 is generally considered to be a jack plane - jack of all trades. But I suppose a plane is whatever you use it for. A No.4 can be smoothing plane with a straight grind, or a scrub plane with a strong camber. My No.5 will actually be a jointer for me as I will use it to joint small panels (I don't work on many really long bits of wood). Really glad you liked the video - thanks for checking in 👍
I'd be curious to know how the scraped surface works when waxed. With a normal ground finish, it's night and day... maybe the scraping helps the surface retain the wax for longer?
I bet those full length, full width shavings are pretty damn satisfying! You mentioned that the scraped surface might give 'slippery' feel on wood; I wonder if that came through when you were using it?
Yes, I was very pleased when the face of the board planed nicely. Was expecting the edges to produce good shavings being so narrow but full width is another story - a real test of how level the iron is too! The scraped finish definitely glides nicely and I'd say it feels a bit more slippery than a traditional finish. It's not night and day though and the difference is subtle. A few people have mentioned that the scraped surface hold wax well, so I will have to try waxing the sole and see how that compares (I usually use the Paul Sellers oily rag in a can technique).
I wonder if the person who said they had to add a "belly" to the plane was trying to use the plane as more of a scrub /shaper plane and not a jointing / surfacing plane - that is to say, they maybe were trying to take shavings in the center of a larger board. Alternatively, maybe that person's blade wasn't sharpened to the right shape or set up correctly.. I guess there's plenty of factors that could effect why they had to "add" a belly!
I agree, having a belly in the sole is going to make for a much more aggressive cut. And as you said there is more to a good shaving than flatness alone and even with a well tuned plane you're only going to get a thin even shaving off a board that is already relatively flat. 👍
That was me, and I can't take any credit/blame - I was recounting the experience of Forrest Addy, who was a pretty prominent machinist/woodworker (and opera singer!) on the old rec.woodworking. He definitely knew how to sharpen a blade. He measured about 15 planes that rec.woodworking participants claimed were great performers - mostly bedrock planes but a few infills thrown in there as well. They all had the belly in the sole. His theory was that the standard lapping technique of rubbing on sandpaper would naturally introduce that belly (which it would for sure, since people usually grasp the plane at the front and back to lap the sole, and that would put more pressure on the front and back therefore more abrasion. He claimed the flat plane sole required a lot more effort to plane, and wouldn't cut at fine (~1-2 thou shaving thickness) settings, but with a belly a skilled workman would have the ability to (unconsciously) guide the plane to cut a bit deeper or lighter just by weight on the front or back. All very interesting to me, and there's no doubt Richard's plane is cutting. And to me, the pure beauty of a scraped surface would be worth a little extra effort to push it!!
Thanks Richard. Us Brits get really embarrassed about saying "I'm proud of what I've done"' but you certainly should be proud of your achievement here! 'Off the shelf' 1980s Stanley planes are horrible things to use, I was given one which I set up as a rough scrub plane but I still ended up having to put a lot of work into tuning it even for that basic task. You've taken a mass-produced piece of crap and turned it into a beautiful precision tool which I suspect you will use and enjoy for the rest of your life. That sounds pretty rewarding to me! 🙂
Thanks Doc 👍 I've had this one kicking around for a while now waiting to be fettled. Really great to be able to pick it up and use it at last!
Nice work Richard. Taking a micrometer to a hand plane shaving...lol. Well done.
Thanks Mark, yes not something you usually associate with woodwork but handy to put a number on it 👍
That’s cutting beautifully👍
Hi Richard, perhaps you might look into videos about how to make or use a "Shooting Board"
You can use it to make sure the ends of boards are exactly square. You can use it to make the sides of planks exactly parallel.
It uses a plane similar to your No. 5 but with the added check that rge corner between the sole and one side of the plane are exactly square, if you are right handed that would be the right hand side of the plane.
I managed to get hold of a new Clifton No. 7 when they were sold with green paint on the bodies. I use this plane for shooting accurate sides and joints. I also bought a Hand Shaper made by Alexander but have not laid a hand on it for several years.
Best wishes.
Laurence Norwin-Allen
Thanks Laurence, you can see my shooting board to my right (your left) in the video with a Stanley #4½ on it 👍I've heard good things about Clifton planes, would be interesting to try one.
Nice! And thanks for the followup video, sir.
Thanks Richard, Impressive result !
Hello, subscriber from Illinois. Cool experiment, thanks for taking the time to share your results.
Thanks for checking in David 👍
Higher Grade of Flatness needed on my standard Cast Iron bench plate to “A+” Level - Is this possible? with hand tools? - would be great to see you show the process to upgrade one!
All your Engineering Knowledge appreciated in your videos even simple things like how to use a micrometer/callipers or drilling - tapping - cutting threads etc. All the Engineering basic Gems that I am ignorant of!
nice work. I've got some plans for a workbench that folds flat but is solid as a rock when you pop it together which takes about 30 seconds. Uses 2 sheets of 18mm plywood and a few bits of 20 x 20mm square stock. Needs some robust hinges too. Anyway I'll email you the plans I made if you want to take a look.
That'd be really interesting to see, thanks mate. richard@radboogie.com
Excellent result. Beautifully flat.
Superb work on the plane body. Now you have to attend to the seating of the frog and lever-cap ,blade/chipbreaker. Essentially, a Stanley hand plane should be considered as a kit of parts. It needs a few hours work to fettle it and tune it up. Unless you buy a hugely expensive piece of kit, it won't work properly straight out of the box - unless you want it just to knock the arises off of a piece of timber.
Thanks, yes I gave it a fair old tune up before making this video. The largest part was getting the back of the iron flat, without that there's no chance of getting a scary edge on it 👍
You referred to the plane as a "Jack Plane" but it seemed to be a "Smoothing Plane" to me.
I was taught that the difference between the two was not in the body of the plane but in the way the iron was ground. Flat planes having a straight cutting edge, while a Jack plane had one with a slight radius. If I'm wrong, please feel free to tell me to go away and play.
Anyway! An excellent follow up to the scraping vid'. Please keep 'em coming.
AFAIK the No.5 is generally considered to be a jack plane - jack of all trades. But I suppose a plane is whatever you use it for. A No.4 can be smoothing plane with a straight grind, or a scrub plane with a strong camber. My No.5 will actually be a jointer for me as I will use it to joint small panels (I don't work on many really long bits of wood). Really glad you liked the video - thanks for checking in 👍
I'd be curious to know how the scraped surface works when waxed. With a normal ground finish, it's night and day... maybe the scraping helps the surface retain the wax for longer?
Could be onto something there - will be worth a try 👍
You must have legs of iron to plane at a workmate! Really enjoyed your intro to scraping
They start like iron and end up like jelly 😂
I bet those full length, full width shavings are pretty damn satisfying! You mentioned that the scraped surface might give 'slippery' feel on wood; I wonder if that came through when you were using it?
Yes, I was very pleased when the face of the board planed nicely. Was expecting the edges to produce good shavings being so narrow but full width is another story - a real test of how level the iron is too!
The scraped finish definitely glides nicely and I'd say it feels a bit more slippery than a traditional finish. It's not night and day though and the difference is subtle. A few people have mentioned that the scraped surface hold wax well, so I will have to try waxing the sole and see how that compares (I usually use the Paul Sellers oily rag in a can technique).
Nice work and demonstration! A scraped surface looks flat.
Thanks Don, much appreciated 👍🏼
Nice. For reference, a sheet of printer paper on my desk just measured about 0.004", or about 0.1mm.
I wonder if the person who said they had to add a "belly" to the plane was trying to use the plane as more of a scrub /shaper plane and not a jointing / surfacing plane -
that is to say, they maybe were trying to take shavings in the center of a larger board.
Alternatively, maybe that person's blade wasn't sharpened to the right shape or set up correctly..
I guess there's plenty of factors that could effect why they had to "add" a belly!
I agree, having a belly in the sole is going to make for a much more aggressive cut. And as you said there is more to a good shaving than flatness alone and even with a well tuned plane you're only going to get a thin even shaving off a board that is already relatively flat. 👍
That was me, and I can't take any credit/blame - I was recounting the experience of Forrest Addy, who was a pretty prominent machinist/woodworker (and opera singer!) on the old rec.woodworking. He definitely knew how to sharpen a blade.
He measured about 15 planes that rec.woodworking participants claimed were great performers - mostly bedrock planes but a few infills thrown in there as well. They all had the belly in the sole. His theory was that the standard lapping technique of rubbing on sandpaper would naturally introduce that belly (which it would for sure, since people usually grasp the plane at the front and back to lap the sole, and that would put more pressure on the front and back therefore more abrasion. He claimed the flat plane sole required a lot more effort to plane, and wouldn't cut at fine (~1-2 thou shaving thickness) settings, but with a belly a skilled workman would have the ability to (unconsciously) guide the plane to cut a bit deeper or lighter just by weight on the front or back.
All very interesting to me, and there's no doubt Richard's plane is cutting. And to me, the pure beauty of a scraped surface would be worth a little extra effort to push it!!
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating this plane is now metaphorically delicious.
Proof of the pudding
well i wanted to see how flat is your piece of wood after that.