Stopped Rabbets

Sometimes we have to make rabbets which do not run throughout the piece: they stop more or less close to one of its ends.

The Stanley 78 is a metal rabbet plane with adjustable side fence; it  is able to mount the blade in a further position as well as in the standard way. This setting (bullnose) allows you to work close to obstacles, for example near stiles and rails intersection or in the case of a blind rabbet.  However, even though the plane works in bullnose configuration, the short sole needs a void space for a correct job. 

 For this purpose a mortice can be cut at blind rabbet extremity by using a saw  and a mortice chisel.

A scrap piece can be clamped for adsorbing the plane shots and avoiding the damage of the blind edge.

Planemaking Test

This project began by chance, after seeing some plane realizations on the net. I used what I had at home, including a new old Hirch (made in Germany) iron and chipbreaker that my friend Ciro gave me a couple of years ago.

The plane body is ash; I really like it, solid, compact, enough easy  to work. The sole and wedge are wenge. The light-dark contrast is very nice.

The wood button used to release the cutting group and setting the blade always attracted me, so I placed a wenge one in the back of the plane.

Not having a right sized ash piece, I proceeded to gluing up three pieces of approx. 3 cm thick.

I excavated the throat cavity by Forstner bits as deep as possible, continuing with a 1" Japanese-style Firmer chisel (Atsunomi). To get the exact bed angle (60 °) I used the chisel with a beech guide block clamped to the top body.

I stamped "S60" on the back. S means Smoother and 60 is for indicating the seat angle. To obtain the moldings on the corners I used the belt sander, taking the plane in contact with the abrasive tape for few seconds. I obtained the wenge button drilling it by a cup saw.

A double sole really helps to get a very tight mouth. The wenge is a wood very resistant to wear, but has tendency to chip, so be very careful during chiselling around the mouth.

The sole has been leveled on sandpaper glued to a flat surface (120 and 180 Grit).

Shavings are our real prize.

Infill Plane

Yes, I waited a few years before getting such a kind of plane, believed to be among the best ones. The famous Norris, Spiers etc. have dangerous prices, so I contented myself with a probably auto-built plane.

This specimen is almost 8 inches long (20 cm); the plane body has the typical form (coffin) of smoothing British planes, with mahogany infill wood and a mahogany handle. Its weight is 1.8 kg, 400 grams more than a Stanley 3 wich has more or less a comparable length.
It has a brass lever  cap, as well as the clamping screw. A little brass plate is screwed on the front wood insert, probably for giving an aesthetic additional touch (debatable). The blade (2 1 / 8 "/ 54mm) is marked HEARNSHAW BROS (1881-1960).

The tools was in good condition, despite some age signs and some old repairs. In particular it seems the handle has been repaired or replaced. However it has been reinforced by screws, hidden by caps. It is very solid. That is why I decided to leave the plane in its original condition, worrying only of blade and sole that required the attention necessary to re-put the tool at work.

Unlike traditional metal planes (like Bailey), the sole lapping tends to open the mouth, so we must act only when absolutely necessary and with great caution.

In my case, the sole was almost perfectly flat and the work on 180 Grit abrasive paper  had virtually no impact on the mouth width (only 0.25 mm). The blade is bedded to 45 °. The blade bevel was about 30 degrees and  so I reground it, without microbevel. The chipbreaker took a little leveling job on the side in contact with the blade.

I rounded the cutting edge at both ends to avoid the plane can leave marks onto work pieces. Even the sole edges were rounded crawling the plane and keeping it inclined in respect to abrasive surface. The mouth  requested filing assistance to adapt the opening to the cutting edge.

About four hour job and........................

 

Spill Plane

 

When matches were not common, you could use a special plane to transform pieces of scrap wood into  supercoiled chips, suitable for using them to take fire from a brazier or a fireplace and transfer it to a candle or other. In a nineteenth century country house this tool should have been quite common. 


The model vary, but the concept is more or less the same: a cone-shaped mouth and a skewed blade that allows to side chip ejection in the strongly twisted form.
The plane I found is home-made (I newer saw  this plane in wooden plane-maker lists); the wood is mahogany. The sole was warped so I had to remove the side fence to straighten it properly. I put a patch to tighten a little bit the mouth. The wedge is extended almost to the cutting edge and its end is an integral part of the conical mouth.
The blade is bedded to 42 ° and the blade skewed at 45 degrees. The asymmetrical fence helps to angle the tool even more and produce spiral chips.


I tried to light one: it burns slowly and does not burn out easily. Perfect!
 

Sliding Bevel New Screw

The sliding bevel is a useful tool when you need to get a different angle from 90°, being the blade  full adjustable. A pivot screw allows you to lock the blade in place. It can be screwed directly into a thread cut into the brass side metal plate, or be provided with a wing nut.
Another possibility, in my opinion the best, is when, instead of the wing nut, there is a lever with a threaded hole, very convenient and easy to operate with a simple thumb movement. One of my two squares adopted the screw tightening system without blocking nut and needs a screwdriver for tightening and loosening.

So it was easy to change the system and I had the opportunity for replacing the steel screw with brass fittings, a metal which contrasts nicely with the mahogany wood.