Latest Project.
Updated 25/11/11
I have decided to make another D/T bronze jointer, using up my existing stock of bronze. I will be slightly shorter in length than the last one, one less dovetail. Again I haven't got all the components to finish it as yet.
I have cut out the 2 sides and here I am filing the chamfer on the top edge. I do it free hand, no setting out.
This very old piece of yew was given to me recently, I planed one side up for the handle of my latest jointer and it looked beautiful. But to my horror when I sawned it down to the required thickness, again by hand and boy was it hard, there was a dirty big dead knot
I cut out a cardboard shape of the handle and positioned it over the dead knot hoping I could grt away with it, cutting most of the knot away where your fingers go.
After much maneuvering of the cardboard pattern I decided to give it a go, even though it might be a waste of time.
The finished handle, with an added bit on bottom which will be hidden when it is in the plane. I am very pleased that I was able to use it.
The infill is now glued in place and ready for final shaping. I have to fix the infill in first as I can't get the wood in and out of the plane easily, in fact I find it almost impossible, the reason being when you have peened the metal the top edges always close in, reducing the actual width of the finished plane.
I have now finished shaping the yew infill.
The pyramid in the background is a piece of the waste from the infill, the amazing difference in colour is because I soaked the offcut in raw linseed over night. Also notice the contrast between the handle and the infill.
This is as far as I have got, I can't wait for the sunlight to darken the timber even more.
This picture shows the lever cap and screw in place but not peened, it also shows an iron and back iron, but I hope to get a thicker parallel iron and possibly a better back iron. This back iron I have found is quite old by I & H Hildick, it has a round top, it was really rusty, pitted in fact but I do like it's appearance in the plane.
I am now getting a really good colour on the Yew wood.
While the weather is still warm I have started on a small mitre plane made out of a corroded Mathieson brass backed tenon saw, given to me at the last David Stanley sale. I would just like to add, how good and exciting the sale was and anyone who hasn't visited, I strongly recommend they do. I will have this plane finished and on show at the next sale, Friday 4th November 2011.
The front and the bridge are steel, simply so that you can see the construction, the sole is bronze.
On this picture you can see I have included through tenons. This is not necessary and causes quite a bit more work, but again people like to see the method of construction.
In this instance I have incorporated the Mathieson mark around the heel of the plane.
The plane is now finished, boxwood infill, raised front grip and a Sheffield made iron.
I saw this plane a few years ago at an auction, it went for a considerable sum. I am using the image to make one of my own, mine won't be as wide, as the piece of timber I am going to use is smaller. For the first time ever I am going to make it out of yew wood, the mouth closer will be boxwood.
I have got a really long rusty old iron by Mathieson, I will have to cut this down a bit off both sides to fit my plane. Unfortunately I will probably loose the Mathieson mark, as the top of the iron is badly damaged.
This is the piece of yew, I have never worked yew before for a plane.
The 4 sides of the yew wood when planed, notice how it has changed colour. I fiund the yew wood very difficult to plane.
I have cut out the bed and fitted the boxwood mouth closer.
The mouth closer is to high so I am going to take 1/2" off the top.
The iron has come up really well and I have reduced it from 3" to 2" wide, 1/2" off both sides keeping the Mathieson mark in the centre.
I have soaked the plane in raw linseed over night, at the moment it is has all the colours of the rainbow, eventually it it will tone down, I hope?
The mark on the front of the plane is upside down, this was by accident, it will have to stop as it is. Fortunately some early plane makers had their marks sometimes up side down, perhaps this was intentionally done, or they could have got it wrong also.
I have started on a bronze jointer, this is going to be a long time in the making as at the moment I haven't got all the components and I will be doing other things in the mean time.
I already had bronze sheet for the sides, I also have a thicker piece of bronze sheet for the sole, but at the moment I cannot saw the required 3" wide strip out of it as my hack saw will not span 3" when the blade is turned to 90 degrees.
This is one side roughly cut out, it won't be this long when finished.
Second side cut out and both loosely pinned together to get them both the same shape. Can't do much more untill I have the base cut to width, it was hard enough cutting the sides out with a hack saw, but the sole will prove more difficult because of the thickness.
We took the bronze over to Ian and Clive at Chalco Stamp and Die, they kindly offered to saw the bronze for me. (Below a picture of Ian at work)
Email: chalcostampanddie@tiscali.co.uk Tel: 01933 418311
Ian's latest marks.
I have now cut the dovetails in the 2 sides, they are not really dovetails, they are the pins. In the past whenever I have made a jointer I have always let the sides into the sole, but this time I am letting the sole into the sides. I am hoping this is a slightly easier way of jointing the body and I believe it will be a far stronger joint than the other method. This is in fact the same method I use when making mitre planes.
I have cut the mouth out of the sole which took a long time because of the 2 slopes on the inside, forming the bed angle and the escapement.
I have made a start cutting out the dovetails on the sole.
All the slots and dovetails have been cut out and the bottom and sides fitted loosely together. I now have to file each one so that they fit perfectly together, then shape the ends of the sides and the sole before the final fitting.
I have begun chamfering the top edges of the sides.
The sole is ready for peening and the sides have been shaped.
I inserted a cuban mahogany straight edge as a former whilst peening to keep everything straight and square. The only problem with this is when the peening is complete it locks the wood so tight you cannot get it out, I might have to cut it out as a last resort?
The lever cap is just wedged in for appearance.
Notice I have kept the dovetails and the pins of equal width, they are about 3/4" . I did it like this for maximum strength but mainly it will enable me to get a good size file in each portion.
The peening on one side went very well, but the other side turned out to be a 3 lettered farm animal.
Just a close up of the pening.
Knocking out the former with my heavest hammer, incidently this lump hammer was the very first tool I bought when I was an apprentice in the building trade, it cost me 10 shillings and 6 pence, (55p in todays money). You can't believe how tight the former was gripped, this picture gives a falce impression, I used a much stouter piece of wood to move it the first 4 or 5 inches.
I have filed and polished the lever cap, again placed in for appearances.
I now need an iron and back iron, Norris would be nice, an adjuster and the timber for the infill.
On Sunday we went to M.A.C. Timbers Open Day and got a lovely piece of burr elm big enough to infill the plane, Mike has had this wood for over 30yrs. (I think it will be seasoned by now)
I am cutting the elm up to make the handle, back and front infill.
The plane infill end to end measures 23 1/4", the wood measures 23". Even allowing for the 1/2" space either side of the mouth, the wood was just big enough if I overlapped the 2 pieces when cutting out, too close for my liking, however I have just managed it. I got the handle out of the same piece.
Below the handle gluded and screwed into the rear infill in the vice over night.
The wood over night slightly altered it's shape, I had already loosely tried the rear infill in the plane, but when I applied Araldite to the sides of the infill thinking would ease the sliding in of the infill, just the opposite, it proved immensely difficult, out came the lump hammer and a stout piece of wood, boy did it make me sweat.
Final trimming to the front infill using my blunt chisel technique.
I had already gluded the wood for the front infill into the plane, it is going to be a job to shape in place, I do make hard work for myself.
This is as far as I have got, I am going to a sale for the next 2 days.
Here I am working on the front infill.
Far to wide I have got to cut it down.
This is as far as I have got and just before I put my tools away I have filled a lot of the imperfections with Araldite and saw dust, it looks like a sticky toffee apple. Can't wait to have another go at it on Sunday morning.
Cleaning the glue and sawdust off with my blunt ended chisel, I have used this technique through out the making of this plane.
A slightly raised pyramid effect on the top of the bun.
I covered the wood surface with Araldite rubbed in, left it for 3/4 of an hour then I rubbed it off using a drop of linseed on a rag. I have used this techinque on large planes that I can't soak in linseed.
This picture shows a Ward tapered iron, (because I haven't got a parallel iron as yet) placed in position with the loose lever cap and screw, just to show the effect.
Peened bottom ready for filing. For the time being I am only going to file the waste off the bottom of the sole, I am leaving the sides proud and unfinished to show people the construction, as a lot still haven't got it.
Picture with the excess removed, will need a bit more work to flatten it at a later date.
I have ordered a pillar drill, I should get it tomorrow. Now I am 72 it will beat drilling the holes by hand. (what luxury) I also have a second hand bandsaw, just to ease the pain a bit.
I have now found a vertually unused parallel iron and back iron , the iron is by Woodcock Sheffield, circa 1860 a rare make, the back iron by Ward, early mark again, stamped Ward on the back as well as the front, a really beautiful mark on the back. An interesting feature on the back iron is, you can just see 2 prices, one of 2 shillings and one of 3 shillings and 11 pence. I have been careful not to erase these prices. I took me about a day to get the iron to fit the plane, it was actually thicker than a Norris iron and of course to top is wrought iron, black in colour which I have filed bright to make it look resemble a Norris iron.
For the first time I have used Phosphor Bronze 3/16" rod for the rivets, the lever cap and screw has a steel 7/32" rivet, this was given to me by Karl Holtey, it was a left over from a previous pattern he made for me many years ago. For the first time I haven't used an adjuster on such a large plane, simply because I hadn't got one.
The plane is now finished after a days filing, I have put Carter on the leaver cap. I have still got to finally lap the sole.
I have finished the 3 third mitre plane and infilled it with rosewood.
This is the second mitre plane, I have infilled it with lovely figure boxwood.
I have made 3 bronze bridges for my next 3 planes.
I have snecked 3 Ward irons for 3 future planes.
One of the bridges fitted into the first bronze mitre plane.
The plane is now finished, I have infilled it with speltered boxwood from Old Dalby. It is without doubt one of the hardest pieces of boxwood to plane I have ever worked.
I have had this plane a few months now and a few days ago I thought I would sharpen it and see how it works, wow! I can honestly say one of the best planes I have ever used. It is so good I thought I would make a loose handle in order to grip it better, like a large smoother. The rosewood handle at the rear slips under the lever cap after the plane has been set for use and drops in at the rear end over the snecked iron, nothing else is needed, I made it fit very tight. The plane is very heavy but the new handle enables me to get a better grip of the plane and apply much more downward force when the plane is upright.
I found this axe by Ward & Payne at a Steam Rally on Monday. It will take a lot of cleaning up but I think it will be worth it.
Here I am sawing a length of bronze to make my next plane. Hard work by hand at my age, I am getting delicate.
This shows the bridge peened into the body.
Now the body is finished I decided to to colour it before fitting the infill. I submerged it in a liquid over night, I have not done this before.
The plane is finished with a rosewood infill, it is 6" long.
I have started to make a 6" all bronze D/T mitre plane. I am sawing the waste out where the soe will go.
This shows how I do multiple cuts to remove the waste.
I use a small chisel with a blunt end, knocking the waste left and right untill it breaks ready for filing.
This is the bridge with an elegant cupid bow which I made first.
I have bent the body and put in the front and the bridge.
I have put the sole onto the body and peened and filed the dovetailes.
The infill I have used is rosewood.
I have soaked the plane in raw linseed oil and the rosewood is beginning to get a shine.
I am making a small bronze and steel D/T mitre plane.
The sole is now D/T on and I have cut part of the back off to achieve a lower bed angle.
i decided to put cupid bow decoration around the top edge of the plane
The plane is now finished with rosewood infill.
After a long cold winter I have just started to make my first plane this year, it is still cold in my shed and I'm not too keen.
This plane is out of a tenon saw by Groves, made for Sime of Falkirk. I have added various marks to counterbalance the left over space and put in a bronze bridge. This is as far as I have got.
Yesterday I worked on the plane and got this far, the steel sole is now attached to the body.
The plane is now infilled with rosewood, I still have the wedge to make. The boxwood wedge is to hold the back infill while the glue sets.
Every now and then I make a front infill a bit different from the norm, this takes quite a bit longer to do but is pleasing to the eye when finished. The rear infill is raised slightly above the sides of the body, this complements the front infill.
I have finished the plane today, it measures 5 1/4" long x 1 1/4" wide.
