today's garage sale items

[linear]

I know this isn't a legendary score along the lines of some of what has been posted before (not a gloat).

Today I felt the need to drive around my area looking for a garage sale. I found one where it was mostly tools. The guy had a table with a dozen Stanley planes on it.

I walked away with a #4 and a #5, plus a nice old brace and a set of bits. All for about half of what a Veritas #4 would set me back. I know it's not a super deal, but these were in good condition and ready to use. I talked to the guy a while about them, and he was knowledgeable and helpful.

I have to do a bit of work on the #5, but the #4 is cutting a great shaving as I got it. It's weird that I had the overwhelming urge to go looking for sales today, which I do not normally do. I'll be re-reading The Handplane Book tonight.

[p8ntblr]

Nice score. Gotta love garage sales. Often find better deals than CL. I got 2 of these today for $10 each. Not a huge discount but hey it's something.

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Here are the two new old planes. I'm very satisfied with the #4, but the #5 need some attention. That's okay, I need to learn how to tune up a plane too. I own one Lie-Nielsen, so I have a sense of what a well-set-up plane is about.



The sole of the #4 is reasonably flat and smooth. Not the greatest.



The sole of the #5 is real rough. Well, it was until I lapped it for an hour or so. Now big areas of it are quite smooth.

I haven't tried sharpening the irons yet--I need to get a honing jig before I do. I have picked out the one I want, I just need to obtain it.

[Pappy]

Nice score, Rob. Neither look to be in need of a lot of work.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I need to get a honing jig before I do. I have picked out the one I want, I just need to obtain it.

MkII ?????

[linear]

Yes, precisely. You selling one, perchance?

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Yes, precisely. You selling one, perchance?

No. I just got one this week. Holy smokes that thing is heavy duty! You just will not believe how solid that thing is!

[linear]

Thanks for the nano-review. I feel better dropping the coin for it now.

[linear]

a beginner's story of sharpening

By way of followup, I spent some quality time with my #5 last night. It wasn't performing well, so I tried my best to analyze the problems and correct them, bear in mind this is my first time fettling a bench plane. (My knuckles now definitely drag.)

The area of the sole in front of the mouth is important for supporting the shaving and preventing tearout (so I read in my stack of library books). Mine was nowhere near flat, so I set out with a sheet of 120 grit and my marble tile to flatten the sole. I removed a lot of material, and didn't get all the way to the bottom of that low spot, but I did improve it dramatically. While I had the sandpaper out I ran it up through the grits, 220-320-400-600-1500 just for a grin. My sole is now quite bright and shiny.

The back of my iron was hollowed somewhat and it made it tough to hone the back edge flat, so again, lots of time and sandpaper got me a polished (up through 1500 again) flat area some 1/4" behind the edge at least. Let one of my descendants worry about the hollowed area just behind that.

The bevel on the iron when I got it was interesting--it had been hollow ground at some point, and then hand-honed very crudely and had a number of different planes at different levels of luster. No wonder it wouldn't take a shaving. So the Veritas Mk.II honing jig got unboxed and I put a nice 25 degree bevel on, which took quite a while until I realized I could get out some 120 grit and remove material quickly. I own a bench grinder, but I decided to stick with sandpaper on a tile for this exercise. I knew I was in business when I got a nice wire edge on the back of the iron. It took a while to get it to run the full width--my corners were relieved an excessive amount. Anyhow, I then proceeded up through the progression of grits, and lightly honed the back to get the wire edge to fall off. It's worth noting I could shave my arm hair with the edge after I'd done 1500, but not after 600. I have some 2000 on hand and I'll play with that later.

The Veritas jig was indispensable by the way. I got professional-looking results on the first iron I every tried to hone. That's worth something.

The cap iron didn't mate cleanly with the iron, the top curved side was rough and it gapped, so much more time with sandpaper got me a smooth cap iron that fit correctly and had what I imagine to be the right amount of tension with the iron. I squinted at the light looking for any gap fifty or sixty times along the way.

I didn't fool around with the frog at all, I was worried a little about not producing any net improvement, and I wanted to see if I could take a better shaving now. So everything went back together and I worked out on a piece of hard maple.

And it worked brilliantly. I can't say effortlessly, but I took a shaving that was .001 without difficulty. Mahogany was closer to effortless. Very gratifying.

So my "lessons learned" summary if you are considering this:

• Don't be afraid to use lower grits. Every book I read talked about starting in the 220-280 range. You'll remove more material with 120, if you need to get to flatness it will take dramatically less time.
• Honing jigs take all the guesswork and uncertainty out for a beginner. Get one.
• Veritas honing jig performed in excess of my expectations.
• Other people have commented that HF diamond stones remove material quickly. I found a fresh sheet of 3M silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper worked much better. (I'm not likely to use the HF stones again on plane irons because of the 2" width.)
• Keep things clean--your grit will get all over the place and can scratch up a polished edge if you don't.
• Have patience--once you've lapped the large areas you won't have to do it again for a long time