Planes, we all need them but most people struggle with them through no fault of their own. The trouble with them is they are so abysmally finished which has fuelled the emergence of so called super tools such as Veritas and Lie Nielson... No I'm not knocking them, they are lovely things to own and use but they aren't really necessary your average Record or Stanley can be made to work far better than they do out of the box. How much better? Well get them fully sorted out and they are unsurpassable, many years ago I bought at huge expense some Norris planes, which are the Rolls Royce of bench planes but my Record planes work equally well now, I ended up selling the Norris'.
OK so if we view the humble bench plane as a kit when we buy it and don't expect to take a fine shaving with it no matter how sharp your blade is we won't be disappointed. Planes to me come in two main types, your standard bench plane, smoother/Jack /try/jointer and the variable geometry planes such as the humble block plane, variable geometry? I'll explain later. Much of the way we can tune these planes work for both types so I'll concentrate on the more complicated bench plane.
First lets familiarise ourselves with the thing and it's parts. We have a body, wooden handles, a Frog (that holds the cutting iron), a cap iron/chip breaker (curling iron in the picture below), a locking lever and lastly the actual cutting iron.
Each of these parts play a critical role in how the plane works and none of them are even close to being satisfactory out of the box sadly so you'll need to spend half a day fixing them. The first job is to take the plane fully apart noting how it goes back together. We will look at each section in turn:
The Mouth
Looking at the picture above you can see that the leading edge is perpendicular to the plane base, that isn't good. We need to get a set of needle files and a second cut small file and file that leading edge to 45 degrees, it's not easy and will take a while. You need to bring that to an edge meeting the plane base and we need to check that the new profile is truly square with the plane sides. Why have we done this, it is to give room for the shaving to curl away from the cutting iron without clogging the mouth of the plane and that's it.
The Frog
Place this in position on the plane base, give it a bit of a rock to see if it wobbles. If it does you need to carefully file bits of metal away until it sits firmly on the plane base, this is a straightforward job. You also need to check if the blade supporting face can sit 100% parallel with the mouth's leading edge. Lastly you need to check that the cutting iron sits flat on it at the very bottom where the edge of the cutting iron bevel is, also at the top of the frog too so when the iron is locked down it sits 100% flat, so you may find yourself doing some more gentle filing. This is so the cutting iron is stable and vibration free during use, any vibration will render the plane near useless
The Cap Iron
Pay attention to this, the cap iron is at the very heart of the plane's function and more critical than a sharp blade. I'll explain its function first this time. It's whole purpose it to bend the chip as it is cut from the wood and basically break it, not into bits but breaking the chip from advancing into the workpiece and thus creating the typical curly shaving
Notice two very important points in that illustration, the closeness of the chip breaker to the cutting edge (less than 0.5mm and the narrowness of the mouth opening, again less than 0.5mm. Those two things are what make a plane create a good clean cut. The breaks as said breaks the chip and the mouth stops the chip advancing into the work piece, with me?
OK so the cap iron needs the following doing, it needs to sit flat on the cutting iron, at this stage your cutting iron needs to have been sharpened and the back made fully flat like I explained in the sharpening thread, if it isn't do it now. We need to ensure that the leading edge of the cap iron(chip breaker sits on the back of the iron with intimate contact as in 100% perfectly, if it doesn't shavings will get in there instantly and clog the plane and it will not work. Start off with a file and create a little angle back from the leading edge, there isn't one shown it the illustration above and that is wrong, why, well when you assemble the cap iron and blade and tighten the screw you bend the cap iron down and the blade up, this will open up a gap at the leading edge (clogs). Once you have that leading edge take the cap iron to your sharpening stones with are or need to be 100% flat and grind the leading edge with the 1000 grit stone, check it back on the cutting iron, look carefully for any gap on that leading edge and carefully work to eliminate it. This may be a slow job, it once took me nearly a day to get one done for some reason I forget. Once you have it on the 1000 stone you need to polish the front face (the bent bit). I find the best way is to roll it down the 1000 grit stone very carefully so the bottom 6mm or so is evenly grey, then take it to the 6000 grit stone and polish it to a mirror finish but also paying attention to the mating surface to the cutting iron too, very like trying to sharpen the thing but only gently just to remove that burr. Once done recheck that fit on the cutting iron just in case you've opened up a tiny gap, if so regrind it on the 1000 grit stone.... don't skimp on that, it is critical. Why did we polish the front of the iron, well it lets the shaving slide very smoothly away from the mouth, is it really necessary? Yes, try not doing it, trust me, polish it.
So we are very nearly there! Now we need to reassemble the plane, firstly fit the frog, position it so the cutting iron is very close to the mouth leading edge. This is a variable setting, for fine bench work set it close, about 0.25 -0.5mm, for fitting doors and windows open it to 1mm; it just lets a thicker shaving through and advances the length of wood that can be lifted off the work piece during the cutting process. You also need to make sure the cutting edge is parallel to the mouth opening. Once set, carefully remove the cutting iron holding the frog firmly and then tighten the frog down with a screwdriver, recheck the cutting iron with the locking leaver in place and then fit the handles.
Flattening the base of the plane
Sadly the base of a new plane is a bit of a nightmare, they are finished on a belt sander believe it or not and are near useless for fine work, you need to flatten it. Now thankfully the base doesn't need to be flattened all over but it needs to have the front leading edge or toe, the front and back of the mouth and the heel all in one flat plane but the more you can get flat the better. You will need a roll or part of a roll of 80 aluminium oxide sandpaper, a long flat surface and some time.
First job is to back off the plane iron about 0.5mm inside the plane body but you need to keep it there along with everything else, fully tightened just as you will be using it later on.
Take your 80 grit (or coarser/faster, fined/slower) paper and clamp it to a flat surface ( a planer bed or circular saw table, anything that is truly flat, even a piece of 50mm wood if it is really flat) so that it is quite tight. Take your plane and put it on the paper, you will need to use the plane over the paper just as you would over a work piece, so pressure on the front handle pushing on the rear then relieving the front pressure and transferring to the rear, lift up and do it again. After a couple of minutes have a look at the bottom of your plane and you will see what needs to be done. Every plane I've done needed a lot of work to get the front and back of the mouth flat, maybe an hour or so work. You will need to change your paper when it gets dull too. Once it's done and you have a largely flat plane you're ready to impress your socks off.
Reset the cutting iron in the cap iron and fit it, lock it down and adjust it so the cutting edge barely protrudes, run it down some smoothish wood, it should cut like nothing you've ever used before, the surface should shimmer, the shavings should come off gossamer thin looking like lace (if the wood is open grained) if you have paid attention to all the above. There are no if's or buts with this one, that is the only way to get a bench plane to work, some may be better or worse when you start but they will all work when they're done. Any problems, check your cap iron fit first, the chances are they will lie there.
Ongoing maintenance, sadly there are a lot of strains and stressed in a new plane body, your nice flat plane will tend to get out of true, you may need to check it and reflatten every now and then, I seem to remember doing mine every month (just 5 minutes) when they were new, now 30 something years on it's just once a year.
Variable geometry planes
The block type plane, these are different as they have no cap iron and have the bevel uppermost, why? Different types of wood/grain direction needs different cutting angles. Endgrain (butchers blocks for example - block plane!) needs a low cutting angle, flat wood grain needs an average 45 degrees but some very difficult woods need a steeper 50 degrees (York pitch) which is more of a scraping action
Looking at the above you can see on the block plane we can vary the angle of the bevel (you only need to vary the actual honing angle not the whole bevel). You can get block planes with a basic angle of 20 degrees and 12.5 (I think it is) to give you a wide range of possibilities.
Setting these up is very similar to the bench plane except for there is no cap iron, the frog is also non adjustable so you may need to do some filing to get that flat and square but the mouth should be adjustable instead, remember to bevel the leading edge to 45 degrees like the bench plane. That is about it I think, I tend to set my mouth opening very narrow on a block plane, maybe less than 0.1mm to help get a better finish
It may all seem a bit of a phaff but it really really is worth doing, I promise you your planes will be objects of great pride when you're done, planing will be a pleasure as shavings whistle off the wood leaving surfaces that don't need sanding (grain depending of course), joining planks of wood with invisible glue lines will be easy and the quality of your woodwork will increase tenfold
