Different Woods and Metal Finishes

I'm occasionally ask if I grow tired of making the same model plane time after time. The short answer is "no". Every plane is a challenge and there are a myriad of different woods, metals and metal finishes to try and combine into one plane assembly and that is what keeps every plane build fresh.

The wood in and of itself is enough to keep someone like myself entertained with the work. I've just recently completed a plane of the Winter Smoother variety. The choice of wood for this plane was Macassar ebony. For a real classic look it's hard to beat a darker wood and  Macassar has the added benefit of a variegation in color. Almost as if someone swirled milk chocolate and dark chocolate together and then set the mixture up into a very hard substance.

The Macassar ebony is quite hard and it's of those woods that can cause one to use a few expletives in the process of making it what you want it to be. Of course most woods that are very challenging to work also yield a nice reward for perseverance, for when the finish flows on you're remind of why you chose that particular material.

This tool features an 0-1 tool steel body with a ground finish on the interior and a lapped satin finish on the exterior of the plane body. The brass lever cap, screw and knob seat has a patina'd finish applied and is then oiled and cooked overnight in the finishing kiln to ensure a thorough cure of the oil finish. It's a unique look and also offers the added benefit of the brass actually having a finish and this cuts down on the maintenance required to keep brass bright or even satin which for me is the preferable way to have bright brass. Highly polished brass shows finger prints so readily it's just not a reasonable finish to have on a tool that's meant to be used.

Each plane also presents a challenge to machine parts to very tight tolerances and most people that pursue similar work are typically striving to make the next plane better than the previous tools. You can call it an obsessive compulsion, but believe me it comes with the mindset for doing this work. I was once giving a presentation to the Athens Georgia Woodworkers club. After my presentation a Sociology professor at U.G.A. approached me and said "Ron, you may be one of the most down to earth, obsessive, compulsive people I'ver ever met",....I thought about that just a bit trying to decide if this statement was a compliment or what, I finally just replied "thank you" and decided to ponder that comment on the way home..........

Ron

My Friend is Declining

At breakfast this morning Julie and I were discussing how wonderful being a part of the hand tool woodworking community has been for us. We've met so many wonderful people of extremely high character and intelligence and we have friends literally all over the world as a result of our business pursuit.

We even spent our 40th wedding anniversary at HandWorks this past year and thought nothing of it except that it was very fitting to celebrate among the people that have meant so much to us.

Unfortunately you have to take the bad with the good and this week we've received reports of the rapid decline of our wonderful friend Fred West. Many of you saw the tribute to Fred not long ago on the Lost Art Press blog. None of us had a clue that things would change so rapidly for Fred. We've been told that at this point it's just a matter of time before Fred will be leaving this world. He's at home resting comfortably.

Myself, Fred and Mike Peters at Handworks, in the box was a plane that Fred commissioned me to make as a gift for Mike, Yep, he was that kind of guy

When I was last in Fred's presence we were sitting in the family room at the home of Jameel Abraham and family the day after HandWorks. Don Williams was giving a pictorial review of the occasion when he performed the restoration of the Mace of the United States House of Representatives. Fred and the rest of us were very privileged to witness this personal presentation and it was a special time for all present.

My first inclination was to travel to West Chester, Pa. to see Fred but given the level of pain medication that Fred is being given he most likely would not know I was present. Many of us will suffer from this same dilemma and for those I suggest you just think back to last time you spent time with Fred and cherish the memory of our wonderful friend. I'm sure that will be quite okay with Fred, he was always a giver and he did so graciously with no expectations.

I hate blogging with a heavy heart and presenting bad news is never fun, but like I stated earlier......you have take the bad with the good.

Ron

At approximately 1:30 pm on this day Fred passed surrounded by Friends, Family........and his tools

Resolutions..... Not New Year's

I've made some resolutions this year but they started back at the end of July when Julie and I traveled to Vermont to meet the newest member of our family. Have you been to Vermont? In the little town of Waitsfield lives the healthiest looking population of people that I've observed anywhere. Young and Old they are the fittest, healthiest looking bunch anywhere.  At that time I had accumulated some girth.....okay, I had been getting fat. 

Walking up the hill to the grocery store in Waitsfield was causing my body some distress. That's when I decided something had to be done and when I stepped upon the scales I came to the realization that I was exactly the same weight as when I went on my last diet 15 years ago. Among the fit people of Waitsfield I felt like a whale.

When I returned home I started a life style change. Notice I did not say diet. I did not start a fad diet that promised to take off 15 pounds in 1 1/2 weeks. Like I said I started a life style change. I began walking a manageable distance twice a day. In this route was a long steep hill and once again, like walking up the hill to the grocery store in Waitsfield, I was reminded twice a day why I need to do this. I also began eating less than 2000 calories a day. I limited my intake of refined sugar and start eating more fruit and nuts for snacks in lieu of processed good. I don't know exactly how much weight I've dropped but my waist size has been reduced 2", I wear a size large shirt now in lieu of the extra large I had been requiring, oh and now I've progressed to walking a minimum of 2 miles everyday and somedays I walk that distance twice. The biggest benefit is, I feel better and as an added benefit I'm a more productive person in the shop.

The shop is my other resolution. Just prior to Christmas my shop had gradually become an unorganized mess. In my haste to get things completed and shipped I had been lax in the daily clean up. I felt as though I was working in a bit of a "pig sty" and just could not go forward in those conditions. The weekend before New Years I added two new rolling tool chest to my storage options and performed what I call a "back to ground zero", or back to the starting point type clean up.

This type clean up is when you basically touch everything in the shop and you clean out corners and other spots that haven't been visited by a shop vac in quite some time.

There hasn't been this much room to the right of my table saw in 2 years

You might ask, "why would a person that's a woodworker and plane maker use rolling steel tool chest?" The short answer is time. I needed organization now and with my present schedule there is no way I could take time to build similar storage. In this case it's done and I'm back to making planes.

I also plan to complete the finishing of the interior walls of my shop, having almost everything on wheels will greatly facilitate that project. But that's another resolution, for another time.

Ron

Fred West

My friend Fred West is facing some challenging health issues. I, along with several other tool makers, contributed to a blog about Fred on the Lost Art Press Blog.

In lieu of repeating myself here I'll just direct you to the link below so you can read all the great things people from the Hand Tool Woodworking community had to say about Fred.

Here's the link to that blog post:     http://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/12/14/a-tribute-to-the-patron-of-the-hand-tool-world/

Get Well My Friend,

Ron

No Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Just A Regular Wednesday for "Just a Plane T-Shirt"

NOTICE: T-shirts sales have ended as of 12/18/2013

When I went thru the process of a total face lift on my web page months ago I did not include the "Apparel" page. By request I am rejuvenating this offering for the famous "Just a Plane T-Shirt", however I waited until after Black Friday and Cyber Monday because frankly all that is retail hype. No one really needs to tell you that the holidays are approaching and if you're planning to give gifts you need to make your purchases and ship your stuff, therefore we're making this offer on a "Regular Wednesday".

At this point I still don't intend to add the "Apparel" page to the main site, but I'm posting a link to the "Apparel" page of my Online Store here on the blog. For those that would like the "Just A Plane T-Shirt" the price is $16.95 and includes shipping anywhere in the lower 48 states and you won't have to stand in line at the P.O. We'll do that for you.

These are 100% Cotton Gildan Heavy T's and in a new color called "Old Gold". At some point we may add the "Apparel" page to the web site again but after the holidays we'll most likely either be selling these shirts thru brick and mortar retail establishments or only offering them at the limited events that we attend throughout the year.

T-SHIRT LINK, this link is dead, T-Shirt sales have been discontinued as of 12/18/2013

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season to Everyone,

Ron

The 125-38SBP (Brute) Dissected, also "There's Grinding and then there's Grinding

I'm in the midst of completing a group of "Brute" shooting planes. I use the magnetic chuck of my surface grinder to hold parts during assembly. The chuck supplies the other two hands I generally need during this task. During the process I thought it might be interesting to snap a picture of a cross section of this plane.

This tool is bedded at a low angle of 38 degrees. It's a bevel down design so 38 degrees is the effective cutting angle. This configuration puts the bevel of the iron almost in a line with the cutting action of the plane. With a primary grind of 25 degrees and then a secondary bevel of 27 to 28 degrees it still has around 10 degrees of clearance angle. Plenty, but it does need to be maintained.

The threaded holes serving as assembly points will have taper pins interspersed between those locations when all the parts are in place. This creates a very accurate and rigid structure, for all practical purposes a metal torsion box. The taper pins go into reamed holes and fit zero clearance. When the pins are set with a hammer it creates what we used to call in the fabrication industry, "End of the World Stuff".

If I've performed my work correctly it goes together marvelously well and makes a well fitted assembly. For this to happen quite close tolerances have to be maintained on every part that makes up the assembly.

All the grinding of the interior surfaces has to be completed prior to assembly and then protected during subsequent operations.  Clean vises and not trapping chips between vise cauls and the interior of the plane body is something that requires close attention. Other wise it is possible to damage areas that are no longer accessible for further work. When the threaded assembly pins are in place, peined and the taper pins are installed, it's then time to refine the exterior surfaces. Of course one of the most important functional surfaces on any plane is the sole.

The components of this plane are made from so-called precision ground stock. It is supposedly flat to .001 over a distance of 12 inches. I find that it is rarely this accurate. What comes in as precision ground and what leaves my shop as precision ground are two entirely different versions.

While grinding a designated amount of material is removed per pass. This differs depending on the material being work. Most are surprised to know that harden material like plane irons are actually easier to grind than the annealed material that makes up the body of the plane.

 As you proceed with this work the material warms slightly and expands.  In a process that starts with material being removed by 5 tenths to 6 tenths of one thousandth per pass, the final passes will be in the 2 to 3 tenths range. The entire body of the plane is allowed to completely cool again to the ambient temperature of the shop prior to making the final passe. On the first of the two final passes material will almost always be removed at the toe and the heel and not in the center of the sole which has cooled and contracted. Only after these final passes do you achieve a sole that is in fact quite extremely flat. Not allowing the plane body to cool prior to the last passes will leave a slightly low area just before and aft of the mouth opening.

In function this would not allow you to achieve as fine a setting of the iron and would not hold the fibers as tightly for shearing at the front of the mouth. Note the tightly wound shavings, of end grain no less, in the above picture. A very sharp iron and the other mentioned factors come into play to create this result as well as a polished surface on the end of the 45 degree cut of the sample board.

Ron


Leon Redbone was performing in Savannah, Ga. and was accompanied by a gentleman playing the tuba. During a break between songs the tuba player turns to Leon and says "Leon the Invisible man is here", Leon replied, "tell him I can't see him right now!" 

Desert Iron Wood

For some time now I've been interested in obtaining some Desert Iron Wood to use as totes and knobs and infills for my planes. My first attempts at purchasing this material didn't go well and I ended up with pieces with such obvious defects that I just didn't think they would be acceptable.

A couple of months ago I received an email from a supplier of this material advertising defect free bowl blanks. They were pricey but I knew the opportunity to obtain pieces this size defect free might be few and far between so I made a purchase.

When I received the blanks I was most pleased to find that one measured single digits in moisture content. A couple of weeks in my finishing kiln and it was ready to use. There was just one problem.

I've never turned a knob or shaped a tote from this material and the plane for which they were destined had to be ready for the recent Lie-Nielsen event at Woodcraft Atlanta.

Working unfamiliar materials with short time is not something that I approach lightly. Honestly I was excited to work this material and scared to death at the same time. If I invested a lot of time and then experienced a problem I wouldn't have sufficient time to recover. I finally decided nothing ventured, nothing gained and set about the work.

I began work on the rear tote early in the morning and finally applied the first coat of finish that night at 11:30. This material has a specific gravity of 1.20. I first thought that was a typo and it was more like Macassar Ebony which is 1.02. Nope, it's 1.20. I milled the blank with a fly cutter on the mill equipped with carbide inserts. The shavings coming off this material were shaped more like metal shavings than wood shavings. This stuff may well be harder than brass.

I do a certain amount of material excavation on a tote with power tools and I was thinking router tooling was going to be a problem, ironically the surfaces left behind by that tool were glassy smooth. When starting the hand tool removal of wood with a chisel I had envisioned having to pull up a new edge on my 1/2 chisel quite often. Once again this material surprised me. It actually got out of the way of a chisel fairly easily. However when I attempted to make the tight inside corner at the top the tote nice and sharp by cutting into the corner with the chisel I noticed this material kept fracturing right in the corner. I eventually had to resort to abrasives wrapped around the tight corner of a piece of brass to remedy this issue.

After all the fixing points were established and the final shape was attained with a varied selection of hand tools all the surfaces were final sanded up thru 1000 grit. When I flowed on the oil finish that night at 11:30 I was rewarded for my efforts. I've been to this point with a lot of different materials but the experience with this wood was something different and particularly special.

The  turning of the knob the next morning went quite well and in the end I actually had the plane completed with a day to spare.

Ron