Silent Woodworking...

I’ve been looking at these in the Lee Valley catalog…Are they not useful in cross-grain because of the absence of ‘nickers’? What tool are you using for cross-grain rabbets if you’re not using this tool? I’ve been occaisionally using my Stanley 45 for this kind of work, because my Record combo plane does not work well in cross-grain. I’m trying to find my way out of these problems because I also dislike routers.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

I have been thinking about adding one of these to my collection … price is a little beyond my allowance right now, but Christmas is coming!

poopiekat—I have a Craftsman Fillister plane (circa 1950 … similar to a Stanley No 78) that does OK cross grain. Bought this plane on eBay for cheap … it has a nicker on the right side, and does a terrific job on rabbets both with and across the grain.

-- Gerry -- "I don't plan to ever really grow up ... I'm just going to learn how to act in public!"

Thanks, theDane! I have a few of the old 78s, and yes I think the Craftsman ones have a circular nicker, unlike the 3-sided spur design of the Stanleys. I’ve used mine for cleaning up rabbets and tenons, though I’ve never tried a rabbet from scratch with one of these. The 78’s are not in the top drawer of my toolbox since they cannot make a dado unless it’s umm 1 and 1/2 inches, or whatever is the width of the body. This is their biggest drawback, its lack of versatility. There may be a Record combo plane out there with light weight, choice of cutter width and built-in nickers that is neither heavy nor clumsy to use. I’ll go back to my Lee Valley catalog and see if the Veritas fits my chronically fussy hands!

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

poopiekat—- right you are … my Craftsman was made by Sargent, and does indeed have the round nicker. Once, I moved the blade to front bed to use it like a bull-nose … that didn’t work so well. But it does a great job on rabbets!

-- Gerry -- "I don't plan to ever really grow up ... I'm just going to learn how to act in public!"

Here’s my Craftsman #78 in the box, with a Spur nicker, and a generic USA plane with a round nicker.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/poopiekat/006-1.jpg

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

Doctor Dan: I’m behind you 100% about the theory of silent woodwork. I’m getting to the point where I question whether fine dust is ever a mandatory by-product. It requires so much thought to re-orient myself to quiet methods, with hand tools wherever possible. It’s most gratifying, sweeping curly shavings off the floor at the end of the day, rather than fire up that howling shop-vac to suck fine sawdust off every horizontal surface.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

Check out In the Woodshop with Derk Cohen . He deals with making dados, and rabbets and variety of other tasks with the plane. Great review.

-- Daniel - http://theloveofwood.blogspot.com/

Doctor Dan: Great article, answered a few questions I had about technique.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

Great review Dan.
That is a must have for hand tool guys.
Veritas makes some great tools, don’t they?

-- Eric

Beautiful planes!! I you get tired of cutting with them, I’ll review them too; 2 opinions are better than one :-))

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

I think the plow plane is the funnest plane to play… I mean work with.