# How I Do Hand Plane Rehabs



## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Breakdown and Evaluation*

I've been thinking I am going to do this blog but haven't had just the "right" plane to document the process… until now. I know there are an abundance of these tutorials all over the internet so I don't pretend to be breaking any new ground here. I just know we all find our own little tricks and tips so I thought I'd show y'all how I do it and hopefully, there's a useful tidbit in here for someone.

Here are some good articles from wkfinetools on repair and rehabbing planes

And, here is DonW's restoration tutorial on his site. Be sure to poke around both of these sites. There is a plethora of useful information on both!

Also, search Lumberjocks. There are good tutorials in the blog section here too. Like I said, I just wanted to add a little more to the pot for folks to sample.

I chose to document this one because this plane needs the full treatment. Let me say up front, not all planes need ALL of the things done that I will do to this one. But this one came to me with nearly every bit of the surfaces laden with rust so it will get the "deluxe" package 

Anyway… on with it! Here is the patient:



















A Miller's Falls 22CB (equivalent to Stanley #7) jointer. I have grown quite fond of MF planes lately so I have been watching for good buys. I didn't really need another jointer but I got this one at a very good price so I snagged it.

The first thing I do is break down the plane and check to see if all the parts are proper and in good repair. In this case, the plane has all of it's original parts and everything seems to be in pretty good condition with the exception of the rust. I'm betting this was a hard-used plane but that the owner retired or passed-on and it has been sitting in a barn neglected since then. Why? Well, aside from rust, the plane is in very good shape. And, the iron is very short. Actually one of the shortest I've seen on a jointer plane, and it's the original. That tells me it's been sharpened many times over the years.

Here is this guy broke down:










So, what needs to be done?

Well, before I do anything, I really check the base out. No cracks or breaks, sole is decently flat when checked with a straight edge and all the right spots are machined and threads are all in good shape. Japanning is a different story.

Next I check the frog over well. All looks good. Lateral lever and depth adjuster function well and machining is proper to mate the frog to the base. We'll fine tune that later on but for now, I just want to make sure it's worth investing the time.

It is.

So, step 1 is to do a good evaluation of the plane you're working on, make sure it's worth the effort to restore it, decide what level you want to rehab it to and make a list of what all that entails.

Like I said, I'm going full-bore on this one. So what will that include?


Japanning is only ~50% and a lot of that is crumbling. So, I'll be re-finishing the base.
Frog is in good shape except for some rust. Needs de-rusting but paint is good (although it's not that sexy Millers Falls red so it may be getting a paint job anyway - we'll see)
Iron may be salvagable but it's already pretty short and there's sever pitting that will have to be ground back. We'll give it a shot but we may have to replace it.
Hardware's all solid but has surface rust. We'll remove the rust and polish it up.
Tote and knob are rock solid - no cracks or previous repairs - but, the finish is hideous! Can't tell if that's paint or some kind of film-finish-gone-wrong. Either way, they will be kept but will be taken down to bare wood and refinished.
Lever cap needs rust removed and polished up. May paint the recess red if I decide to paint the frog red. For the record though, this plane came from the factory with the black frog and no paint on the lever cap.
Cap iron needs rust removal and polishing. Will need to grind out pitting at front and see if it can still be properly mated to the iron. May have to replace?

So we'll start next time with getting rid of all this rust and preventing it from coming back.

Thanks for reading!


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## JCinVA (Feb 16, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakdown and Evaluation*
> 
> I've been thinking I am going to do this blog but haven't had just the "right" plane to document the process… until now. I know there are an abundance of these tutorials all over the internet so I don't pretend to be breaking any new ground here. I just know we all find our own little tricks and tips so I thought I'd show y'all how I do it and hopefully, there's a useful tidbit in here for someone.
> 
> ...


Looking forward to this series.


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## JMS71 (Jan 10, 2011)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakdown and Evaluation*
> 
> I've been thinking I am going to do this blog but haven't had just the "right" plane to document the process… until now. I know there are an abundance of these tutorials all over the internet so I don't pretend to be breaking any new ground here. I just know we all find our own little tricks and tips so I thought I'd show y'all how I do it and hopefully, there's a useful tidbit in here for someone.
> 
> ...


Also looking forward to this. I have a Stanley 7, 7C and 8 in need of restoration to be users.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakdown and Evaluation*
> 
> I've been thinking I am going to do this blog but haven't had just the "right" plane to document the process… until now. I know there are an abundance of these tutorials all over the internet so I don't pretend to be breaking any new ground here. I just know we all find our own little tricks and tips so I thought I'd show y'all how I do it and hopefully, there's a useful tidbit in here for someone.
> 
> ...


Just posted the second entry. Hopefully you guys find it helpful!


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Rust Removal and Prevention*

So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.

Here is our subject:










The biggest issue with this guy is the rust. That's what I normally tackle first and what I'll be addressing in this entry. The methods I use to remove rust depend on the extent of the rust present, whether or not there is paint/japanning I want to preserve, and whether or not there is nickel plating or other surface treatments I want to keep.

In this case, I will be re-painting the base because the japanning is beyond saving. The frog has some surface rust on the unpainted surfaces and the paint is in good shape so I'll plan to keep it. The lever cap has nickel plating but it's mostly gone and there is a lot of rust so I'm not concerned with keeping the plating.

I'll be using 2 different methods of rust removal. First is a "bath" in a phosphoric acid solution.

There are many different products that remove rust. The one I use almost all the time is Jasco Prep and Prime. It's a phosphoric acid solution that converts iron oxide (rust) to iron phosphate. I prefer this product for 3 main reasons:


It's reasonably priced/readily available locally
It removes existing rust and leaves behind iron phosphate which is anti-corrosive
It won't remove paint or japanning unless there is rust underneath

You can also buy Ospho or buy straight phosphoric acid (if you can find it) and dillute it for the same conversion process. There are several other options for rust removal as well so don't assume you have to use this. Other chemical agents like Evaporust, Citric Acid, Vinegar etc. that many people use successfully. I have tried Vinegar and Evaporust and for me, phosphoric acid solution is just the easiest and most effective. There is also electrolysis which many people swear by. I've never tried it, I'm far too lazy ;-)

So, do a bit of research on the merits of different methods. I'm only going to cover why I like this method, not why I don't prefer others.

The solution I'm using won't attack plastics so I use a drywall mud pan to soak my parts overnight. Here are our rusty parts and our supplies:










I laid everything in the mud pan except the base (more on that later) and poured the solution in so that it covers all the parts. The solution starts bubbling almost immediately. I left it overnight and in the morning, it was no longer bubbling. If I still see bubbles coming up in the morning I let it continue to work. I have left parts in for as long as 3 days and have never had any adverse effects from the solution.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the parts soaking. Use your imagination.

So, after the solution does it's job, I remove the parts (you should most likely use chemical resistant gloves but I always just do it barehanded) and rinse them in a bucket of water and dish-washing detergent. Then I scrub them with a toothbrush and rinse them well under running water. Finally, I blow them COMPLETELY dry with compressed air.

So what about the solution in the pan? Well, I don't know when this stuff looses it's effectiveness but I pour it through a strainer back into the container. I continue to use the same bottle until it doesn't seem to be doing the job then I toss it and crack a new one. I think this will be my third plane with this bottle and it's still going strong.

So now, my parts have had the rust converted, I degreased them with dish detergent, I neutralized the solution with water and I dried them with compressed air. Now I spray them all down with an anti-corrosive. Just a light coat and I let it set until I come back to work on them.










I like CRC 3-36 but there are many options. Do some research and take your pick. Now they'll set and wait while I work on the base.

Here are all of our parts soaking and waiting their next turn:










See how the paint on the frog is untouched but the rust is completely gone?










And here is a closer look at the business end of our iron after the rust conversion:










I'm not feeling real good about saving this guy :-( Here's the other side of the iron and the chipbreaker. I think the chipbreaker will be okay. We'll just have to grind the iron back past the pitting and see what we have. In the meantime I think I'll keep an eye out for a replacement.










Let's save the base for next time. This entry's getting longer than I expected…

Thanks for reading and comments and questions are always welcomed!


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## DLK (Nov 26, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...





> I continue to use the same bottle until it doesn't seem to be doing the job then I toss it and crack a new one.
> - HokieKen


How do you "toss it" i.e. dispose of it?

I first try a non-soak method, but when necessary soak in Evap-o-rust, mostly because it is environmental save to pour out on the ground.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


I dilute it with water (precautionary step, probably not necessary) and pour it on the ground. Dillution probably isn't necessary but I do it anyway. In fact, some people buy phosphoric acid specifically to use as fertilizer for berries or citrus trees or to use on lawns to adjust soil acidity.

I just looked to see, you can also pour it down the drain as long as it's dilluted sufficiently. There are no real precautions for small quantities.

I use non-soak methods a lot as well. In fact, I'll be doing that to the base in the next entry. Stay tuned…


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## DLK (Nov 26, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


Yes yes of course phosphorus is one of the components to fertilizer. I wasn't thinking.

When it becomes winter I don't like using soak methods as it is too cold in the shop. So I have to do them in the house. (SWMBO might get upset.)


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


Good point there Don. I probably should have mentioned the smell. You definitely don't want to bring this solution inside. It's not terribly strong but it's definitely unpleasant!


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## DLK (Nov 26, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


I once used Brasso inside and was kicked out of the house.

But the real problem is I don't have running water in the wood shop during winter. Summer I have a hose.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


Well on your way. I would save the cutter. Cut it back beyond the pitting, it looks like there is plenty meat behind it.

I think I blogged that once. I'll take a look.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I think there's a little life left but after I grind back past the pitting and hone a bevel, I'll probably be around 3/8" away from the braze line. There's still several sharpenings left there but she ain't gonna last forever.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


3/8" is a lot of sharpening. I don't know how much woodworking you do, but you'd probably get 5-10 years out of that.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


Truthfully, it probably will last ME forever Don. My other jointer is a Record 07 with a Hock iron. This plane will have to be something really special to displace that as my primary user.

I did notice that my iron is most likely going to end up shorter than the cap iron. Is that going to cause any issues? Seems like it will reduce the clamping force but I'm not sure if that presents issues during use or not.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


It will get close, I've never seen an iron get shorter than the cap iron. It would probably make it a little more difficult to set, but it should still work even if it is shorter.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Rust Removal and Prevention*
> 
> So, when we left off last time we had determined that this plane was perfectly salvageable and made a list of what all we need to do to it. We determined that all of its parts were present and that we shouldn't have to make/buy any replacement parts with the possible exception of the iron and chipbreaker.
> 
> ...


Appreciate all your time and "how-to" about this process.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Preparing the Body and Sole*

When last we left off, we had done rust conversion on all of our parts except for the main body. So let's pick up there and take care of body and sole.

Just to remind us of what our patient looked like when we got it:










I said in the last entry that I would be using a couple different methods of rust removal in this process. The first was the phosphoric acid bath we used on everything but the body. Well, we're not using that (well not JUST that) on the body.

Now, if the japanning on this plane was going to be preserved, I probably would have treated it the same way I did the rest of the parts depending on the extent of the rust. In many cases, you can simply get by with a wire brush on the grinder or drill press, hand-held brushes, scotchbrite pads, or other mild abrasives. I recommend preserving the japanning whenever possible. You have to be careful about phosphoric acid when you're saving the japanning because if there is rust underneath the japanning and the acid has a path to get to it, it will remove the finish. The safest path is to start with brushes/abrasives and progress from there if you're trying to save the finish.

If you're going to preserve the japanning, have a read through Don W's blog on No Soak restoration.

Back to the matter at hand though. The japanning on this Millers Falls is only about 50% present and the areas where it's missing are heavily rusted. The rust is also attacking areas where finish is present which is evident because I can chip the japanning away with my fingernail.

If you're not repainting, but have spots where japanning is missing and rust is present, remove the rust and follow Don's advice in the blog linked above on applying some sort of protective coating.

So, I took the plane and used a blast cabinet at work to remove the japanning and the rust on the sides of the plane. The blaster I used was loaded with a fairly abrasive aluminum oxide grit so I wanted to be careful on the sole. I just passed over it quickly to remove the bulk of the rust. I didn't want to take a chance on creating any hollows that would add to the lapping process later. I'm also careful when I blast not to remove material from the machined sections where the frog mates which are circled in the pic below. I don't blast the threaded holes or the pin hole for the tote either.










After blasting I use some hand-held wire brushes to remove stubborn spots of japanning. This is what the top of the body looks like after I'm done:










Right before I paint it, I'll give it a final pass with a soft brass brush and clean it with acetone.

Now for the sole. There is pretty significant rust present and I want to convert it rather than just removing it. Remember our phosphoric acid? Well, it can be used to work on localized areas as well. I just use a blue paper towel and rag it onto the sole pretty liberally. I want to make sure it pools into the corrugations as well as sitting on the surface. For the record, I would have just soaked the whole body in a bath of the solution, it wouldn't hurt anything but, I didn't have anything on hand large enough to hold the plane and didn't want to take the time to make a container.










The acid goes to work immediately.










I let it work overnight. In the morning, I degrease the body and rinse it with running water and dry it thoroughly with compressed air. Below we see the sole when we got the plane and the sole after the rust conversion:










Still ain't really purrdy is it? No worries. The phosporic acid leaves a very dull matte finish on un-rusted areas and a darker finish where rust was present and iron phosphate remains. It will polish out nicely though, as we'll see later.

At this point, I'm going to paint the base. I like to paint before doing the rest of the tuning the base will require. It's a matter of preference but if I paint first, any overspray that makes it to the sole, sides or machined portions will be removed during the rest of the work. You can just as easily tune then paint though.

So, it's masking time. I mask off the sides, sole and machined pads with tape. Make sure the tape is burnished down well around the edges to minimize paint getting under it.










I also take some tape and roll it up and stuff it into the threaded holes and the peg hole for the tote so I don't have to clean them out later. Also make sure you tape off around the mouth to prevent paint from getting down onto the sole.










Now, I'll hit the top with a brass brush and wipe it down with acetone. I wipe the acetone on and go back and wipe it off immediately before it evaporates. I will do that until the rag I wipe it off with comes away completely clean. Then 1 more coat of acetone and let it air dry. That way I have visible confirmation that it's fully degreased and clean.

I'm going to do a little experiment with this plane. Normally, I spray a self-etching primer prior to applying the black enamel. Most people don't use primer so I'm going to spray paint directly on the bare metal on this one to see if there's any difference in appearance or durability.

I would have went ahead and painted this guy but I realized I'm out of paint. I use Dupli-Color Gloss Black Engine Enamel. A lot of people recommend the semi-gloss black. I've used it as well and both look good. I just can't decide which mimics the original japanning better. It depends on the plane and the lighting. I would recommend either so take your pick. I've never used any other brand on a plane so I can only attest to the Dupli-Color.

When you spray the enamel, follow the directions carefully. I usually end up doing 4 or 5 coats in an hour's time. You cannot wait too long between coats or the top coat will cause the bottom to peel and crack. The paint will be dry to the touch in a few hours and I usually go back to work on the plane in a couple days but be careful when you do because it takes about a week to fully cure IIRC.

So there we have it. We're ready to paint. Since I'm out of paint right now, I'll tack that portion onto a later entry. Like I said though, all I'm gonna do is follow the directions on the can.

Thanks for reading. Next time, we'll get back to the rest of the parts. We'll do some polishing and tune the frog up to make sure it's ready to go back on the base when the paint cures.

Fire your questions at me in the comments. Criticisms are welcome as well!


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

HokieKen said:


> *Preparing the Body and Sole*
> 
> When last we left off, we had done rust conversion on all of our parts except for the main body. So let's pick up there and take care of body and sole.
> 
> ...


Excellent prep work Kenny, keep doing the good work!


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## DLK (Nov 26, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Preparing the Body and Sole*
> 
> When last we left off, we had done rust conversion on all of our parts except for the main body. So let's pick up there and take care of body and sole.
> 
> ...


FYI I usually prime and then give only two coats of black. Seems to work fine.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Preparing the Body and Sole*
> 
> When last we left off, we had done rust conversion on all of our parts except for the main body. So let's pick up there and take care of body and sole.
> 
> ...


grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr8


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Painting the Base*

At the end of the last entry, we had our plane body stripped of the old japanning and ready to be painted. I picked up some paint and got our plane done yesterday.

I got my paint at Advance Auto Parts. It's Dupli-Color Engine Enamel in gloss black:










Like I said in the previous blog, I'm not sure whether the gloss or semi-gloss is a better match but I prefer the look of the gloss. If you'd rather try the semi-gloss, it's #DE 1635. I also pointed out that normally, I spray a self-etching primer before painting. But, most people just spray this stuff on bare metal so I'm going to be trying that with this plane.

Before I paint, I take a soft brass wire brush and scrub the plane then I clean it well with acetone. You can use mineral spirits or other solvents if you have them on hand. Just make sure they don't leave any residue behind.










I wipe the acetone on an area liberally then immediately wipe it off with a clean rag. I repeat that process on each area to be painted until the clean rag comes off the plane clean. That way I know there is no residue. Once the whole thing is thoroughly cleaned, I wipe it all down and let the acetone evaporate.

Now I'm ready to spray the plane. I threw my old paint booth away so I had to build a new one since it's too cold outside to paint.










Fancy huh? Crack a window or door and this is perfectly adequate for what I'm doing.

Now I'm pretty much just going to do like the can says. I shake it well to make sure it's mixed and spray a coat on. The first and second coats are light coats. Just a quick pass over the full length, flip the plane around and a quick pass on the other side. You can see after 1 coat I don't even have full coverage.










I wait 10 minutes then spray a second coat the same way. After 10 more minutes, I spray the third coat but this one is a bit heavier and I make sure I have full coverage. Don't forget about the ends at the heel and toe if you're painting them. Here is after the 3rd coat.










I made a bit of a bonehead move when I took the above picture and bumped my fancy paint booth. Some little cardboard dust floated down into my paint :-( Oh well, nothing to be done about it. I'll cover them with the fourth coat. If necessary, I'll go back and sand it a bit and spray an extra coat BUT NOT UNTIL AFTER AT LEAST 7 DAYS.

The application window on this paint is critical. You have an hour from when you start spraying to get all your coats on with 10-15 minutes between coats. After that, you can't spray it again for 7 days. You do not want to violate these times (they are specified on the can). DAMHIKT

I spray my 4th and final coat. I had enough time to get another coat on if I needed to but we should be good with 4. Here we are after the final spraying:










So there we have it! The cardboard particles that got on aren't visible but give a slight "texture" to the surface. It's cast iron so it's not terribly noticable. Unless there turn out to be problems with adhesion, I'll leave it like it is. If I do decide to repair it down the road, I'll just sand it down smooth with some wet/dry paper and spray another thin coat on.

Next time, we'll polish up our hardware and see what we're gonna do about the wooden tote and knob.

Thanks for reading! Comments and questions are welcomed.


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

HokieKen said:


> *Painting the Base*
> 
> At the end of the last entry, we had our plane body stripped of the old japanning and ready to be painted. I picked up some paint and got our plane done yesterday.
> 
> ...


Interesting blog showing the details…..thanks


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Painting the Base*
> 
> At the end of the last entry, we had our plane body stripped of the old japanning and ready to be painted. I picked up some paint and got our plane done yesterday.
> 
> ...


Coming along nicely. Luv the paint booth


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Polishing and Refinishing*

Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.

On this plane, all of the hardware is steel - no brass at all. That makes the polishing a bit anti-climactic. It's very satisfying to take an old, tarnished brass adjuster knob and polish it up so it looks shiny and new. Not so much with a knurled steel knob. I do steel and brass pretty much the same way though, just with different abrasives depending on the piece.

First, let's get the mundane out of the way. The screws. On this plane, Millers Falls used steel phillips head screws to secure the knob and tote and steel flat heads for the lever cap and frog. Finally, there's the steel chip breaker screw.

Starting with the knob and tote screws. Not much to do. They're in good shape so I just chuck them up in the drill press (hand-tight only - no chuck key) and polish the head with a fine scotch-brite pad.










A lot of the time, especially with brass screws, you'll find some "boogered-up" threads. If you don't have a thread file, you should.










It has all common thread pitches and can be used to fix most any external thread. You just work the threads across the teeth on the correct pitch.










Now moving on to the flat head screws. For some reason, people seem to insist on using screwdrivers that are too small for the slots. This is especially true on the the chip breaker screw. This one's boogered up pretty bad. I use a small flat file to flatten the top and square the sides of the slot back up.










Then I polish the head on the scotch-brite. The same issue with the frog screws, slots are wallowed out. I use a small needle file to fix them up.










Then polish the heads. You can see polished vs unpolished below.










Next, I move on to the depth adjuster. It's in good shape. I chuck up on the small part (I put some painters tape around it before chucking to protect it) and polish it out with the scotch-brite.










If you have a brass adjuster nut, Don W gives good advice on cleaning it up and polishing it out in his tutorial.

Now on to the lever cap. The rust came off nicely but the nickel plating is mostly gone and we want it to have a uniform appearance.










I have an assortment of wire brushes for the drill press that I keep for tasks such as this:










I chuck a brush with medium stiffness up and brush the rest of the plating off.










It takes a bit of work to completely remove the plating. I brush the entire cap to even out the texture. I could sand it down and polish it if I wanted it smooth but, I think the "rough cast" look is appropriate so I'll leave it just like it comes from the brush. Below we see the lever cap as we got it, after rust conversion, and after brushing.










That takes care of our hardware. We'll treat the frog and the iron and chip breaker in separate entries. We'll wrap this one up by taking care of the tote and knob though.

First for the tote. Sorry but no magic bullet here. Just grab your scrapers, sandpaper and elbow grease and get to work. Sometimes lacquer thinner or paint stripper can help. For this one, I'm just going to scrape off the film finish and sand it down to bare wood.










See that ugly yellow/white finish? Not sure what that looked like originally but it's definitely not worth saving. I just work it with scrapers to get down to wood being careful not to gouge the Goncalo underneath.










Once I get all the film off, I sand with 120 then 180. I don't go any finer because I don't like a real smooth finish on my totes. It's a matter of personal preference so if you want it slicker, sand to higher grits.

Now for the knob. These are a little easier, less elbow grease and more electrons. I use a screw, nut and some washers to make a "mandrel" for the knob then chuck it up in the drill press.










Then I start with 120 grit sand paper. Keep the paper moving and if you have a particularly stubborn finish, use a coarser paper to begin with.










I sand it until the film finish is gone then work up to 220 or maybe 320 depending on the wood.










Here we have our knob and tote both sanded down to bare wood:










Now I'll apply Boiled Linseed Oil to both. I apply my first coat heavy with fine steel wool and make sure I work it into the grain well. For the knob, I chuck it back in the drill press to apply the oil.










I wait about 15 minutes and wipe the excess oil off. The next day I'll rag on additional coats at 1 or 2 a day until the wood quits soaking it up. Here we are after a coat of oil on our parts. I like the look of this wood.










So, there we are. All the hardware and the wood knob and tote are ready to go to work. Next time we'll work on our frog.

Thanks for checking in!


----------



## DLK (Nov 26, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


What thread file do you recommend? I was looking at them and there seems to be quite a variety with different threading , prices and manufacturers.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


Don,

The one I have is an 8" Bonney that's probably at least 30 years old. These things will generally last forever unless used regularly in a production environment. Mine has pitches of 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24. Bonney doesn't appear to be in business anymore but this Nicholson should be a winner. You can get finer/coarser pitched ones and metric ones if need be. The standard is the only one I've ever had. I have one something like this one for any other pitch I run across but have rarely used it.

This is the one I have. My uncle bought it sometime in the 70s or 80s. Still have the original box that I keep it in.


----------



## DLK (Nov 26, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


Thanks. I ordered one. Never heard about thread files before and have always used a dremel or wire brush to clean threads.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


The thread file won't be a big help cleaning the threads. It's for repairing galled or deformed threads mainly. I use it most when I have to cut a bolt/screw/threaded rod. It'll clean up the cut thread much faster than chasing with a die.


----------



## hnau (Nov 30, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


----------



## bhuvi (Dec 1, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


----------



## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


Oh yes.


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## Bluenote38 (May 3, 2017)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


Great blog - I'm going to steal/use most all of your methods. Thanks


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Polishing and Refinishing*
> 
> Well, now that we have our base painted and everything rust-free, let's turn our attention to the hardware.
> 
> ...


Glad it's useful Bill


----------



## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*

Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!

If you have an old plane that's in decent enough shape that you don't care to polish it up and there isn't any significant rust, you can skip all of the previous work and start here. From here on is what really gets our plane in good working shape and takes a mediocre plane and makes it work better than new.

We're going to focus on the frog mainly in this entry but you have to tune the fit with the sole so we'll see the main body a bit too. I want to preface this by saying that this frog required more work than any other I have encountered. Its issues aren't due to abuse by a previous owner but, and I DESPISE saying this about Millers Falls (and I've never had to before), just plain sorry machining and quality at the time of manufacture. In truth, this plane needs to be put on a mill and machined on both the frog and the base but, since most people don't have that option and I'm not putting that kind of effort into a plane I don't really have a specific purpose for, we'll work with what we have.

The frog is arguably the most important part of the plane. It has to hold the iron firmly and with good support while still allowing it to be adjusted for depth and lateral alignment. In other words, it has to hold tight but not too tight. So, the first thing we'll attend to is the bed where the iron seats.

The first thing I do is to make sure there isn't a raised area around the threads for the lever cap. Usually at a minimum the lead thread is slightly raised. I take a small mill file and flatten that area. I pass the file over the entire face to make sure there aren't any other raised areas as well. Then I lay the iron bed flat on my granite surface plate (table saw, float glass, jointer bed, granite/marble tile - use the flattest surface you have) and see if it rocks. Make sure the lateral lever and/or depth adjustment fork aren't the culprit. No rock? Good. Now make sure you can't see any light underneath and can't slide feeler gauges under it. Just because the 4 corners are coplanar doesn't mean there isn't a hollow in the center and we want to whole surface flat.

This frog has a hollow in the middle. So, now we have a decision to make. We need to flatten this face. How? Well we can file it. However, that's not the best way to flatten a surface. It can be done but usually requires removing more surface than necessary. It can be done to a frog with the lever and fork in place though.

Another option is to machine it. Not practical for most so we'll not go that route either.

The best option for most of us is to lap it on a flat surface using some kind of abrasive. We'll see how that's done. However in order to do so, I need to get the lateral lever and depth fork out of the way because they stick up above the plane of the surface.










The lateral lever on this plane is different than most. Most have a peened brass or mild steel pin. This has basically that but instead of peening, it was deformed by some sort of punch. See the "X" mark in the end of the pin and the lever? I've never seen this method before but, it is quite effective evidently because this lever is not at all sloppy.










Now, I normally don't remove the lever unless absolutely necessary but I will for this one. In fact it turns out to be quite easy. I just "wiggled" the lever side to side while pulling and it came off. Normally, you'll have to take a small needle file and file the peened part back to the pin diameter to get the lever off. Keep in mind though, eventually you're going to have to get the lever back on and retained so have a plan!










Now for the adjustment fork. Normally this isn't a big problem. It's just a pin through the casting with one side peened or mushroomed to give a press fit when driven in. Just use a punch and drive the pin out. Drive the small side though. If you use the punch on the wrong end, you risk cracking the casting. If it won't drive easily, flip it over and try the other side.










This pin comes out easily but is a good, tight fit in the hole. Rather than driving it all the way out, I just move it far enough to get the fork off and leave it. It's out of the way.










You'll find that I use machinist layout fluid a lot. You can do without it but it's not expensive and a bottle will last a LONG time. I'd recommend grabbing a bottle. It's good for a lot of things. Here, I've painted a thin coat onto the iron bedding surface of the frog.










Now I'm going to lay the surface on a piece of 240 grit wet/dry paper on my granite plate, apply even pressure and stroke it back and forth 3 or 4 times.










This shows me clearly where the high spots are and where there is no contact. See the bright spots on the 4 corners and part of the left side? That's where my iron would bed now.










I want the bed to be one big flat surface though. At a minimum, I want all 4 corners, and down both sides planar. I could live with a slight hollow in the center. But I'd prefer not to.

So now I'm going to take a piece of 320 grit wet/dry paper and my granite surface plate and work the surface until I clean all of my red dye up. I have to be sure I apply even pressure and don't allow the frog to rock while I'm lapping it, particularly when you don't have all 4 corners planar. I use good old WD-40 as lubricant when I use wet/dry paper.



















It only took 10-15 strokes to get a good, continuous, flat surface. Note that this could be done on lapping plates, diamond plates, water stones or oil stones. Use what you have. Just make sure it's flat. See how all my dye is gone? That's good stuff ;-)










You can also see there are still tool marks from the machining on this face. I don't mind. I have a solid surface for the iron to bed on and I have a little bit of friction. Like we said, needs to hold tight but not too tight. A little texture on the bed gives a little grip without deforming the iron.

One note about the iron bedding surface on frogs: Some frogs don't have a flat surface for the iron but have a "web" cast in for this feature. The process is the same, just flatten the machined surfaces.










Now let's turn our attention to the other side of the frog and where it mates to the body. What's important here is that the frog sits solidly on the machined pads in the base. A frog that doesn't can cause all kinds of problems that are hard to diagnose. It can cause the frog to shift a little in use giving the impression that the lateral alignment has been knocked off. It can cause chatter in the cut leading you to think the iron isn't bedded well. It can also cause the iron bedding surface to be skewed in relation to the sole which can make alignment hard and leave one side of the cutter with less support than the other. Long-story-short, get this part right ;-)

The first thing I do is to lightly run a fine mill file over the machined pads to remove any burrs or raised areas. I also check with a straight edge to make sure the lower pads are aligned and the larger pad doesn't have a hump in it. A slight hollow in the large pad is ok, it will allow for a little hump in the mating surface in the body which is harder to detect and correct while still giving solid contact.










Now the next thing to do is to check the fit with the base. Sit the frog in place and put pressure down with your fingers over the screw holes. Now apply some pressure to the back corners then the front corners, one at a time. The frog should set solidly no matter where you apply pressure. No? Well here comes the PITA part…

This frog doesn't sit solidly at all. It has a very significant rocking action. Normally, I have to do little, if any, work on this fit. This is by far the worst I've seen. The hard part is that it's very hard to gauge or work on the pads in the base because they're not very accessible. The best solution is to take both the base and the frog and clean up all the pads on a mill. But that's not practical for most, so let's do it the hard way…

Remember my red layout dye? Well here she is again. I paint a thin coat on the machined pads of the base. And I mean THIN. If I put it on too thick, it won't tell me what I need to know. It's worth noting that Prussian Blue is a better option if you do this often. It's thinner and non-drying. Layout dye works for me though and I have it on hand so I use it. I have to work fairly quickly though. It's slow-drying, but it does dry. That's fine for work like we did with the frog face but you can't "print" mating parts if it's dry.










Now this is critical… You have to be methodical and consistent in how you do this to get good results. I sit the frog straight down onto the pads with no pressure and pick it straight back up. I don't want to rock it or press it down at all. If I do, I won't be able to see the true contact areas. Here is where the dye transfers onto the frog:










We have dye transfer on both pads on the left side and a little bit on the right side right at the screw hole. Not even a hint of contact on the lower pad on the right side. Also, see the tool marks from machining on these pads? It's horrible. You can't really tell from pics but they are deep. I probably could have machined these surfaces just as well with an angle grinder. It's not really a big problem in and of itself. But, the lack of contact on the lower right pad (which indicates the top pad and lower pads weren't machined parallel to one another) coupled with the terrible finish is an indication of some very sloppy work by a machinist.

(Hops off of soapbox)

Now we have dye transfer showing us where our high spots are on the frog pads. I'm going to use a shopmade carbide scraper and just lightly scrape only the dyed spots to remove a little bit of material. You can do this with a small file as well. The key is only to remove the high spots - nothing else.










Now we're going to dye the base pads again, re-print the frog and scrape away the high points. I didn't take pics of the whole process but, I repeated about 7 or 8 times. I know I'm done when I print the frog and get this:










I then clean up all the dye off both pieces and do one final print just to be sure dye build-up wasn't affecting my results. All's good 

If we look closely after we finish the fitting process, we can see that I had to scrap far enough on the left side that I removed the machine tool marks. That's a lot more work than you should have to do on most planes and more than I've ever had to do on any other one.










The frog fit still isn't perfect. If I was starting over, I would have taken this body and frog and machined the mating surface. While I have solid contact with the body, the machining limits the amount of adjustability I have for the frog position.

When I set up a plane the first time, I usually try to start with the frog lined up with the back of the mouth. Then I can leave it there or move it further forward if I want to close the mouth up. But, when I set this frog, I can't move it far enough back to align it with the back of the mouth because the machined faces in the base aren't wide enough to accommodate the pads on the bottom of the frog. Not a deal-breaker by any means. But just another indication of some cost-cutting manufacturing on this plane.

This is the only later model Millers Falls plane I've had. It was made sometime in the 60's or 70's most likely. They left the red paint off, replaced all the brass with steel, switched from Cocobolo to Goncalo and replaced the trademark 3-point lever cap with a single piece. None of these things really affect the usability of the tool. However, after digging in a bit, it seems they also skimped on the quality of machining and fitting the tool at assembly. Fortunately, the castings seem to be same quality as their older planes and the iron and chip breaker seem to be unchanged.

I guess the point is, don't seek out newer models of these vintage planes. Most people know that pre-war Stanleys are the better vintage for consistent quality. Apparently the same holds true with Millers Falls. Just a little nugget I thought I'd share ;-)

Wow, we can see the finish line! Now we just need to finish up with the main body and get our iron and chipbreaker in shape. Then we can re-assemble, fettle and make some shavings. I'll try to wrap all that up next week. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanks for reading, comments welcome as always!


----------



## Handtooler (Jul 24, 2012)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


Most excellent educational communique I've ever read on the subject matter. Thanks for this in=depth coverage.


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## ClutteredShop (Nov 20, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


Very interesting and informative, but I have one question: First you flattened the base of the frog, then tested it with the dye against the bed, and then UNFLATTENED it so it would conform to the sloppiness of the bed. Since you used a scraper rather than I file, could you not have used it on the bed instead of on the frog? Yes, you achieved a good fit this way, but only for this frog on this bed. That frog can never be used with another bed, and vice-versa. I know that ordinarily one doesn't switch these parts around, but I'd still like to hold the possibility open in case, for instance, I dropped the plane and cracked the base, I could still use the frog on another plane with a missing or defective frog.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


ClutteredShop: Short answer is sorta:-/

You are right, this frog is specifically fitted to this base. If I want "plug and play", I'm gonna need to machine both to ensure everything is flat and parallel and offset the same amount.

I think you may have misunderstood though, I didn't actually flatten the botyom of the frog, only the top where the iron beds. On the bottom, I just made sure there were no burrs or raised "humps". I also verified that the 2 lower pads were coplanar. I suspect the underlying issue was that even though they were, the plane they lay in was not parallel to the plane of the upper pad.

You are also correct that scraping the body would have been another way to skin the cat. The problem is the 2 lower pads on this plane are recessed. Even with a small scraper, working those would require more skill or patience than I posses ;-)

Thanks for bringing up those good points! The truth is though, most frogs can be fitted with little fuss to most bodies of the same period and maker. This plane is definitely the exception rather than the rule.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...





> Most excellent educational communique I ve ever read on the subject matter. Thanks for this in=depth coverage.
> 
> - Handtooler


Thanks Handtooler. Glad there's an audience!


----------



## ClutteredShop (Nov 20, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...





> ClutteredShop: Short answer is sorta:-/
> 
> You are right, this frog is specifically fitted to this base. If I want "plug and play", I m gonna need to machine both to ensure everything is flat and parallel and offset the same amount.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the clarification. I've restored (some of them quite minimally) maybe fifteen cast iron planes and have seen a lot of things that can be wrong with them, but one thing I haven't run across is a frog that wouldn't sit flat. I'm now working through your earlier posts in this series and enjoying learning new things and also enjoying the flashes of recognition when you mention something that exactly represents my experience.


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## maxhall (May 16, 2012)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


Your attention to detail is top notch. Going to have to order myself some prussian blue.


----------



## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...





> Your attention to detail is top notch. Going to have to order myself some prussian blue.
> 
> - maxhall


Make sure it's the Permatex non drying stuff. There are a lot of artists paints sold in the color "prussian blue". They won't work;-p

Be aware the blue won't help with things like flattening the iron bed because it's non-drying. It'll just wash off in your slurry. Grab some layout dye for that.

Also, if you need a scraper, get carbide. HSS will work on cast iron but not on some steels



> Thanks for the clarification. I ve restored (some of them quite minimally) maybe fifteen cast iron planes and have seen a lot of things that can be wrong with them, but one thing I haven t run across is a frog that wouldn t sit flat. I m now working through your earlier posts in this series and enjoying learning new things and also enjoying the flashes of recognition when you mention something that exactly represents my experience.
> 
> - ClutteredShop


That's great to hear! I hope this series, and my experiences can help some folks in some small way. I didn't "invent" any of this stuff but hope to pass along the knowledge I've gleaned from others online over the past couple years. You've done more planes than me though, this will be 9 or 10 I've done. Maybe you should be the one writing the blog!


----------



## ClutteredShop (Nov 20, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...





> Thanks for the clarification. I ve restored (some of them quite minimally) maybe fifteen cast iron planes and have seen a lot of things that can be wrong with them, but one thing I haven t run across is a frog that
> 
> You ve done more planes than me though, this will be 9 or 10 I ve done. Maybe you should be the one writing the blog!
> 
> - HokieKen


Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm new to this forum, though, so I don't yet know the rules about blogging.
There are a few contributions I could make that some people might find worth while if it's ground you haven't already covered. I could show how I restored a frog that had the back part snapped off, how I restored a couple of cracked totes and totes with chunks missing, and how I've closed the mouths of wooden planes. These were done before free photography came the the ClutteredShop, however, so I could only show "After" pictures, not "Before" and "During."


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


ClutteredShop: I think you will find that Lumberjocks is a great place for sharing knowledge. Most folks on here are willing to give help and advice whenever they can and are truly receptive and appreciative when offered the same. Blog posts are a great way to give and recieve experience and skills. I'm sure any posts you make on the repairs you've done will be appreciated and well-recieved. Pictures are always helpful (at least to me) but definitely not necessary. I'd personally be interested in how you fixed the snapped frog!


----------



## hnau (Nov 30, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


----------



## bhuvi (Dec 1, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


----------



## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Fixin' and Fittin' my Frog*
> 
> Well, we're done with the cosmetic stuff. Time to get down to the real nitty-gritty. Woo Hoo!
> 
> ...


I agree w/Russel up above. Thnx again for all you've put together here


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Working up the Iron*

Alright, let's see if we can wrap this up and have a new user in the plane till by the end of the week. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Mine was nice but no shop time so I'm trying to squeeze this plane in when I can. I found a couple of hours last night to work up the iron and chip breaker. Here's how I did it…

I start with the iron. Prior to this, all we did was rust conversion on the iron. If we recall, we had some pretty gnarly pitting at the business end of this guy:










We can't leave that! What is a cutting edge? Simply put, it's the intersection of 2 planes (surfaces) where the intersection has as small a radius as possible. Pitting will essentially give us localized areas of unacceptable radii if we just hone our edge "around" it. The result would be that no matter how sharp we hone the edge, it won't cut where there are voids.

So we have to get past the pitting on an iron that's already pretty darned short. But, we work with what we have! So I start by painting the iron with some layout dye and scribing a line across it square to the edge of the iron.










I mark my cutoff line as close to the edge as possible while ensuring I am past the pitting on both sides of the iron.










Then I use a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to cut off the unusable portion. Now, I'm not a "safety preacher", you're all big boys and girls, BUT WEAR SAFETY GLASSES when you do this. You only have 2 eyes and these wheels fracture and basically explode often. 'Nuff said…










I lightly score my scribed line with the wheel and repeat 5-6 times until I'm almost through. Then I clamped the waste section in a vise and just snapped it off. The tool steel the iron is made of is very hard and strong but also pretty brittle. I easily snap it cleanly with just my hand.










The next step is on the bench grinder for me. Let me say that if you don't have a grinder, it's not entirely necessary but, it will save you a TON of time when it comes time to hone your bevel. You can hone the bevel from a square edge but you won't catch me doing it.

I start by setting my grinder rest for a 25 degree bevel. There are all kinds of jigs and gauges you can use to do this. Experienced folks may just eyeball it and free-hand it, sometimes without even using the rest. I have all kinds of chisels and plane irons with 25 degree bevels in my shop. I just grab one of them and use it to set my rest. I clamp the iron in my guide and I'm ready to go. (BTW, I'm using a clone of the Veritas bench grinder jig that I bought from Peachtree woodworking - not perfect but affordable and FAR better than the rests that come on most bench grinders)










I'm going to kinda glance over a lot of stuff in this entry for the simple reason that there is so much information available online and I don't have anything really unique to add. So, I'm not gonna give a step-by-step on how to hollow grind a bevel. But here's our iron after I did:










See how there is a reflection on the edge in the pic below?










I don't grind all the way to a sharp edge. I don't want to wreck the temper on my iron with the grinder. Especially an iron this short. In practice that means don't let the steel turn blue. The closer you get to a sharp edge, the less material there is to conduct the heat away from the grinder wheel. So, to be safe, I cool the steel often in water while grinding and as soon as sparks roll onto the back of the iron, I'm done.

Now my iron is ready to be worked up. In many cases with vintage planes, you'll receive the iron in the condition I've just gotten to. You normally won't have to cut any material off and often you'll already have a bevel you can work with so you can skip the grinder.

Now that I've removed the pitting and hollow ground my bevel, I find I'll be dealing with another "first time I've seen that" on this plane. I wound up with an iron that's the same length as (or a bit shorter than) the chipbreaker.










I don't know if that will cause me any headaches or not. We'll burn that bridge in a little while ;-)
The next thing I'll do with the iron is to hit both sides with a soft wire brush on the grinder. I'm really just removing the coating left behind by the phosphoric acid. This step isn't necessary but I'm going to end up sanding a bunch of it off anyway and this is less work.










The top of the iron normally sticks up higher than the chipbreaker and is visible so I usually give it some cosmetic attention. After wire brushing, I'll give it a quick polish with some wet/dry paper then hit it with a buffing wheel on the grinder.










If I find the maker's mark is hard to see and I want to enhance it a bit, sometimes I'll cover it and the surrounding area with my layout dye then polish the dye off with some fine sandpaper on a flat substrate. Make sure the dye is dry before polishing and don't use lubricant on the paper.










The next thing I'll do is to take my iron and (sorta) flatten the side that beds on the frog (the bevel side). Remember how in the last entry we took care to make sure the bedding surface on the frog was flat? Well we'll do the same with the iron. I don't spend a lot of time flattening the entire surface but I do make sure that most of it is planar and that there will be good solid contact down near the bottom where the lever cap will hold it down. It only takes a few strokes on my coarse diamond plate to see that we're in good shape. There's a little bit of a hollow at the top but that won't be in contact with the frog anyway.










Disclaimer: I noticed while writing this and going through the pictures, it seems disjointed. For instance, in the pic above, the top side of the iron has been worked on the diamond plate but in the following pics, it still has the iron phosphate coating. I'm not trying to fool anyone and I promise this was all done on the same iron ;-P I just do these things and snap a bunch of pics then go back and try to remember what order I did them in and correlate pics accordingly. So, the way I present this stuff may not exactly match the order I did it in. Don't worry though, in any case where it's important that one thing be done ahead of another, I'll make it clear.

Okay, so far everything is fairly simple. Now let's get down to the real nitty-gritty. Here comes the stuff that really matters. Again, I'll glance over some of the following information because there is so much available online. We're about to begin sharpening. I debated on whether to include this at all because there is soooooo many how-to guides out there on sharpening plane irons. I am also not a sharpening zealot. I don't care how you sharpen your tools. And I don't care if you think I do it wrong. I don't understand people's zeal when it comes to sharpening methods. All I can say is get the basics down, choose whatever medium(s) suits you and your budget and go to it. If you get tools that cut the way you need them to, you're done.

But, since this series is "how I do plane rehabs" I figured I should show this part too. So, here is my basic sharpening setup.










3 diamond plates and a shop-made leather strop. I fit them all into a plywood base for ease of moving around the shop. I use that cheap glass cleaner as lubricant a la Paul Sellers. I also have granite tiles I use wet/dry paper on and some oil stones for certain uses.

So, the first thing we have to do is flatten the back of the iron. Now, IMHO, there are 3 separate "flatnesses" that we require on this face.

First, the entire face should be "kinda" flat. The chipbreaker will mate with this face so we need the area at the top and the area behind the cutting edge planar, or at least in parallel planes. Otherwise we may have a hard time getting a proper fit with the chipbreaker. MUCH more on that later… :-/

Second, the area back about ½" from the cutting edge needs to be truly flat and "kinda" polished. That's were our chipbreaker edge will mate and we will want no gaps. Again, more later…

Finally, the 1/8" or so right at the cutting edge needs to be truly flat and well-polished. It forms one side of our cutting edge so we're gonna work it just like we work the bevel.

First, I pull out our old friend, Mr. layout dye. I paint a coat on the bottom area that I want to work flat and part of which I'll want to polish to a fine finish.










Now I work the entire face on my coarse diamond stone about 10 strokes.










And I have this:










I continue to work it on the coarse diamond until I have this:










Now I have the entire face planar enough for my purposes so I'm done with the top part. Note that the dark areas are slurry from the stone in some pitting in the iron. The camera makes it look much worse than it actually is ;-p

Now I still have a long way to go at the bottom though. You can see from the dye remaining that there is a significant hollow there. So now I'm going to turn my iron 90 degrees to the plate and work only the bottom of the face.










I work on the coarse plate until I clean up all of the remaining dye.










Then I work it on the medium diamond plate and then the fine diamond plate. You can see that I stop with the fine when the area right behind the cutting edge is polished. I don't care about polishing the rest of it out any finer than the medium stone.










I'll polish it a little finer later on a leather strop but I'll do that in conjunction with my bevel. So now, let's turn the iron over and work on the other side.

I'm going to use a Veritas (Mk.1) jig to hold my iron while I grind this bevel. Shut up. I don't care if you think I should do it free-handed.

I made the pictured jig for setting blades in this guide. It takes me less than 15 seconds to have the iron in the guide and read to go on the stones.










A few strokes on the coarse stone show me how much grinding I have to do. Not too bad.










I'm not gonna go into great detail here. You probably know how to sharpen an iron. If you don't, do some Googling. You'll find plenty out there. I continue on the coarse stone until all my dye is removed then progress through medium and fine stones. Between each stone, I work the back side on the fine diamond to remove the wire edge. It never sees anything coarser than the fine diamond from this point on. I wind up here after the fine stone:










That'll do. You should be able to shave hair completely in a single stroke with no effort. If not, move back to your last stone and keep working. I move on to my leather strop. It's just a piece of leather glued to some MDF. I use oil and green polishing compound and work the back then the bevel 5-10 strokes at a time until I remove the wire edge.










Yeeeehawwww we're done with the iron. I had intended to do the chipbreaker in this entry as well but, I'm getting a little long-winded so I think I'll do it in a separate one.

In the mean-time though, here are a couple of links that go into more detail on some of the things I just kinda skimmed over:

Derek Perth on flattening blade backs

Don W's blog entry on sharpening plane blades

And, if you want a thorough education on sharpening in general, I highly recommend Ron Hock's well-written The Perfect Edge

Thanks for reading. I feel like this entry was too long to be a quick overview and too short to be a full guide on how to work the iron up. Either way, I've written it now so it is what it is ;-) Hopefully you weren't too bored…

Let me hear your questions and comments! I'll get the chipbreaker written up and posted in a day or two.


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## hnau (Nov 30, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Working up the Iron*
> 
> Alright, let's see if we can wrap this up and have a new user in the plane till by the end of the week. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Mine was nice but no shop time so I'm trying to squeeze this plane in when I can. I found a couple of hours last night to work up the iron and chip breaker. Here's how I did it…
> 
> ...


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## bhuvi (Dec 1, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Working up the Iron*
> 
> Alright, let's see if we can wrap this up and have a new user in the plane till by the end of the week. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Mine was nice but no shop time so I'm trying to squeeze this plane in when I can. I found a couple of hours last night to work up the iron and chip breaker. Here's how I did it…
> 
> ...


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Working up the Iron*
> 
> Alright, let's see if we can wrap this up and have a new user in the plane till by the end of the week. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Mine was nice but no shop time so I'm trying to squeeze this plane in when I can. I found a couple of hours last night to work up the iron and chip breaker. Here's how I did it…
> 
> ...


Following every step


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Breakin' Chips*

Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.

A well tuned chipbreaker is essential to making a bailey-pattern plane perform consistently well IMHO. On clear, straight grained, cooperative woods, it's not that noticable. Get some tight-grained figured wood with changing grain direction though and you're likely to find out quickly if your chipbreaker is shaped and set properly.

I recently was cross-grain planing some White Oak with a jack plane. The plane was clogging every few strokes and the task was terribly frustrating. Eventually I ended up removing the chipbreaker and going through the process I'm about to describe. It turned out that while I had created a good fit between the chipbreaker and the iron when I rehabbed the plane, I hadn't undercut the edge of the 'breaker enough and it was causing me much pain. The difference in plane performance after correcting the problem is night and day.

So what exactly is our objective when we work on the chipbreaker? 3 things:


We want an absolutely air-tight fit between the iron and the leading edge of the chipbreaker.
We want ONLY the leading edge of the chipbreaker to make contact with the iron.
We want the top of the chipbreaker to be able to control the shavings coming off the wood.

The following illustration from an article on WoodCentral shows how we want our chipbreaker set on our iron:










The article linked above is a worthwhile read on how to prepare the chipbreaker and set it on the iron. The following is how I do it.

Enough background, let's get on it!

Here is our chipbreaker. All we have done to it up to this point is rust conversion.










There is significant pitting on both sides of the chipbreaker leading edge. That's not ideal but I believe we can make it work just fine with a little elbow grease.

The first thing I want to do is to make sure the back part (above the "hump" at the leading edge) is relatively flat on both sides. Mostly we don't want burrs or raised areas and we want to make sure it doesn't have a twist in it. If there is some twist, you can most likely straighten it in a vise. You may have to hammer it a bit on an anvil but this steel isn't hardened like the iron and can be "bent to our will". No twist in this one and in the 9 or 10 planes I've rehabbed, I've only had to straighten 1 out.

I start with a fine mill file and file down the burr raised at the threads.










Now I stroke the flat area on both sides on some wet/dry paper. We don't need this to be polished at all, just want to make sure it's decently planar and doesn't have any raised areas.










The bottom side, shown above, is pretty flat to begin with. The top side, shown below, has a bit of a hollow and pretty bad pitted area.










I work it on my coarse diamond stone a few strokes just to smooth it out. This isn't necessary, I just like to make it smooth.










I've also dyed the leading edge up on the top. This is where I'll move to next. It doesn't really matter whether you shape the top or bottom of the leading edge first. You're probably going to end up working them more than once anyway ;-p

We want a "knife-edge" in contact with the iron. Objective #1 we stated says we want a tight fit but according to #2 that fit has to occur only at the leading edge. Essentially, we want to hone an edge here. I'm going to start with about a 10 degree bevel on the front.










The exact angle isn't critical and I don't use my Wixey box to hone it. I just wanted to give you an idea of what the angle I'm grinding looks like  You can hone it at a shallower angle. I've just never seen any real advantage to it so I basically just want a polished edge with some slope. For now, I'll work it only on my coarse diamond stone just to grind a small bevel back about 1/32-1/16 inch. You can go further if you want but I like to leave as much material as I can. Plus I'm lazy so I like to remove as little as necessary.










I grind enough to make sure there's no pitting in my bevel edge. I'd rather not have any pitting right behind the bevel either but I don't think it's going to be practical to avoid it on this guy. I am going to take it to the belt sander and gently grind the rounded part to smooth it as much as possible though. I'm careful not to hit the bevel I just created on the sanding belt. If I were a smarter fella', I would have gone to the belt sander first…










Now let's turn our attention to the bottom side. First I'm going to grind a flat that's slightly undercut. You can see that I'm going to let the part right behind the rounded section set flat and grind the leading edge just enough to clean it up. I do this part on wet/dry paper because I don't want to grind the area that's resting on the granite down. The intention here is just to clean up where our bevel will be to make sure there isn't any pitting we'll have to grind out.










We should be okay but, I am going to take a half-round file and get rid of that pitting behind the ground flat.










Now onto the diamonds. We're going to hone an edge just like we did with the iron and polish both bevels up through the fine diamond stone. See how all of my plates set above the plywood top the same amount?










That way, I can let the end of the part rest on the plywood and will be grinding a consistent angle across all 3 stones. Both bevels are small so I just work them on the medium then the fine. It only takes a few strokes on each to roll up a wire edge.










Sorry, this picture is kinda crappy. But I think it's sufficient to give you an idea of what our leading edge that contacts the iron looks like.










Below are pics of the top and bottom bevels at this stage. The edge isn't as bad as it looks in the pictures (I didn't remove the burr from the fine stone yet) but it's not great either. The pitting that was present on both sides of the 'breaker has taken its toll. Ideally, I would grind back until I could get a "perfect" edge. However, given the extent of the rust that was on this guy, I'm afraid we would remove too much material. I think this edge is good enough and I don't think it will hurt the plane's performance. If I find out differently after I get it in use, I'll have to re-evaluate.



















In order for our chipbreaker to work properly, it needs a "spring" in the fit with the iron. I lay the part flat on my granite plate to make sure that with the ends in contact there is light showing underneath.










Not much is there? Well, it's time for the rubber to meet the road. Let's put this guy on our iron and see what she looks like!










Well, that's just not good at all! Never seen this before. I've had fits that were just barely touching but this one's not touching anywhere at all across the full width. I suspect that while this plane sat rusting away in someone's barn/garage/shed/basement over the years that the oxidation has eaten that leading edge back.

No worries though! We can fix 'er up. We probably should have checked this first and done the following steps prior to grinding our bevels. We're likely to introduce some twist into the part when we bend it so the edge isn't parallel to the back of the piece. Oh well, live and learn…

Like I said earlier, this steel is pretty cooperative. I'm just gonna clamp it in a vise with the rounded portion just below the jaws and pull on it a bit. If my bend is 1/2 way between the threads and the leading edge, it should minimize the effects of any twist we introduce.










We can see the effects of just a little one-handed persuasion:










This actually ended up being too much bend. I was afraid it would be too much stress on the threads so I put it on an anvil and gave it a single whack in the center of the high point with a ball-peen hammer. That made it just right. Sorry but I didn't take any pics of that. I think you can imagine it though ;-)

So now let's test the fit with the iron again shall we?










Sorry for the pic quality but it shows exactly what we want to see - single point contact only at the front edge.

The next process is where you really want to make sure you get it right. It can make a huge difference in how your plane will perform. We said our first objective was to have an air-tight fit with the iron. Well, we don't. I tried and tried to get a decent pic showing the light coming between the 2 pieces but couldn't do it. You want to hold this up at every angle and turn it every way and make sure you don't see ANY light between the two. You'd be surprised at how thin a gap wood shavings will find their way into.

When I tune this fit, I just not where my gaps are and then grind the bottom bevel a bit while putting pressure down on the high spots. Then I check the fit and repeat until the fit is right. In lieu of that though, since it's hard to photograph the gaps, I'm going to use dye and print the fit like we did when we fit the frog to the base.

I lay a thin coat of dye down on the iron and lay the 'breaker straight down on top of it (I don't lay it over from the side like it appears in the picture). Then I press straight down, hard, on the threads like it would be clamped in reality.










Then I pick the chipbreaker straight up. I don't want to roll it or shift it to avoid false dye transfers. The line of dye removed from the iron shows more clearly in pictures where the contact areas are.










What it doesn't show though is that we don't have enough angle on our bottom bevel. If we look at the dye transfer on the chipbreaker edge, we see that the back of our bevel is making contact when pressure is applied.










We don't want that. If we could be confident that the entire bevel was in contact, then it would be ok. However, if the very leading edge gets lifted even slightly, chips will have a path of ingress and will work their way under. Trust me.

So, let's re-grind our bottom bevel. Rather than re-grinding the whole thing, I worked it a few strokes on the fine plate with pressure concentrated on the high spots according to my dye print which meant I pressed down just left of center. That will help my fit at the edge. But I still need to make sure that the leading edge is the only part of the bevel making contact. Rather than regrinding the entire bevel, I hold the part at a much steeper angle and just work off a clearance bevel behind my main bevel.










Now re-check the fit. The pic isn't real clear (sorry) but my clearance bevel was good. Only the sharp edge made contact. I still don't quite have solid contact all the way across though.










I gave it a little more work on the fine diamond. This time I check it after each stroke on the stone to be sure I only remove the dyed areas. Just 3 strokes did it. When checked again, I can see not even a hint of light between the two parts. Like a dummy, I forgot to do a final print to show the fit. Guess you'll have to take my word for it ;-)

After I get a good fit, I give both bevels a few swipes on my leather strop with some green compound to make sure my wire edge is gone. I fit the chipbreaker on the iron like it will be set when I fettle the plane. I set the edge of the chipbreaker back about 1/32" from the cutting edge of the blade. For a smoother, I set it closer - about 1/64" and for a jack or a scrub that will be used for dressing raw stock, I set it around 1/16" or more depending on blade camber. Many set theirs much closer than I do. I just don't see it as necessary in general. I have moved it much closer on occasion though with a smoother on really gnarly grained woods. It does help with tearout. The article I linked near the beginning of this post goes into much greater detail than I will here.

Below, we can see that after working the bottom bevel and tuning the fit, I only have a little bit of the top bevel left on the left side of the 'breaker. A little bit should be enough though, if not, I'll find out when I start using this plane and fix it then.










Et voila! We have finished with our iron and chipbreaker. We have a nice sharp cutter and a tight-fitting 'breaker. In spite of some extensive pitting present on both pieces, I think we'll have a perfectly good functioning cutter when we get right down to it. The pitting in the chipbreaker and the fact that the iron is shorter than than the chipbreaker aren't ideal. But I don't think those issues will cause any problems in the plane's performance. We'll find out in a few days for sure.

We're almost done. ) Next time we'll put our plane all back together and finish up the work on the main body. After that it's just a matter of fettling.

I plan to wrap up in 2 more segments. If I've left out any details you're curious about, let me know in the comments. If there's enough interest, I may add an extra entry to address things that didn't get covered in the main process.

Thanks for checking in! I hope to get one more entry posted this week and wrap this up early next week.


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## hnau (Nov 30, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


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## Sonofabeech (Sep 25, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


Nice job, chip breakers most of the time get neglected, i use wooden planes it takes a long time to get a iron and chipbreaker up and runing on the old wooden planes, i also polish the front of the chip breaker on a buffing wheel it helps the shaving glide more freely.

Cheers.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


I usually polish out the front of the curved section as well. The pitting was so bad on this one though that polishing it would have been like putting lipstick on a pig.

Thanks for reading and the comment!


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## bhuvi (Dec 1, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


Hi Kenny,

Lot's of great information here. While I'm not refurbishing a plane it helps me in tuning up my new one.

Thanks,


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


Great Jim! I'm by no means an expert but just shout if you have any questions I can help with.


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## hotbyte (Apr 3, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


Hi Kenny!

You referred me to this blog regarding my MF #9 in a forum post. After reading through this blog post, I spent time closely looking at my iron & chip breaker. Like yours but not as severe, they were not making a spring tight connection at sharp end. In addition to adding a slight bend in chip breaker, I discovered my screw hole in chip breaker was bulging a little on both sides. After a little mill file work, I was able to get some decent wispy shaving. Before, performance was so bad, even with sharp iron, that I was ready to chunk the whole thing! It sill needs some cleanup and tuning but, thanks to your blog, the light at end of the tunnel might not be train coming my way!


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


Great to hear hotbyte! The good news is that aside from sharpening, all of this stuff only has to be done once


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## hotbyte (Apr 3, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


I guess then it's on to the old Stanley #3 I have. Both it and the MF were from either my or wife's family…I don't recall how we got them. I just found them in our attic a while back. They had probably been there 20 years.

The #3 is missing the bearing or whatever it is called on the lateral adjuster. So, I'm not sure what to do with it especially if this MF #9 works out to be a decent smoother for me. I've wonder if it would be good to setup more like a scrub or if it is too small for that. I have a far bit of old rough heart pine and have smoothed up construction SYP for a few projects so a scrub would be handy to have.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


I have a #4 set up as a scrub. A #3 will work just fine too. Not having the lateral isn't a big deal. You can use a small mallet to tap it in line.

A scrub is handy and the smaller it is, the easier it is to take those big bites.  You can fashion a replacement for the disk on the lever, try to find a lever on eBay, or like I said, just use a mallet to set the iron.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Breakin' Chips*
> 
> Last time we got our iron worked up and ready to go to work. However, the iron can't work on its own. It needs a chipbreaker. What for? Well, in my estimation, 2 things. First, the chip breaker lends structural support to the iron. It basically acts as a spring stiffener to the pretty thin tool steel the iron is made of. The 2nd job of the chipbreaker gives it its name. It breaks the chips, or more appropriately to planing wood, it controls the shavings. It helps to create consistent shavings by guiding the chip off the cutting edge and directing it back into a curl. In a nutshell, the chipbreaker (more properly called the cap iron according to many) forces the wood to fold back on itself "breaking" the continuity of the wood fibers. That is key to a well-performing plane because it aids in the prevention of tearout.
> 
> ...


Wow! This has been an amazing ride. Wish there were teachers in school when I attended…......um,.... way back. lol


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Putting it All Together*

Well we've finished most of our grunt work. All that's left to do is finish up the base and get this guy ready to make some shavings!

The next thing to do is to flatten the sole of the plane and to polish up the sides (maybe flatten them as well depending on what the planes going to be used for). We'll handle that in a later entry but before we do that, we're going to put this plane back together.

Why do I reassemble it before working on the rest of the body? I'll explain that in more detail in the next entry ;-P

So first, let's tidy up some stuff from previous work…

We sanded our knob and tote down to bare wood and gave them all of the Boiled Linseed Oil they could handle. Some people finish theirs differently than I do but for me, it's just the BLO. Now I'm going to put a coat of paste wax on and they're ready for use.

I apply the wax with fine steel wool. I do the knob in the drill press, same as I did when I applied the oil. I work the wax onto the tote by hand.










I let the wax cure to a haze then buff it out with some cheesecloth.










Now for the frog. If we recall, we removed the lateral adjustment lever and the depth adjuster fork due to needing to flatten the iron-bedding face. We wouldn't have removed that lever if we didn't have to but, since we did we have to put it back.

I put the lever in place, put the back side of the retaining pin on an anvil, and give the head of the pin a whack with a cold chisel. That does the trick.










I put the depth adjustment fork back on and drive the pin in place (sorry forgot to take pic) and our frog is ready to "hop".










No we'll install the frog roughly in position. I like to put the iron/chipbreaker on and then finalize the frogs position before tightening the screws completely.










I put some paraffin wax on all of the screws prior to installing them. It helps prevent seizing and corrosion in the threads.










Now I'll hold the iron and chipbreaker in place with the lateral lever centered and the cutting edge just poking through the sole. I'll move the frog until I have the iron where I want it in relation to the front of the mouth. Sorry but I didn't have enough hands to do that and take a picture at the same time. I think it's pretty self explanatory though.

I'll note here that this adjustment is fairly easy on most bench planes because there is a screw behind the frog to adjust it's position. Removing that screw is one of the cost-saving measures Miller's Falls took with this plane though. So I have to adjust the frog position by hand and eye. Then I finish tightening down the screws.










Next I install the dept adjustment knob. Just make sure it engages the adjustment fork.










Next, let's put our iron/chipbreaker and lever cap on. First install the lever cap screw then back the dept adjuster all the way up. We don't want the cutting edge even close to sticking out the mouth. Now put the iron/chipbreaker on (which we fit and set properly in the last entry) and put the lever cap in position. Adjust the lever cap screw so that the cap locks down tight but not so tight that the iron doesn't move when you adjust the depth or the lateral position.










Now we install the knob and tote. Sometimes there is a pin pressed into the base for the front of the tote. Sometimes there is a screw there. In this case, there is a loose roll pin. This is the only plane I've ever seen with this. However your plane is made, you want to be sure that your tote and knob are TIGHT. A wiggly tote or a spinning knob can be infuriatingly aggravating in use! Trust me.










There are different types of screws to secure tote and knob on different planes. Some are just screws like this one. There are also rods with threads on both ends and a threaded brass nut that secures the piece. If you have a loose knob or tote, you can try some small washers in the counterbore under the screw head or brass nut. In worst-cases, you may have to grind a thread or so off the end that goes into the base. Be careful if you do this. You can't put material back! You should never modify the hardware of any plane that you think has some collector value either.










There she is. All put back together. Now take a second and have a good look at how all your hard work has paid off.

Remember what we started with?










And see what we have now?










And just wait until we get those sides polished up! ;-))

We'll get that done and get the sole flattened in the next entry in a couple of days. Thanks for checking in!


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## Notw (Aug 7, 2013)

HokieKen said:


> *Putting it All Together*
> 
> Well we've finished most of our grunt work. All that's left to do is finish up the base and get this guy ready to make some shavings!
> 
> ...


very nice process and well documented. thank you


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Putting it All Together*
> 
> Well we've finished most of our grunt work. All that's left to do is finish up the base and get this guy ready to make some shavings!
> 
> ...


A lot of great information.

Thanks again for sharing.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Putting it All Together*
> 
> Well we've finished most of our grunt work. All that's left to do is finish up the base and get this guy ready to make some shavings!
> 
> ...


Thanks for reading and for the comments guys!


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Putting it All Together*
> 
> Well we've finished most of our grunt work. All that's left to do is finish up the base and get this guy ready to make some shavings!
> 
> ...


Kenny…..................You're a gr8 educator sir. This plane is a beauty.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Flattening the Sole and the Sides*

We're in the home stretch now! This part is usually one of the most time consuming depending on the plane.

We need our plane to have a flat sole. How flat? Well, it's really up to you. LumberJock unbob mills his first then hand-scrapes them flat. Mine won't be that flat! I'm just gonna be doing what he calls "roll over the edges sanding that is called lapping in the woodworking world". BTW, I'm not picking on unbob, he's exactly right. But IMHO, "woodworking lapping" woodworking tools is sufficient for woodworking ;-)

What I require from my planes depends on their purpose. In general, I want the toe, the heel and the area around the mouth flat and coplanar.










That's my rule of thumb for bench planes in general. On longer planes like this one, I'm going to want some of the area between the mouth and the heel coplanar as well. I work to the picture above at a bare minimum. On planes that are relatively flat to begin with, or on short planes like smoothers and block planes, I'll work the entire sole. I just don't break my back to do unnecessary work. I'm lazy like that.

We start by painting a coat of our layout dye on the sole of the plane to show us our progress as we lap it flat.










You want to use the flattest surface you can here. For a jack plane or shorter, I use my granite surface plate. However since this plane is so long, I'm going to use the outfeed table of my jointer. A lot of people use their table saw. My jointer table is flatter though so I use it.

I'm going to start with a 180 grit aluminum oxide sanding belt that I cut. I have attached the paper using a spray adhesive. I use 3M 77 Spray Adhesive but I have also used others and they've all worked fine for this purpose. Some people recommend using contact adhesive. The spray adhesive cleans up easily, I wouldn't think the same would be true of contact adhesives.










You can see that my table is still a tad shorter than my plane. Not ideal, but works just fine in my experience. Just make sure that you keep pressure even and over the table at all times.

There are different schools-of-thought on how to prepare before lapping and how to go about the process. The main difference is that some folks like to flatten the sole when the plane is disassembled and others, like yours truly, prefer to assemble the plane first.

The reason I assemble first is so that any stresses that will be present in use are present when I flatten it. Tightening the frog down may cause some deformation in the body. Tightening the lever cap down may do the same.

Some also advocate changing the location where you put pressure on the plane while you flatten the sole or putting pressure directly over the mouth. Again, I want the plane flattened for how it will be used. I apply pressure to the tote and knob, shifting from tote to both to knob depending on the position on the plate (or jointer table in this case). Not saying I'm right or anyone else does it wrong, just saying how I do it and what my reasoning is.

I will flip the plane periodically so knob and tote switch hands. Not really for any reason other than it uses different muscles and helps with fatigue. And with some planes, fatigue can really set in! I have spent days working in 30 minute spurts here and there flattening a plane. If your plane is that bad, just don't kill yourself, spread the work out. If the abrasive you're using isn't getting the job done in a reasonable amount of time, switch to something coarser.

Also, when your paper is spent, it's spent. Keep it clean as you go with compressed air or a brush. Use some WD-40 or oil with wet/dry paper for lubricant. Change your paper if you need to or you'll be doing a lot of work to gain minimal results. Along the same lines, use good quality paper. That holds especially true at when you get to higher grits of wet/dry paper. You're going to want consistent scratch patterns and you're not going to want to change your paper every few minutes.

This plane was actually a pleasure to flatten. Remember all that work we had to do on the frog? Well, we made that time up lapping the sole. It was actually flat enough that I could have skipped this step altogether and had a decent user.

After only a dozen strokes or so, we're already here:










The plane is probably useable here. However, I want to make sure I clean up that little hollow at the near side of the mouth. Another 15-20 strokes doesn't completely remove the dye but does start to scratch it. That's good enough for now.










As close as this is to flat, I'm not going to stop here, I'll take the whole sole to flat. But that's enough work with the 180 paper. I'm going to work up through a few more grades to polish it up and make it smooth. If I continue to work it now, I'll just make more large scratches to clean up later and working through the additional papers should take care of cleaning up the remaining areas that still have dye.

There's also that bit at the very tip of the toe that isn't cleaned up. It probably won't clean up with the additional papers. I'll polish it out to match the rest of the sole but I'm not concerned about getting it in-plane with the rest of the surface. It's not likely to affect function in any way and flattening it would require too much work and too much unnecessary material removal. Don't forget, I'm lazy ;-)

But, before we get to the finer grits, I'm going to work the sides. Why? Because it saves me time changing the paper. I'll work the sides and the bottom up through the same grits for this plane. Rather than changing the paper 3 or 4 times for the bottom then going back and changing it 3 or 4 more times with the same papers, I'm gonna streamline the process and work all 3 sides before moving to the next grit. It makes no difference though so do it whichever way suits you.

*NOTE*: I'm going to be going to FAR more trouble than is necessary on the sides of this plane. Why? Two reasons: First, so I can show the process for those who need to do it. Second, because I'm not sure what future awaits this plane. One possibility is that I'll make a fence to attach to it so I can use it for jointing edges square. If that's the case, then I'm going to want the sides square to reference. Same thing if you're going to use the plane for shooting. Beyond that though, I've just never worried about squaring the sides and want to see just how square I can make them and how much effort it requires. 

If you don't need the sides flattened or squared to the bottom, then don't bother with this part of the refurb. Just polish them by hand with progressive grits to whatever finish you desire. Or, for that matter leave them alone and enjoy the Patina. Heck, if you want to, paint them purple. It's YOUR plane!

So essentially, we're going to "three-square" our plane. We haven't finished polishing the sole, but we do have it flat so we can use it for a reference. I checked the plane with a square. The sides aren't out badly but, they're pretty far out-of-flat. Can anyone guess what I'm gonna do first? Anyone?

…you guessed it! We're gonna paint the first side with a coat of layout dye 










Now, this side is pretty far out of flat, so I'm going to take it to the disk sander and get the bulk of the work out of the way. You can skip this part and go straight to the next step if you wish, it's just a little extra elbow grease.










I'm going to gently ease the toe end into contact with the disk and push the entire plane through until the heel is just past the center of the disk keeping even pressure along the whole stroke. I then pull off and repeat. I only work in one direction - it's too hard (for me at least) to keep good constant pressure and get even removal if I work back and forth.

After a little while, I've removed most of my dye. You can see the side was "bellied" to begin with.










Now I'm going to move back to the jointer for the finer work. I painted another coat of layout dye on the side of the plane to track my progress here.










I keep the sole of the plane held tight to the fence and work the side back and forth on the sandpaper. Before I began, I changed my paper. The sanding belt is 180 grit and my straightedge tells me I have a fair amount of material to remove so I replaced it with some 120 grit. You can go coarser, and I will if I need to, but like I said before: coarser abrasive removes material faster up front but it takes longer to polish the deeper scratches out later. Pick your poison.

After 50 strokes back and forth on 120 grit paper, here is my progress:










Now why isn't it flat down the length? Well, my disk sander is 8" and I have 22" of iron that I ground. And, for ½ of the 8" disk the abrasive is moving up and it's moving down the other 1/2. I can't get a good continuous surface that way. I did manage to get most of the belly out across the width though so that'll save me a little elbow grease.

I still have a fair ways to go. I'm most likely going to end up with a little bit at the bottom of this side that doesn't come flat with the rest and I may stop short of getting it flat all the way from heel-to-toe. That should be fine as long as a fence will still have plenty of surface to register on or there's plenty to register on a shooting board.

So I'll just go back to the jointer table and continue to work this guy back and forth, checking my progress periodically with a square, until I'm satisfied that it's flat across the majority of the width and length and square enough to the sole to produce square edges. I'll reiterate that this is quite a bit of work that's not at all necessary on most planes. *Skip this part if you don't need the sides square for some specific purpose.*

To give you a good idea of how much work it will take, I stopped after each 50 back-and-forth strokes on the 120 grit paper and photographed my progress. It seems like a lot of strokes but in reality, it takes less than 60 seconds to do 50 strokes. In fact, I went back and checked the time stamps on my photos. It took me about 12 minutes to do 250 strokes and that included taking pictures and cleaning the swarf off of my paper after every 50.

After 100 strokes:










After 150 strokes:










After 200 strokes:










After 250 strokes:










This is probably good enough to stop with the 120 grit paper. I've almost got the little patch of dye next to the tote cleaned up, it'll certainly be completely removed as I progress through finer grits. It's pretty flat along the length except for the few inches at the toe and heel (where dye still remains) when checked with a straight edge.

When checked with an engineer's square, I can see it isn't dead square with the sole, but it's good enough. My jointer fence may be a hair out of adjustment but more likely it's variation in how I applied pressure throughout my strokes and uneven wear on the abrasive paper. It's square enough to suit me for now. If, down the road, it needs to be dead square for some reason, I'll tune it then. Fact is, the wall of this plane (and most iron planes) is so thin that it will flex with even moderate pressure applied anyway.

Just for good measure, I'm going to go ahead and give it 50 more strokes before I flip it over and flatten the other side. Here's what I end up with:










I won't go into the same detail on the other side of the plane 'cause I did it the exact same way. Here's a pic of it though after I finished up with the 120 grit paper.










I skipped the disk sander and went straight to the jointer table with the second side. It worked out to about the same amount of work on both sides. I think the disk sander got me flat across the width but caused a hump down the length. It works okay on shorter planes but I think with longer ones like this, I'll just skip the power tools altogether from now on.

Great! The sole and both sides are flat and square. Well… flat and square ENOUGH. But we still have some dye remaining at the heel and toe on the sides. I'm gonna take a flat sanding block with 120 paper and sand just enough to clean up the dye. I'll have to continue to do the same with each grade of abrasive I use or I'll end up with a coarser scratch pattern in these areas than in the flat part.










Now I'm going to use the sanding block at about 45 degrees to break the edges at the corners. Usually the corners are sufficiently rounded off to begin with but with the metal removed from all 3 sides, I've created some sharp spots. Those sharp corners can dig in and increase friction and possible even mark my wood when planing so I'm going to knock them down. I only need to do this once, not with each abrasive I use. I'm only removing a small amount of material so the scratches won't be visible.










I been busier than a one-armed paper hanger this week so I haven't gotten around to finishing this guy up. So I'll wrap up this entry where we're at. We have flat surfaces on the sides and sole. We still need to go back and polish them up to whatever grit we deem fine enough. Then we'll be ready for our final tuning! I'll try to wrap up next week.

Thanks for reading and as always, questions and comments are welcomed!


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## DavePolaschek (Oct 21, 2016)

HokieKen said:


> *Flattening the Sole and the Sides*
> 
> We're in the home stretch now! This part is usually one of the most time consuming depending on the plane.
> 
> ...


Thanks for a great series. Super-informative. I'll be saving it as a reference for when I buy an old plane.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Flattening the Sole and the Sides*
> 
> We're in the home stretch now! This part is usually one of the most time consuming depending on the plane.
> 
> ...





> Thanks for a great series. Super-informative. I ll be saving it as a reference for when I buy an old plane.
> 
> - Dave Polaschek


You're very welcome Dave! Thanks for reading.


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Flattening the Sole and the Sides*
> 
> We're in the home stretch now! This part is usually one of the most time consuming depending on the plane.
> 
> ...


Hanging on for the wrap up.


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Flattening the Sole and the Sides*
> 
> We're in the home stretch now! This part is usually one of the most time consuming depending on the plane.
> 
> ...


That's a lotta counting on them strokes…..............almost like me on the golf course way back when…..hahaha


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

*Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*

At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!

At the end of the last entry, we had flattened the sole and squared the sides up to it. I spent some time working up through some higher grades of abrasive. I'm not going to go into detail on that, just read the last entry and repeat the same process with successive grits of paper. I did my flattening with 120 on the sides and 180 on the sole. I then just repeated the same steps with 220, 320 and 400 grit paper. If I really wanted her purrrdy, I may have worked up a couple of more grits but, the pitting and some scratches on one of the sides would have required quite a bit of extra work to remove. It's all cosmetic after about 220 grit anyway.

So now that we have finished up the work on the base, it's time to do our final fettling and make some shavings!

Now, there isn't much to write here because I kind of dispersed the "fettling", or fine-tuning, throughout the series. Basically, for me, fettling involves the following:


Fitting the frog properly to the base and setting it square to the mouth (see part 6 of this series)
Flatten the back of the iron and hone the bevel (see part 7 of series)
Make a proper, air-tight single point of contact, fit between the chipbreaker and iron and set the chipbreaker an appropriate distance from the cutting edge (see part 8 of series)
Adjust lever cap tension so it holds everything tight but allows adjustment
Set the iron/chipbreaker square to the mouth of the plane and adjust frog position so mouth width is appropriate for plane function
Set the lateral position of iron to get even cut all the way across

Like I said, most of these were done in previous entries so let's put our plane all together and do the rest.

First, I set the frog in position in part 9 before I worked the sole of the plane. I set my iron roughly at the same time but now we need to do it in earnest. I'm going to set the iron/chipbreaker on the frog and set the plane on a flat surface. With the dept adjuster backed up so the iron doesn't protrude, I'm going to put the lever cap on but not lock it down. Just hold it down with finger pressure so the iron stays tight to the frog. I'm going to put the lateral lever in the center and make sure my iron is centered on the frog.










Now I'll advance the depth until the iron just contacts the flat surface under my plane. Then I'll lock the lever cap down. Tighten or loosen the lever cap screw as necessary to adjust tension. You want resistance when you lock the cap down but you want the iron to move when the depth adjuster is turned without too much effort. Hard to explain but you'll quickly get the feel for it.

*NOTE:* You always want to adjust your iron DOWN to the final setting. Why? There is some backlash, or slop, in the fit between the slot in the iron and the depth adjuster fork. If you retract the iron to the cutting position, forces from the wood when you're using the plane can push the iron back until that backlash is taken up. If you adjust down, the fork will act as a positive stop and prevent the wood from pushing the iron back up.

This next part can be done several ways. The simplest is to advance the iron just a bit deeper and take a couple swipes on a flat piece of wood. You can tune the lateral position based on which portions of the iron are peeling wood. Don W gives a good run-down on how to do this on his site. Note that if you have sharpened any camber into your iron, you'll need to do it the way Don describes. The way I do this below only works with an iron that's honed straight across.

Or, if you have a height gauge like the one pictured, you can get darned close before you ever touch iron to wood. I'd recommend this Wixey gauge or one similar as a handy thing to have around your shop. This is just one of the many things I use it for. It's also the best way I've found to set router bit depths. This one reads in .002" increments so it's not super accurate but it's good enough for quick checks and settings that don't need to be ultra-precise.

I'm going to advance my cutter just a bit and measure the depth from the sole on one side.










Then move over and measure the depth on the other side.










So we have one side sticking down ~.006" farther than the other. Now, we'll shift the lateral lever just a bit to the side that's protruding farther. If you're making shavings to tune this, move the lever toward the side that's taking a heavier shaving.










I'll measure and move the lateral lever until I get the same measurement on both sides:



















It's the moment of truth! Let's make a shaving  I retract the blade so it's just above the sole and make a pass on my test board. First swipe doesn't cut. I advance the depth knob a bit and try again. Still no cut. Third time's the charm though…










I get a nice shaving off the Walnut but it's a little heavier on one side than the other. I tweak my lateral adjustment until I get a nice, thin shaving all the way across the iron.










See how I get a continuous shaving through the whole pass? You can see how the chipbreaker curls it over so it maintains a constant thickness. I know I harped on it previously but, if you can't achieve this result and you're certain your iron is sharp, chances are you're chipbreaker isn't set and/or tuned properly.

A couple more "money" shots 



















Now, one thing I didn't cover previously because this plane didn't require any work in this area, is the mouth. You want to make sure the front of your mouth is flat and that the blade ends up parallel to it.










If not, use a file and flatten/square it up like Will Myers does in this tutorial. Many people also advocate filing an undercut on the front of the mouth at about 15 degrees to allow chips to easily clear. I've never found this to be necessary but I don't close my mouth up as much as some people. If you find that you're throat is clogging, give it a try.

Finally, here's a couple of "before" shots of our subject:



















And, some "after" shots:




























Well, I think that about does it. There are all kinds of things that may be required to get a plane functioning properly that I didn't cover in this series. I did everything I thought this plane required but there's no way I could cover every eventuality. I also did things differently than some do and I'm sure there are folks that have better and/or easier ways to accomplish some of the things I did. Just do a few old planes and you'll find your own methods and figure out what's necessary and what's "fluff".

If you've got experience rehabbing old planes, I hope you've at least found this series interesting and competent. I'd love to hear your thoughts and welcome any criticisms of my process. I have no doubt that there are better ways to do this stuff and I am never opposed to improving how I do things!

If you're new to rehabbing (or are just tuning a plane that doesn't need rehabbing but just isn't working as well as it could) I hope this blog series gets you started on the right foot. Please look at all the sites I linked along the way. Don W's site timetestedtools.net is a great resource for all things hand plane related. Lots of good reading over there about the history of tools in addition to the how-tos. Great place to shop too if you're in need of a plane or two!

Please fire any questions or criticisms at me in the comments. I'm done with this plane but I can always add more entries if it will help some folks out. And if I don't have an answer, I'll see what I can do about tracking one down for you!

I'd also love some general feedback in the comments as to whether or not this blog is good, bad or ugly. I'd really like to know whether or not to do similar series in the future and how to do them better if I do. To be honest, I spent about 5 or 10X more time taking pictures and writing these entries than I did actually working on the plane. If the effort was beneficial to y'all, then it was worth it. But if it could have been more beneficial then I'd love to know how. And if I'm just a crappy writer and it was torture for you to read down to this point, let me know and I'll save my energy and spare you the pain of any future drivel! ;-)

I do appreciate you reading and I appreciate all of the questions and comments on previous posts!


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

HokieKen said:


> *Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*
> 
> At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!
> 
> ...


It has been an interesting blog and clearly shows the steps needed. I am unlikely to rehab a plane but still found it informative.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*
> 
> At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!
> 
> ...


Thanks Redoak, I appreciate the support!


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## JimYoung (Jan 20, 2014)

HokieKen said:


> *Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*
> 
> At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!
> 
> ...


Hi Kenny,

Wonderful blog, and I like your writing style. I can appreciate the time and effort it takes to clearly describe how-to do something having written several of these types of articles myself.

Being relatively new to woodworking, I found your information great for understanding and setting up a hand plane (new or used). I'll check out the other links you mentioned along the way.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge,


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*
> 
> At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!
> 
> ...


Thanks for the feedback Jim. Glad it was useful!


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

HokieKen said:


> *Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*
> 
> At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!
> 
> ...


Tis a 110% winner winner. Just beautiful


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

HokieKen said:


> *Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*
> 
> At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!
> 
> ...


Thanks Roger! Glad you enjoyed the series


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## DavidTTU (Dec 3, 2013)

HokieKen said:


> *Final Fettling and Wrap-Up*
> 
> At long last, we have reached journey's end  I apologize for taking so long to get this last entry done but life got in the way the past few weeks so I've been squeezing in working on this plane as I'm able. She's complete and ready to go to work though!
> 
> ...


Killer job Kenny!


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