In a previous post "Snipe Bill Moulding Plane" I made the Right One first. Typically, they come in pairs, a Left and a Right. And yes ... you really need both. I had made two blanks to be able to do this.
After mortising the bed and wedge angles, cheek, etc., I cut out and shaped the wedge per Fig 1.
Next, I cut out the blade blank per Fig 2.
Then, I placed it into the plane and scribed the sole shape onto the blade per Fig 3 and shaped the cutting edge, etc.
Afterwards, I removed the hardness from the steel blade per Fig 4. Usually my practice has been to let it air cool achieving hardness removal. Some practice cooling it down slowly by sticking it into sand, vermiculite, or even cat litter. I tried sand. I'll stay with air cooling.
Per Fig 5, after shaping the cutting edge, I rehardened the blade. When the Curie point is reached, then it's quenched in oil. Some do a quick 2 sec dip into water before moving to oil and dipping. I'll stick to doing only in oil. Water can produce fine cracking.
Now, it's time to temper the blade. Many bake in an oven but I don't care for this method. You have no control in knowing if it's actually tempered. I have a method that allows me control and time to quench in oil. First, I clean up a bit with steel wool so I can see the process as shown per Fig 6. I heat with my torch again. When I see the steel turn a straw (light yellow) color, it indicates a relatively hard steel that is tempered. However, this can happen very fast, so I sandwich my blade on top of another piece of steel so when I see the color changing, I have time to react. Temperature at this point is around 205-226°C (401-439°F). Then I quickly quench in oil again .
Now is the time for the finishing touch of honing the blade per Fig 7. I do this on my 225, 600, 1200, 8000 grit diamond plates and finish off with my 16000 grit Shapton Ceramic stone.
I hone the cutting edge using this technique per Fig 8.
Next, I shape the planes' body per Fig 9 and do some chamfering details, etc. per Fig 10.
In Fig 11, a "Strike Button" is added using Cocobolo wood.
Last but not least, I applied the finish. I applied two coats of 1 lb shellac, allowing each to dry a couple of hrs in between coats.
Next, I applied two coats of 2 lb Shellac, allowing each coat to dry overnight. Then, over several days, I French polished all surfaces with Shellac. I let it rest one final night. I wiped and polished with Wood Butter. Here's the results per Fig 12.
To see the start of my Snipe Bill Plane making please visit this...
Thanks George! I can't believe in all this writeup that I didn't mention the material. I did in the first one. The upper half is Spalted Maple. The lower half which is the "Boxing" is Dogwood. The wedge is Dogwood too.
Just like the first of these matching planes, this second one is super sweet. You have mastered the art of 18th century plane making. Fantastic work Rick.
Gotcha, a nice mix, is the dogwood what they would have used back when? The Spalted Maple is just for showin off it's good looks, which I like.
I always thought Matt Bickford used Beech for his, but I could be dreaming. I remember the days when a full set of his work was around $1,000.00, I imagine every guy looking at his stuff wishes they still were. I looked into going that way back then, then said Nahhh, I have a router table I love. All that pushing sounds a lot like work. :-)
Hey George.... back in the day they used Boxwood for their boxing for the most part. Many today use persimmon for the boxing. I don't have access to either but I do have dogwood and it's hard as nails. Persimmon boasts a Janka hardness rating of 2300 lbf, while dogwood has a Janka hardness rating of 2150 lbf. Boxwood is 2840 lbf. Both Matt Bickford and Caleb James use quartersawn American beech for their planes. Again I don't have access to beech. But I do have access to Spalted Maple and it's stronger and prettier IMO. Yes these guys usually ask around $600 or more per pair for moulding planes. Heck... I wouldn't charge that much. I'm much faster grabbing a moulding plane than using a power router. By the time I set a router up, I'm done or close to it with a hand moulding plane. Like everything else, if you know how to use them and the blade is SHARP! then they are a joy
I get Persimmon close to where I know it is also used as Wooden gold heads, for drivers mostly, but it has been used for complete sets. Louisville Golf
Anyhow my buddy has farms not more than 60 miles from them, he's more East toward the mountains of Eastern Ky, but as far south as Louisville. Where he is, is also where Persimmon grows like a weed in any woodlot, it is actually considered invasive to some, who like my buddy grows trees for a living. He is managing around 1,000 acres of trees, and often brings his persimmon to the local pallet builder, a huge minor industry down there. If it is a good bicolor he'll often cull some out, and swaps wood for services with the local timber mill guy, his guy can kiln dry it, and when done my buddy will list it for sale. I an another friend of his, my cousin, often get some freebs, and both of us will use a lot of that to make him a wooden gift from. All I can say is even kiln dried, cutting into it is always a hit or miss thing. More dried energy in a stick of it than a nuclear reactor could make. Having it go banana, split wildly, cup, curl, curve, or change into a snake, is nothing for it.
Sometimes it does behave enough to do something with though. Below are a few snaps I took of a box I made for his Wife some years ago, Since I have made a few Knick knack shelves, and other stuff they said they needed, including a gun rack Mike wanted to display his muzzle loaders, sadly I am, and have been terrible about taking pics so most are memories from my end, but taking up space on theirs. I took some of these box, made 18 in total, simply because the wood I got then was so bicolor, perfect Persimmon, and it stayed flat, and was easy as Cherry to work, just a lot harder.
As this one sits, the top right corner moved after clamping, so it dried weird. I rounded off the outer edge of all the finger joints, and at finish, you couldn't see the movement. I believe I posted this at Woodnet.net/forum, just to illustrate what another person there had asked for help on. IIRC he opted to break out the finger joints, after soaking them for a day, and then applying heat for 10 minutes. Someone there had suggested this. I countered saying unless it was hide glue, I saw issues trying that. Blew out the entire corner, he did. He ended up sawing out all the corners, and remade the box much smaller in size. His error was smaller than mine, and after routing off the square ends, I ended up doing it to most all of those boxes, because as they got them, folks all commented on how cool the corners looked. Can't fight good reviews. :-) I did put it in an oven at 300 for 30 minutes, after I pulled it out I used some small cauls I made, and reclamped it. I had heard from a Franklin Industries guy that PVA would move easily if heated solidly above 160 to 180, so I flew past that, and went 300. Move it did, actually didn't need rounding off, but I had already thought of it, so I went with it. That stock had been a solid 1 1/8" so a fat 4/4, I resawed it in half exactly so just under 1/2" after flattening it out, and smoothing it up. It worked nicely, I would have been wary to go my normal 3/8" for small box sides for fear of too much movement.
