24/7/2014 This #607 Bedrock arrived today after an arduous journey across the Atlantic Ocean and the Equator. It left Ashby (Massachusetts) in the US of A on 7/2/2014 as carefully packaged by Patrick Leach. I cannot say enough good things about my dealings with Patrick so far. You can find his details on the library page of this site.
I first thought that the plane only needs it’s blade to be sharpened, but eventually succumbed to my obsession to redo it completely. I have to warn you once again that it might not be a good idea if you want to sell the plane in future, but I am not a collector and do not plan to part from this plane. The only tools that I have been forced to part with are those that got stolen over the years. TIA as they say, this is Africa.
Here are some photos of the plane as I took it apart.
The frog screws and frog adjusting screw were a bit difficult to unscrew due to gunk and rust, but after a soaking in Q20 it could be persuaded to vacate it’s cosy abode.
29/7/2014
Today I received the frog and blades back from Kenney at the Prop Shop who bead-blasted all the gunk and japanning to Kingdom come. You will notice the blade and chip breaker of a #10 in the picture, but I am writing a separate post on that process.
2/8/2014
This what the main casting looks like when cleaned by a professional.
Masking tape before makeup.
The rust converter coat.
The anti-rust undercoat.
The frog with it’s enamel paint finish.
Main casting after painting.
Japanning finished … now for the bits of metal work … flattening surfaces, sharpening blade and prep chip breaker.
10/8/2014
On Friday I managed to sharpen the blades of both the #607 and #10 that I am currently working on. Then on Saturday morning it was time to reassemble the #607. Interestingly I had to shorten the frog adjusting screw in order to set a fine mouth opening. I am not sure whether this is a common issue, as it was not the case with the #606 I restored previously. The blade had a bevel angle of roughly 30º, which I hollow ground back to 25º with a very slight camber. I used a honing angle (1000 grid Ohishi waterstone) of 33º and a polishing angle (10 000 grid Ohishi waterstone) of 35º as I work mostly with exceptionally hard wood.
As you can see it was well worth the effort and works like a dream straight off.
