Category Archives: Handtools

Resurrection of two cast iron fore planes

28/01/2014 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

22/1/2014

I bought the two cast iron fore planes in the pictures below, during our December holiday in South Africa. They have these antique auctions once per month in a little hall less than 100 meters from our holiday house. Most of the stuff they auction off is furniture, but I found these two amongst it.

The plane to the right is a Stanley Bedrock no. 606 circa 1910 from the looks of it. The plane to the left is a Record no. 6, probably significantly younger in age and quite a bit heavier. Both were in a pretty sorry state, but there were no metal parts missing and no pitting or cracks in the cast iron. In other words they could be resurrected. Seeing that I only paid R 400 for the pair (about US$ 36 and £ 22 on 28/1/2014) it would save me a lot of money compared to buying a similar quality plane brand new. Yes, it took me two weekends to finish the resurrection, but I really enjoyed doing it and love working with classic tools that has a story behind it.

When we arrived back home from holiday I took them apart and sprayed all the parts liberally with Q20 as I had to leave town straight away to go and work in Rundu. When I got back 10 days later the rehabilitation started in full earnest.

In these pictures you can take a closer look at the Record fore plane. It’s tote and knob were still in a good condition. It had lost 95% of what is referred to as japanning. It seemed as if it was originally dark blue as most Record tools.

The Bedrock on the other hand had most of the japanning in tact, but in a very poor condition. Both tote and knob needed replacement and the cap iron lost all of it’s chrome plating.

27/2/2014 – Seeing that I already did a post on the finer points of rehabilitating two Stanley Bailey planes, I will not go into exhaustive detail, but rather show what was different about this rehabilitation process.

As these planes both had significant japanning issues and I like nice looking tools I decided to re-do it from scratch. It was quite a mission to remove the original japanning by means of paint stripper and wire brushes mounted on my drill. Then it received a coat of rust converter followed by an anti-rust primer, which is the stage you can see in the pictures below.

While all that was going on I started the arduous process of regrinding the blades, which were both in a poor condition sporting several chips. I have decided to use the Record plane as a dedicated shooting plane (given it’s nice weight) and therefore ground the blade flat and square. The Bedrock’s blade (pictured) received a substantial camber to be used as a roughing plane. My hand was forced slightly here as the Bedrock’s sides were not anywhere near square to the sole. This meant that my original idea to use it for shooting would mean three years of work on sandpaper and glass, which did not seem particularly enticing. In the pictures below you can also see how I flattened the edges of the chip breakers. Part of the metal work was the flattening of the soles and areas where the frog interact with the plane body and blade.

Both planes were then re-japanned with three layers of high gloss black truck enamel paint. The green stuff you see is masking tape used to ensure that only the areas that needs paint end up with it. Both frogs received the same treatment as you can see.

Then I moved on to replace the tote and the knob of the Bedrock plane. If you look carefully at the piece of Assegaai I used, you will see how I was able to get the grain to strengthen both weak areas, which is impossible with a piece of straight grained wood.

The knob was turned from the same piece of Assegaai.

Both knob and tote then received a treatment with a mixture of Tung oil, red Ballistol Schaftöl and mineral turpentine followed by three layers of Woodoc. The planes were then reassembled making sure that every bolt and screw were oiled with light machine oil and every metal surface were wiped with Ballistol. I am still trying to find paste wax in this part of the world to treat the soles with.

Both planes performed admirably during their first post-resurrection planing session. It really is a pleasure to use a tool that is more than a hundred years old, but feels like new and looks even better. I am still trying to find someone to chrome-plate the lever cap of the Bedrock plane but it works like a dream already.

5/2/2014 – Today I received the lever cap of the Stanley Bedrock #606 back from Kenney. He bead blasted it and plated it with something I still need to learn the name of, but it looks brilliant. It is some type of plating they use on aircraft parts that does not rust. They are engineers working on aviation equipment predominantly.

In the photo below my beautiful daughter is posing with the plane sporting it’s new (meaning reconditioned in this particular case) lever cap.

… and a few more photos showing off what a 104 year old plane can look like with some TLC.

Day to day, Handtools, Rehabilitation of old tools

Egg beater drill rehab

04/12/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

2/12/2013 – We had our staff’s end of year function on 28/11/2013 at the best Coffee Shop/Pizzeria in Namibia. It is a wonderfully ambient establishment by the name of La Brocante. What makes it even better is the fact that they also have a treasure cove of old furniture, tools and just about everything else that you could wish for in a historic hotel dining room next to the pizzeria. I found a few old tools in need of basic rehab, one of which was this old egg beater drill. It was still in perfect working order, but needed new handles and knobs.

In the picture below you can see how I turned the three parts needed out of a single piece of leftover beech.

Here it is sporting it’s new limbs.

The final product after a light coat of tung oil.

Day to day, Handtools, Quick projects, Shop made tools

Shop made winkelhaak

03/12/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

2/12/2013 – So what is a Winkelhaak? It is Afrikaans for trisquare.

I have been unable to buy a small trisquare in the local market, despite trying for more than 18 months. So 10 days ago I decided to make a few from wood and a couple using a combination of wood and brass. They are so straight forward to make that I will not insult your intelligence by showing the steps involved. In the picture below you can see the collection of scrap pieces of wood I chose from to make them.

Here you have the all-wood set. The two smaller ones have Kershout blades and Assegaai handles. The alpha-square has a Olienhout handle and Assegaai blade.

The brass-wood squares are still in production. I will add pictures in due course.

9/12/2013 – And here it is, the first of two, the other one will have to wait until next year. It has a Stinkhout handle and a 6 mm thick brass blade.

Handtools, Quick projects, Shop made tools

Chipbreaker/capscrew/deadman screwdriver

02/12/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

11/11/2013 – I made this screwdriver to keep with my handplanes.

I used a small piece of plane blade originating from a blade that used to be on one of my father’s old Stanley’s. The handle was turned from a piece of beech left over from all the wooden planes I built in 2013.

The shape of the handle and the short blade combines to created a very comfortable screw driver for adjusting capscrews, chipbreakers and my sliding deadman.

Day to day, Handtools

I had a dream that …

21/11/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

21/11/2013 –

… I own a plough plane. Over the past few weeks I realised that during the early stages of setting up my workshop two years ago, I unpacked what I would now recognise to be a brand new plough plane. At that stage I did not quite know what it was and decided that I would keep it until I know how it works or decide to use the array of blades for building another tool. I distinctly remember thinking this.

I think the thought of the plane once came back to me while doing all the research on planes while building my wooden planes, which is well documented elsewhere on this site. The I forgot about it again, only to have the vision of unpacking it a couple of weeks ago. This time round (with my new found knowledge of planes) immediately knew that it was a plough plane and realised how useful it could be in my shop. Then I started searching for the plane, but could not find it anywhere in the shop. I distinctly remember standing next to the green bench when I unpacked it. Then I went through all the boxes in the garage that is housing my wood at present, but could not find it there either.

Last night I found the documents where my Dad listed all the contents of all the boxes that travelled from George in South Africa when we moved into the house in Windhoek. Part of this move was lots of my Dad’s tools that he passed on to me. The plane being something I have never see as far as my memory goes and clearly from looking at it he never even took it out of it’s original box.

To my surprise I found the Plough Plane listed in a box that has not even been opened yet?????

I thought that this might be a mistake, but opened the box anyway and found one brand new original Stanley plough plane also unopened in it’s original box. How does this work?? I have no idea, but it is quite weird.

Anyway I took some pictures to show you what it looks like. It has one very nasty plastic tote which I need to replace with a nice wooden one, but otherwise in absolute perfect condition.

Handtools, Shop made tools

The burnisher that got lucky

13/11/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

11/11/2013 – This weekend I finally managed to provide the below burnisher that came with a skinning knife I used in The Land of the Long White Cloud with a handle.

I simply drilled a hole in the handle and stuck the burnisher in there with a liberal supply of epoxy.

Next I did the same with a short piece of copper pipe to create an easy way of hanging the burnisher.

Once the epoxy was set I tidied up the protruding pipe, chamfered the sharp inside edges, …

… treated the handle with tung oil and Wooddock … and Bob’s your Uncle.

I use this burnisher predominantly to created a bur on the cutting edge of my Lie-Nielsen card scrapers.

Handtools, Quick projects, Shop made tools

Another scratch awl

12/11/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

11/11/2013 – Last week I took some of the beech left over from my plane building phase, laminated two bits and used it to turn some handles.

The idea was to turn a handle of similar design for a second scratch awl and one for a chipbreaker/capscrew screwdriver.

This is the handle that became the alternative scratch awl. I wanted an awl that is designed to make holes for accurate drilling as apposed to scratching/scribing lines at which my first shop made awl excels.

The punch I used was epoxied, tapped in and then clamped in position by the tight fitting ferrule.

I stuck the awl in the drill press to tidy up the copper with sandpaper.

After a treatment with tung oil and Wooddock it is posing with it’s brothers and sisters. These are all shop made marking tools.

Handtools, Quick projects, Rehabilitation of old tools, Shop made tools

File handle mania

01/11/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

28/10/2013 – As you might have noticed, my files recently found new accommodation. Now I want to replace their handles with shop made ones. For this task I found the Witpeer board as pictured below.

The board was a bit wavy so the first step was to chop it up into shorter bits. These were then ripped on my bandsaw into strips ideal for turning handles. I used the whole board for this purpose which would give me quite a few more handles than what I need at present, but I thought that I would just make heaps so all the handles look the same when I buy more files in future.

Before turning any handles I switched lathes as the grey one developed a wobble and is therefore now ear-taged to become a disc sander.

This is the first set of handles I turned and realised in the process that the stock is too thin to to turn such a long piece. I will turn them individually from now on.

In the pictures below you can see the process of tapping the ferrule over the end of the handle. The leading edge of the copper ferrule is chamfered in order to slide without digging into the wood which was turned to be ever so slightly bigger than the inside diameter of the ferrule. I first lubricate the wood and inside of the ferrule with epoxy, then tap the ferrule over by hitting the back of the handle with my dead-blow mallet, while the ferrule is pushed firmly against the bench hook. I wrote an entire post on how I made this and a number of other mallets. The post is titled “Mallet Mania”.

The design of the handle is my interpretation of the Lie-Nielsen handles made specifically for the Auriou rasps they sell. This design feels comfortable in the hand and gives me several different grip options while doing different filing tasks.

I hope to be able to turn the bulk of the handles this weekend and will update the post with the result of my efforts next week.

3/11/2013 – On Saturday I turned 5 more of the large handles and furnished them with ferrules.

On Sunday I decided to see how many of each size handle I actually need.

Then I took the stock that was cut for the handles and marked out the different handles to correspond to the the numbers needed of each size. For this task I used the ruler on my assembly table with the ruler stop pictured. It is as simple as butting the stock against the ruler and marking the different lengths with a pencil and square. I will write a short post on how this stop was made in the next day or so. You will find a whole series of posts on how I built the assembly table under the category “bench”.

Here are the fruits of my labor ready for the next step.

As I explained already, it became apparent that one can only turn one or at most two handles from a length of stock before it becomes wobbly. I assume this is because it is too thin. I therefore had to shorten the stock that was prepared last weekend. I took this opportunity to get plenty of hand sawing practice. As you can see, my Lie-Nielsen carcass saw and shop made mitre box came in handy.

Then came the prep work for the lathe. I used my shop made Dead-blow mallet (http://www.jenesaisquoiwoodworking.com/mallet-mania/) and scratch awl (http://www.jenesaisquoiwoodworking.com/apodytes-dimidiata-scratch-awl/) together with a Lee Valley centre finder for this purpose.

In the pictures below you can see how my medium sized handle turned out. This would become the handle for the bulk of my files. In the second picture you can compare it with the large handle and in the last one with the small handle.

Then came the small handle.

After a hour or so of turning, I needed to do something else. So I seated four large files. In order to know which file to grab devised a code which goes on the heel of the handle. In the first picture you will see the halve round shape with XL inside. This means it is a halve round extra large file. The SC-S refers to it’s double cut smooth grit. The second photo shows a square shaped extra large double cut bastard grit file. Hope you get the idea.

Four extra large files, seated with the information on the heel of the handle.

Here they are after a coat of tung oil.

11/11/2013 – During the past week I continued to turn, seat ferrules, oil and seat these handles.

Here you can see how the Witpeer handles are slowly replacing the horrible plastic ones.

2/2/2014 – This weekend I made a concerted effort to finish the file handle project. In the pictures you can see the last crop being processed.

Handtools, Quick projects, Shop made tools

Apodytes Dimidiata Scratch Awl

28/10/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

28/10/2013 – During this past weekend I decided to take a wee break from my extended plane-building-activities. I wanted to do something else on a weekend where there would be plenty of interruptions, with a 5 year old’s birthday party, the October Fest and several other social commitments. The Witpeer (Apodytes dimidiata) board below has spent about 3 months acclimatizing to the shop so I thought it could do the job for all the file handles I want to turn. While preparing the stock for these handles, I decided to also turn a scratch awl.

The board was a bit wavy so I first chopped it into shorter chunks as shown. Then I used the bandsaw to rip these pieces ideal for file handle turning and a scratch awl.

The thin strips pictured, were cut from the off-cuts on the bandsaw intended to be used as spatulas while glueing (other projects).

This was all that was left of the board, and soon to become “fynhoutjies” to start a fire.

Before turning the handles and awl, I changed my lathes around. The grey one has developed a slight wobble so it is now earmarked to become a disc sander.

I used this beautiful shop made Jack plane to find a piece of stock with very straight grain by planing the various surfaces to see what is going on.

The Awl being turned.

For the ferrule I used part of a 7 mm Remington Magnum brass case. You can see how I proceeded to shape it.

In the end I came up with a ferrule that suited my purposes perfectly.

In the picture below you can see the steel punch I used for the sharp end of the awl. I drilled a hole in the wooden shaft and cut a slot in the front part intended to end up inside the ferrule. This part was turned slightly bigger than the inside diameter of the ferrule to ensure that the two sides would clamp down on the shaft of the punch when the ferrule is tapped over.

As you can see the wood was first lubricated with epoxy and then the ferrule was taped over. The block of wood underneath has a hole drilled into it to let the punch through in order to only move the ferrule into position.

Here you can see the final product after a tung oil treatment.

Galleries, Handtools

Shop made wooden plane show-off

15/10/2013 Gerhard Marx Leave a comment

14/10/2013 – I wanted to show off the wooden planes I’ve built so far. While drinking a glass of Sauvignon Blanc I took heaps of photos on the Rhodesian Teak tree truck that acts as our bar top. Please note that all these planes apart from the Flush Plane are powered by exquisite Lie-Nielsen blades.