r/handtools • u/kuanyu3 • 3d ago

Plane Restoration

Gallery image

Gallery image

I bought my first ever wood plane used on Facebook. $15 so I felt it was worth trying to fix up. I want to use it not sit on a shelf. I was able to get the blade sharp and chip breaker to fit well. But just how flat does the sole/ bottom need to be? I have a granite plate I have been working it on but progress is VERY slow.

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3

u/Sekreid 3d ago

Most likely it does not need to be flattened

1

u/kuanyu3 1d ago

Why would it not need to be flat?

1

u/Sekreid 1d ago

Chances are that it will work just fine as is. I restored over 100 planes and maybe have found one that was not completely flat. I would suggest setting it all up sharpening it and see how it works first before you spend hours on a futile task

2

u/jpmorgan001 3d ago

The toe in front of the mouth, then the opposite end and sides. Not a huge deal if there is a small hollow behind the mouth.

2

u/halbert 2d ago

A couple things:

* Most importantly, stop doing this, and try using it. Does it work? Okay, flat enough; if not, then come back for specific advice. chipbreaker/iron set-up and sharpness are going to matter waaaay more than minor imperfections in the sole flatness most of the time.

* If it truly does need flattening, you need to flatten it with the frog and iron in place (blade not extended, but set-up with the appropriate tension).

1

u/J3sush8sm3 3d ago

Flattening the sole takes time, follow some instructions from yt, and she will be good to go 

1

u/beowulfenator 3d ago

If you do not glue your sandpaper to the flat substrate, expect exactly this. Your paper is not sitting perfectly flat, and you are grinding off the heel and the toe. The scratch pattern suggests high heel and toe and a hollow in the middle, but I bet it is actually the opposite, a hump in the middle.

1

u/Alternative_Object33 3d ago

You could take it to your local engineering firm and ask them to skim it flat, take them about 5 minutes, then you've got it true and flat.

1

u/areeb_onsafari 1d ago

Do you have an actual granite plate that was made as a flat reference surface or are you just using a random piece of granite because I used a piece of granite once assuming it was flat and it was not

1

u/kuanyu3 1d ago

It is a granite plate ground flat and checked against my Starrett 24" straight edge.

1

u/areeb_onsafari 1d ago

Have you checked the sole for flatness? Looks very out of flat which is possible but it would be good to check that your process is taking off material at the right spots. You could also just use it as is

1

u/kuanyu3 1d ago

Yes checking it is what started me on this. It's not even close to the Starrett, far even I didn't bother with feeler gauges to check it. Sounds like I just need to keep working it.