Spring Harvest Fine Woodworking
 

Tool Talk

Router Planes

Pictured above are two versions of some of my favorite hand tools.  Router planes!  The one on the left is a very old Stanley model 71.  It was made between 1884 and 1890.  Edison invented the light bulb in 1879 so, when working in the evenings, most people had to use this tool under oil lamp or candle light.  The radio was just being invented (so you had to sing to yourself or at least whistle a tune) and television (what my father called the mush machine because of its effect on the human brain) would not be invented for another fifty years so a metal plate with two knobs and an adjustable cutter could still pass for entertainment ( I still find them entertaining).  Henry Ford was 16 years old and just started a job as a machinist assistant in Detroit so your whistling might have pleased your horse.   The plane on the right is a Stanley model 71 1/2 made most likely shortly after 1939 as indicated by the fence mounting holes in the base plate and the black japan color.  That year you stopped working long enough to hear on your radio about a madman and his army invading Poland.

Both planes use a similar thumbscrew lock collar to lock the blade at a chosen depth.  However, notice the differences in the blade adjustment mechanisms of each tool.  The Stanley 71 has the user manually set the depth of the blade while the 71 1/2 (and future versions of the 71) uses a notched blade and a thumbwheel screw to fine tune the blades depth of cut (first implemented by Stanley in 1902).

These tools are great for leveling the bottom of dadoes, grooves and sliding dovetails.  They are also the best tool for trimming tenon cheeks for a perfect fit (much better than using a rasp or sandpaper).  Stanley still shows a router plane (see photo below) on their website but I have heard that it is no longer manufactured (check with Stanley).  Take heart as the current resurgence in plane production by companies like Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley will likely have some version of this tool available soon.  Also, these tools were so popular 100 years ago that finding a used one for under $50 should be pretty easy (check ebay).

I told you that the hand tool renaissance was in full swing!  The picture below shows the newly designed and soon to be mass produced Veritas router plane.

Stanley 45 Combination Plane

This Stanley 45 combination plane was manufactured by Stanley between 1884 and 1962.  These planes are great for plowing, cutting rabbets and cutting simple bead moldings.  They are kind of heavy and I confess to reach for my wooden plow or my Record 050 combination plane when plowing because they are lighter.  When using this plane you must make very sure that the blades are sharp and the fence and skates are all in alignment with one another and lubricated with a light oil or wax or the plane will not work smoothly.  Do not drop this plane because like most Stanley planes of this time, they are cast iron and will crack (I have done this and was upset to say the least).  When cutting moldings with a plane, choose the straightest grained stock you can find for the best results.  Below is an example of the sharp beautifully profiled beads that can be cut with this plane.

This plane was made after 1900.  That year the floral motif castings for this plane were replaced with stippled pattern castings.  Also, around 1900, the locking screws on the plane changed from slotted screws to thumb screws.  This plane was made after 1915 because in that year a micro adjustment mechanism for its fence was first introduced.

I like to think this plane was used during the Woodrow Wilson administration 1913-1921 (call me a romantic).  Maybe some doughboy laid down this plane and picked up a rifle to cross the Atlantic in 1917 and fight in WWI.  You could no longer employ very young apprentices to prepare your own lumber in 1916 because child labor laws were passed in the U.S.  Today you need an act of congress to get the little nose miners to do any work at all.  Alexander Graham Bell made the first transcontinental telephone call from New York to San Francisco in 1915 introducing technology leading up to today where I can't help but feel a little like Captain Kirk when I answer my cell phone (I know, I know, I am showing both my age and my tendencies toward nerdhood).  The Bolsheviks revolted in Russia in 1917 presumable because they were tired of the tsar's policies preventing them from having really cool things like people of the west had like the Stanley 45 or food.

Shoulder Planes

Here is a photo of a Stanley 93 shoulder plane.  It is the absolute best tool for trimming the shoulders of tenons or rabbets (I love this tool).  Although it can be used to trim the cheeks of tenons, I prefer to use a router plane to trim cheeks followed by a shoulder plane to trim the shoulders.  Stanley also makes number 92 and 90 shoulder planes.  I prefer the 93 over the 92 because it is the best size for the furniture I make and fits my hands well.  The Stanley 90 is a bullnose plane.  That is to say that the nose piece for the 90 is much shorter than the 92 or 93 planes.  This is for trimming into corners.

The nose piece of the 93 and 92 is removable converting these planes to do bullnose work and for this reason, I do not own a 90.  The 92 and 93 went into production in 1902 and continue to be produced. 

Theodore Roosevelt was president in 1902 (Mckinley was assassinated in September 1901).  Some of my favorite presidential quotes were spoken by Theodore Roosevelt.  For instance in a speech in New York on September 7, 1903 he said, "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."  He also once said, "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."  I think he was the kind of man who loved working with hand tools and getting his heart pumping.

Workbench

Here is a subject guaranteed to raise controversy among woodworkers.  That's because a workbench is tightly tied into the kind of woodwork a person does, as well as the particular comfort requirements of the individual.  To put in plainly, asking what makes a good workbench is like asking what makes a good pair of pants.  You have to find out what fits you.  Still, there are some generalities that can be drawn regarding good workbenches.

The basic design for woodworking benches has not changed much in the last 2000 years (and maybe longer) for good reason.  The design of a woodworking work bench is very much a consequence of the invention of the hand plane.  The earliest example of the hand plane is a Roman version discovered in the ruins of Pompeii dating from A.D. 79.  The hand plane and workbench are married to each other.  If you are going to use a hand plane, you will want to secure the work from moving and hold it at the right height so that you can get optimal use of your body weight on the hand plane.  It is interesting to note that the rule of thumb for the proper height of a workbench used to be the height of a person's open palm as they stood straight up with their hands to their side.  When woodworkers used to do a lot of face planing and thickness planing, this was a good height for this type of heavy planing.  Because I use machines for most of the heavy planing and I use my bench mostly for cutting joinery and light planing, I like a slightly higher working surface.

According to W.L. Goodman's book, The history of woodworking tools (1964), there are examples of the drawknife in the early iron age (about 1500 B.C.).  A drawknife is not much good without a shaving horse and so you could say that the shaving horse is a forerunner of the workbench (complete with a foot operated vise) and the drawknife is the forerunner of the hand plane.  Below is an illustration of a shaving horse in use taken from the German text De Re Metallica published in 1556 A.D..  A photo of the shaving horse used at my school is also shown below (purchased from Country Workshops in Western North Carolina).  Also, according to Goodman, examples of handsaws are dated to the bronze age (about 3500 B.C.) so it is possible that some form of workbench was available to hold the work in the air so that the saw could work at its best advantage.  Suffice it to say that when you use your workbench, you are part of a long line of woodworkers using some form of bench to make big pieces of wood into little pieces of wood.

Often, people want the look of a bench to be a sign of how good a woodworker that they are.  It is a personal thing but I myself would rather that the furniture I make speak about my woodworking skills.  I suggest that beginning woodworkers don't get too hung up on the beauty of their bench but instead concentrate on the functionality.  When you have become proficient with your tools, you can ,if you like, build the bench of your dreams (and then proceed to scratch, dent and drop glue and paint all over it). 

The bench should be made to a comfortable working height (I like mine at about one or two inches below bellybutton height).  This depends greatly on your proportions so I would suggest blocking up someone else's bench to a height that is comfortable for you (or building a mock up) until you find the height that you are comfortable with.  The object is to prevent stooping all day.  You want the bench to allow you to saw, plane and chisel while standing as close to straight up as you can so that you don't overwork your back muscles.  You just bend your knees slightly to move from one operation to the next.

For hand tool work, you want the bench to be well anchored.  When possible, anchoring to the floor with bolts is the best option because it absolutely minimizes bench movement.  If this is not possible, you can anchor the bench to a sheet of plywood that is large enough for you to stand on.  The bench will move more than if it were anchored to the floor but it is a good compromise.  Either way you won't have to worry about chasing your bench or tipping it over while working.  If you are going to weigh down your bench for increased stability, I suggest incorporating a tool cabinet because you probably need the storage anyway and using your tools to weigh down your bench is just efficient use of space.

The area of your bench top should be designed around the size of your average projects.  I suggest that your bench be as small as your work will allow.   For the home shop worker space is a premium.  Most woodworkers forget that they need space for the furniture to sit on the floor when they sand and finish it.  The bench top can be made from three sheets of laminated plywood so that it has a final thickness of 2 1/4 inches or so.

The joinery of the base should be very strong and resist racking.  Material for the base can be soft wood as long as it is thick enough and used properly to withstand the forces involved.  There are many choices in joinery for the base.  Consider whether or not you will ever need to move your bench.  You may need to design the joinery in order to dismantle the bench for transport.  Notice the simple approach used in my benches to solve these design issues.

I suggest a good quality, medium duty, cast iron, quick release front vise with wooden jaws.  If you need a tail vise, consider a second front vise on that end of the bench.  Don't skimp of the vice(s) or you will regret it!  This is one piece of equipment used constantly in hand tool work.  I also suggest a system of round dog holes and bench dogs.

Chisels

According to W.L. Goodman, the author of The history of woodworking tools (1964), examples of chisels used to cut wood have been found dating back to the stone age (about 8000 B.C.).  Of course these tools would have been made first of stone, then copper, then bronze, then iron and finally steel.

Used by themselves or with the aid of a guide block an experienced woodworker can do amazing things with a chisel.  Firmer, bevel edged, paring and mortise chisels in addition to gouges are the kinds of chisels that I use most often.  A woodworking chisel is essentially a sharpened piece of hardened tool steel with a handle.  There are three things to know in order to use chisels effectively. 

First, the steel that the tool is made of should be hard and tough.  This will allow the chisel to accept a sharp edge without the edge being crushed under use and the edge will stay sharp for a reasonable period between sharpening.  Second, the back of the chisel should be lapped as flat as possible and then polished to a mirror finish at least one and one half inches from the cutting edge.  The bevel of the chisel should be ground each time the chisel is sharpened to maintain the bevel angle (I use a coarse diamond stone for this).  Then finer abrasives should be used until the cutting edge is mirror polished.  Thirdly, you must learn to lock the chisel to your body and use your weight to control the chisel and not your smaller hand and arm muscles.

There are cheap, inexpensive and expensive chisels.  I classify the Marples Blue Chip chisels as inexpensive.  Irwin has purchased the line and now they are sold under the Irwin name.  I hope that the quality of the chisel has not changed.  I like the shape of the handles and the steel holds an edge pretty well.  I have sharpened a great number of them and have found 1 out of 20 or so where the cutting edge is crushed under pressure.  I paid $20 for a set of four (a bargain).  The set has 1, 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 inch chisels.

A beginner should view chisels as a novice golfer views golf clubs.  Buy a good set first and practice your skills until you are better than your tools.  Then you can try out the high dollar tools and see if the increase in price buys you an appreciable increase in quality.

Sharpening

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Last modified: 08/08/05