Replies

1. 
   joinerswork | Mar 31, 2009 12:35am | #1

   leom,

   Don't know of an article to refer you to.  But the actual patching isn't difficult.

   Select a piece of wood for your patch that matches the plane body closely as you can; species, and grain (growth rings on the end, and inclination of the grain as seen from the side). 

   Cut the patch to the size and shape you want.  I make the front of the patch a "V" shape that extends with parallel sides back to the throat, where I end it with the back end squared-off parallel to the mouth. The back end of the patch should be a little further back than you need, making the mouth tighter than you want to end up. Thickness is variable, but I aim for about 1/4" -3/8". 

   Place the patch over the area where it is going, and holding it in place, carefully trace around its perimeter with a knife or exacto blade.

   Remove the patch, and carefully remove wood inside the perimeter to a depth slightly less than the thickness of the patch.  You might want to use a router, or just mallet and chisels, ending with a router plane to get a uniform depth.  Pare the sides of the recess clean, ending right on the lines you scribed initially.

   If you've done your work well, the patch should be a snug slip fit; when you are at that point, glue and clamp the patch in place.

   After the glue is dry, plane the patch flush with the sole of the plane.  Now is the time to true up the sole if it is worn out of true.

   Open up the mouth with chisels and files, trial fitting the iron from time to time til the mouth opening is satisfactory.

   Ray 

   
1. 
   WillGeorge | Mar 31, 2009 03:40am | #3

   Just a question.. Not a fight!

   Why not a hunk/strip of brass or bronze?

1. 
   joinerswork | Mar 31, 2009 05:25pm | #6

   Will,

   The main reason is that wooden plane soles need to be trued up (from wear or warp) from time to time, and a metal insert would complicate that.  If the throat is closed up with a wooden patch, flattening the sole is as simple a planing it true.  A metal patch would need to be removed and then replaced after planing the sole and filed flush.  That is why I recommended paying attention to the grain direction of the patch as it relates to the grain of the sole.  That way, planing the sole is easy-peasy.

   Ray

1. 
   lwilliams | Mar 31, 2009 08:30pm | #8

   A friend used a piece of brass on a Stanley wood bottom plane. He expressed amazement at how hot that insulated and isolated piece of metal got in use. What I thought was funny is that wood has better wear properties than brass in that use.

1. 
   joinerswork | Apr 01, 2009 05:28am | #10

   larry,

   I know I've seen an iron plate inlaid in  a plane sole before, but I can't remember what kind of plane it was.  Never thought about heat from the friction.  I guess it can be considerable. 

   Wear on brass- I put a brass wear plate on a home made spokeshave stock, trying to improve its geometry.  In a hurry to get back to work, I didn't bother to polish out the file marks.  They are going away on their own, easy to see where the wood is bearing on that plate.

   Ray

2. 
   derekcohen | Apr 02, 2009 01:49pm | #19

    A metal patch would need to be removed and then replaced after planing the sole and filed flush. 

   Hi Ray

   I can see where you are coming from, but this is not always so. All wooden soles do need to be flattened every now-and-then. Some woods are more stable than others, however. I have not needed to flatten my Cooktown Ironwood and Jarrah planes more than once every couple of years, and then very lightly on sandpaper.

   Even if the mouth opened slightly, the 60 degree cutting angles would negate the part played by the mouth size.

   I have several HNT Gordon woodies and woodies of my own construction, all of which have brass wear strips. I was copying Terry Gordon in this regard. His are the Ironwood planes, whereas I have plenty of recycled Jarrah to use. I certainly do not experience extra wear on the brass. I can't say anything about the issue of heat because I have not looked for it - just never been a consideration.

   Here is the mouth of my 30" shopmade jointer. This was taken when I made it. I have since opened it up a little (as it was clogging). My go to jointer.

   View Image

   View Image

   and the HNT Gordon smoother's mouth and wear strip (with blade reversed to use as a scraper plane) ..

   View Image

   Regards from Perth

   Derek

   Edited 4/2/2009 6:50 am ET by derekcohen

   Edited 4/2/2009 6:52 am ET by derekcohen

1. 
   joinerswork | Apr 02, 2009 04:32pm | #20

   Hello derek,

   Thanks to you and Adam, I now know that there are people who lap wooden plane soles on sandpaper.  Like sharpening on sandpaper or paring tenon cheeks with a router plane, this is alien to my experience with common shop practice.  Inletting a piece of metal into a wooden plane sole seems to me to combine the worst qualities of both metal and wooden soled planes.  That is, the wood sole will likely move and need to be trued, but as I've already said, the metal insert prevents one from simply planing it true.

   It would be speculation on my part to consider how much wear one might expect on a long jointer in use in your shop.  But brass inletted in dark wood is lovely, as you've shown, and surely raison enough to d'etre.  I have several tools with that combination.

   So, here's yet another case of different strokes for different folks.

   Ray

2. 
   AdamCherubini | Mar 31, 2009 06:33pm | #7

   "Why not a hunk/strip of brass or bronze?"

   I've seen that.  It's not a bad idea.  The area typically patched is called the "wear" for good reason.  Wear or damage here is probably the biggest reason for retruing the sole. 

   Japanese planes don't have flat soles.  If you think about it, flat really isn't a requirement.  What you need is good contact in front of the blade (at the wear) and a dot in front and/or in back to maintain your angle.  When you run the plane off or an edge, this gets a bit more complicated.  Not sure how the japanese planes work in that instance.  Pretty sure the sole behind the blade is cut away on Japanese planes.

   This gets more complicated, but some folks believe that plane soles should be stepped like jointer beds to account for the removal of a shaving.  While I'm not going to start cutting up my wooden planes' soles, I recognize there's more to this issue than meets the eye. 

   So theorhetically, you could patch with metal or plastic even.  I would think you could attach a metallic patch with screws so it would be removable in need be.  I have a wooden smooth plane with a thick metal plate screwed to it's sole.  I believe this was done at the time of manufacture.  The counter sunk screw holes don't seem to bother anything.

   If a plane with a non-wooden wear patch needed to be trued, it could be done on sandpaper in the same way folks lap metal planes' soles.

   I don't patch my planes with metal or plastic.  But I wouldn't dismiss  the idea.  There could be problems with the width-wise expansion and contraction of the wooden body.  You might need to execute the patch differently than I did in my article.  It's probably worth looking into.  My favorite boxwood spoke shaves all have brass wears. 

   Adam

2. 
   Eef | Mar 31, 2009 09:03pm | #9

   ray,

   "...till the mouth opening is satisfactory."

   tighter being better, yes?

   eef

1. 
   joinerswork | Apr 01, 2009 05:37am | #11

   Eef,

   For a smoother, for sure.  As a wooden plane wears and is trued over and over, the mouth gets wider and wider.  The European scrub plane or "Bismark" in my photo (center of the three shorter planes) has a patched throat, and a scrub plane doesn't need or want a tight throat.  I don't know why it was patched, maybe as Adam suggests, to repair a broken out chunk or something.

   Ray

2. 
   mike4244 | Mar 31, 2009 02:49am | #2

   I have a friend who just jointed 1/4" off the entire sole and then added a piece of bubinga for the new sole. I opened the sole with a 5/32 endmill for him as I have a milling machine. I got the mouth close enough so it only took twenty minutes with files to finish the mouth opening.

   This might be an option if the sole also needs work.

   mike

1. 
   leom | Mar 31, 2009 03:38pm | #5

   Thank You all, Gentlemen

   Leo

3. 
   AdamCherubini | Mar 31, 2009 01:58pm | #4

   PW April 2008

4. 
   philip | Apr 01, 2009 10:19am | #12

   Others have come up with several plans. Here is one I did on a Stanley transitional plane. I decided to use a contrasting wood which was also harder than the beech since that is a wear area. Used a router and planed the piece to fit snugly on the width, then planed the whole sole when the glue dried.
   The cat thought it was super.
   Why do you need to see an article to do this repair?Philip Marcou

   
   

   ---

   Edited 4/1/2009 3:20 am by philip

   
1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Apr 01, 2009 12:43pm | #13

   philip,

   Don't think he/she likes transition planes.  His tongue is stuck out whilst looking at it.  Either that or you have him well trained to smile only on Marcous?

   :-)

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

2. 
   AdamCherubini | Apr 01, 2009 02:00pm | #14

   I don't know if it's a great idea to notch the sides as you have done. Technically, you lost quite a bit of stiffness doing that. I try to keep the sides in tact, making the patch only as wide as the throat or a tiny bit wider. The loss of section may never effect you in the real world. But I wouldn't recomend it. Just something to think about. Adam

1. 
   philip | Apr 01, 2009 10:45pm | #15

   Now, Adam, I am in the real world..... You are talking about a "loss" of timber approxiamtely 2(15mmx4mmx3mm)=360cubic mm's- a mere speck in comparison to the rest of the body , which is in itself mostly recouped when one glues back that strong wood (I refer to the supposed rigidity loss).
   Are the engineering books giving you night mares?Philip Marcou

1. 
   Samson | Apr 01, 2009 10:55pm | #16

   maybe night stallions?

2. 
   AdamCherubini | Apr 02, 2009 01:33am | #17

   I don't understand your maths. The stiffness loss is the loss in sole thickness cubed. And no glue has the strength or stiffness of long grain. You could figure out what the percentage is. Is it important? I don't know. But it isn't nothing and there's no need to do this. Adam

   Edited 4/1/2009 9:32 pm ET by AdamCherubini

1. 
   philip | Apr 02, 2009 07:02am | #18

   Adam,
   If you were a trout you would be hooked every time-and I'm not even a patient fisherman (;)
   Philip Marcou