OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

15 Ed Clarke <clarke@a...> 1996‑02‑02 BIO
My name is Ed Clarke and I'm a computer programmer by trade.  I work for
IBM at the research center in Hawthorne, NY on cable TV management.  But
enough of that boring stuff ...  My only current "old tool" is a borrowed
Bailey #7 plane.

I started off with the best of intentions, watching "New Yankee Workshop"
and reading Norm's books.  The description of the cherry trestle table in 
his first book sounded simple and the picture of the finished article was
simply beautiful.  So I started off with my Hitachi router, Unisaw, Ryobi
jointer and Norm's instructions ... Hey, there seems to be a little problem
here!  I now know the difference between 8/4 S2S and the 8/4 rough cut wood
that Norm ran through his thickness planer.  I have an 8 foot long, three
foot wide, two inch thick cherry table top ... his is much thinner ( and
lighter ).  Now there's the problem of making the top absolutely flat so
that I can finish it ...  

Which all leads into my neander conversion.  I went out looking for a
planer that could take a 36 inch wide piece of wood ... and found out
that if you could find one, it'd take a 10 hp three phase motor, weigh
a ton and cost at least as much as a new car.  Let's rethink this.

I tried using a new Stanley "plane" ( in quotes, because it's really just 
a piece of poorly cast metal with a few sharp edges on it ) but it was 
just too small and difficult to use.  Perhaps a bigger plane would work 
better?  $100 - $200 for a hand tool that you can't plug in?  You have to 
be kidding!  So I borrowed an old Bailey #7 that a friend had picked up 
at a garage sale.  The sole and blade were splattered with varnish and 
the blade had been sharpened with a file.

There are articles in FWW on restoring old planes.  Most of them warn you
not to use powered grinders because you can ruin the temper of the blade.
All of them say to start off with a nice square edge.  So I scribed a line
across the blade about 1/16 inch back from the end of the bevel and started
squaring it up on an oil stone.  An hour later I had sore fingers and a
nice square edge on the blade that just met the scribed line.  Four hours
after that I had a 25 degree angle ( I used a Veritas jig ) with a small
micro bevel on the end.  And really sore arms.  The moment of truth ...
Son of a gun!  It really does shave the hair off your arm!  Put the blade
back in the plane, adjust as per the articles and lets try it out on the
table top.  Wow!  This is fun!  You really can see through the shavings!

I find using this plane to be extremely relaxing and pleasant.  I DON'T
want to give it back but it's not mine to keep.  At least the guy that I
borrowed it from uses his tools and doesn't just keep them to look at.
The table top's about done and it's time to go get my own plane or set
of planes.

I stopped at Lie-Nielson in Maine and tried out some of the new planes
in their shop.  The Bailey seems to do a better job as far as I can tell
( which was quite a surprise ).  So I need to get an old Bailey #7 and
some other usable tools.  Is there a FAQ on this list?  I need a set of
chisels and at least a block plane.  Is there a list of dealers here too?

Ed Clarke
clarke@a...

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
P.O. Box 218
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598



Recent Bios FAQ