Tuning a Hand Plane

The No.5 'Jack' hand plane can be used for a number of tasks (scrubbing, dimensioning, shooting, and smoothing, to name four) but to perform really well at all of these, most planes will need a little tuning. Here I've tuned two jacks to add to my original, allowing me to leave the set up differently in each one. However, you can tune one plane to tackle all jobs, and just keep differently shaped blades to swap in as necessary.

Most of the tips and processes here, can be used with other hand planes, perhaps focusing on the specific task(s) you want to use them for.

I hope you find it useful.

I'm entering this in the 'Before and After' contest, so I'd appreciate your support - thanks, Mitch

If you prefer video, then take a look at my YouTube video, which runs for 31 minutes. If you find it useful, then please like, comment, and share.

Badly rusted planes can be soaked in white vinegar for a couple of days, which will loosen much of the rust and debris.

Strip down the plane, using WD40 for seized threads.

Use a stiff brush to remove all loose dirt.

Glue and paint are often spilt on planes (?) and can be scraped off with a card scraper, etc.

Small parts can be soaked in paraffin (kerosene).

(If the original Japaning (paint) is in a bad way, you may wish to strip it, or abrade it, and apply a new coat at this point - But that's restoration rather than tuning )

To avoid buckling of the plane body, and to ensure solid working, the frog should be well fitted to the body. Smooth, flat mating surfaces are best, and can be achieved by working the milled 'pads' on a flat reference surface with 180/240 grit abrasive paper.

Attach the blade set, to limit forward travel, and note frog's most forward position - there's no point doing more work than you need to!

Use a permanent marker, or engineer's blue, to mark the pads on the body.

Replace frog and move it around to mark the 'high' spots of the body pads (the marker will be removed).

These high spots need to be taken down, for which a scraper made from an old file is ideal.

Scrap the high spots, and then repeat the process of checking.

Continue until you have a large area of contact on every pad.

A flat, smooth, frog face makes the best bed for the iron.

Unless the face is substantially out of flat, I leave the blade adjusters attached and flatten around them.

(In extreme cases, these can be removed: The lateral adjuster will need it's rivet filed down and removed, whilst the depth adjuster will need it's hinge pin driven out.)

Work the face evenly on a flat reference with abrasive. You can use permanent marker to see where you are abrading, and a straight edge to judge when the whole surface is flat.

Use an engineer's try-square to check the squareness of the sides to the sole, and a straight edge to check the flatness of the sole. This should give an idea of where metal should be removed.

Use a marker to note these indications on the body.

With even pressure, work the sole over some coarse abrasive on a flat reference.

Your initial indications should begin to fade, and you should judge whether you're applying the pressure evenly.

Mark lines right across the sole, and continue to abrade until all lines begin to fade evenly.

At this stage the sole should be flat, but rough.

Re-check squareness of the sides to the flattened sole.

Now judge and remove the metal required (just from the sides) to bring each side into square with the sole.

Working once again with abrasive and a flat reference surface, square the sides, by applying pressure more on either the sole edge or wing tip, depending on where you need to remove metal.

Larger discrepancies can be tackled initially with a mill file.

The flattened sole can be polished using finer grits of abrasive, and metal polish with '0000' steel wool.

If you take care to only just remove the flattening score marks across the entire sole, then the flatness should remain.

I take this up to a semi-gloss mirror polish, but feel free to continue as far as you want.

The underside tip of the lever cap should be perfectly flat and smooth, which can be achieved on the abrasive reference surface.

It's top surface will benefit from a polish with '0000' steel wool and metal polish.

Where you can afford it, a replacement blade set, like this one from Hock Tools, will be a worthwhile investment.

A sharp edge is formed at the meeting point of two polished surfaces - the back of the blade, and the tip of the bevel.

Grinding marks should be removed from the blade back. I'm using a diamond whetstone here, but other sharpening systems are fine. Keep the back flat on the stone at all times, and switch to a finer grit once the grinding marks have been replace by the diamond scratches.

Remove the grinding marks on the tip of the bevel. Freehand or with a guide is fine. For cambered blades, apply pressure selectively to cover the curve, and finish with a gradual transfer of pressure to smooth it out.

Both back and bevel should be stropped to a mirror finish at the edge.

The tip of the chip breaker should mate tightly with the iron when attached.

First prepare the underside at the tip, so that the extreme tip touches the iron first, by hanging the tail lower than the stone as you work it. Continue to work until this area is flat, for contact right across the width.

Polish the top leading edge to prevent shavings from catching.

Check for the desired 'light free' fit.

If you require a wider mouth, perhaps if a replacement blade set closes it up too much, then scribe a line to work to and file back to it.

Maintain the same angle (usually 45 degrees).

If the spin wheel groove is too wide for the ends of the yoke, here are two possible solutions:

Malleable iron yoke - widen the engaging discs by carefully hammering them.

Alternatively - fill excess groove space with a circlip.

If the adjuster tongue is too narrow (or chip breaker slot too wide), you can pack the gap with a clip made from sheet metal.

There is no reason why you should end up with more than a half turn of slack.

To make a little more room for shavings, once they have entered the sole, it is a good idea to relieve the upper corner at the front of the mouth.

Just file carefully at an angle, ensuring you don't quite reach the underside of the sole. Finish by polishing this bevel.

Why not take the opportunity to freshen up those rough handles.

Cracked and flaky finish can be stripped.

A good sanding to remove all sharp edges.

Then a gentle finish such as either oil or shellac applied.

A highly cambered iron will take thick cross grain shavings.

A straight iron will dimension wood and shoot end-grain easily.

A very slightly cambered iron will take whisper thin smoothing shavings.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you found this interesting.

Happy woodworking, Mitch

I'm entering this in the 'Before and After' contest, so I'd appreciate your support - thanks, Mitch