Another Wooden Jack

The queue of unfinished tasks is getting longer.

Time to spent my shop time with small tasks these days.

One of these tasks was rehabbing another wooden jack.

There are a lot of things I would like to do, but somehow the shop time was little the last weeks. And if I had time I've spent it with some small tasks from the list.

Several planes are waiting for rehab. Some of them just need a cleanup and a sharpening. Others require some more work. So the one I will report about today.

Unfortunately I haven't made 'before' pictures. Anyway, lets see what's going on.

On our tours over the flea markets this season I have found another wooden jack plane (Doppelhobel in German). It was not in worst condition but had some major issues.

The sole was not flat and had some scoring
The back horn was loose
The coating was damaged
The body was full of paint residues
The iron was rusty and the cutting edge out of square
The chip breaker was rusty too

The above list sounds worst than it was. As I have done all this a few times this year it is already something like a routine.

That said I've started with disassembling the plane and cleaning it with some neutral cleaner. 

I have become accustomed to start with the sole. A straight edge showed that the sole was hollow in the middle and somehow out of square at one edge. Beside of that it had some scoring.

The hollow and the scoring have been too deep to just scrape them out. So I have planed down the sole with a #5 plane. Why that? A #5 is big enough to give a nice registration and it has got enough weight to plane down the hard wooden plane sole.

After doing that I have recognized that I have still two issues. The corners were broken and I have fixed it with rounding over the rough edges with a rasp and file. But one corner was broken too much, so I decided to fix it with a patch.

Therefore I've cut down the edge and glued on another piece of Beech.

Gluing on a patch

 It came out like this.....

Final patch

Yes, it is another sort of Beech, but I believe it will do it's job and is way better than a broken corner.

Next stage was to care out the body. As there had been too much paint residues, dings and dents and dirt I've decide to scrape down the origin coating and to replace it with a wax varnish.

The result looks like that.....

New finish

Although the body has got a new finish it doesn't look like new. That was not the goal. I wanted it to look used but to feel nice when touched.

Ulmia jack plane

Someone painted over the Ulmia medallion. Don't know why.  I could scrape of most of the paint.

After refinishing all the parts I have glued in the loose horn. I've used hide glue for this.

The back horn

Last but not least I have cared about the iron. I started with derusting trying out a new method.

Before I started to sand or anything else I put the iron into vinegar cleaner for one day. I've read in a motorcycle forum that the guys are derusting the bike parts that way. That went surprisingly well.

After soaking for 24 hours I rinsed off the cleaner with water and a bit of soap (for neutralization).

Most of the rust was gone and the rusty points have change to a black...mixture?...which was to sand off pretty easily. I'm really satisfied with the result. Then I've oiled the iron for rust protection.

As mentioned the iron was out of square. Question was how to fix that. Yeah I know, easy. Grind it square.

So I digged out my hand cranked grinder and ground the iron square holding it at 90° angle.

Out of square cutting edge

When it was squarish I have established a new bevel on sandpaper (120 grit) and the diamond stones (starting at 150 grit).

Then I have established a 30° bevel and a slight back bevel. And the last step was to polish the whole blade just for a nicer look.

New cutting edge

The very last task is to polish the chip breaker. In my case that's only a light sanding and then polishing it on the stones and to give it a nice polish on the strope.

Mounted chip breaker

Polishing the second iron and taking care that it is sitting pretty well makes the difference.

First shavings w. rehabbed plane

That was my plane rehab project. If you wonder why another one, I will give that one away to a friend of mine, who is not familiar with all this. So I spent this few hours.

The finished plane

Worth The Effort?

I have read the one or the other blog posts about German wooden planes. Some of the guys were asking if it is worth the effort or not, to rehab a plane bought second hand.

From my point of view it is. Let me explain why. 

I was skeptical  about wooden planes mostly because I did not know how to set them properly and first tries have been frustrating.

So my decision was clear not to spent 80 bucks for a new one. By accident I have found the first one on the flea market for under 5 bucks. Man, nothing to lose.

So I have invested some time and effort into my first wooden jack plane (and part 2 here). Since I had set it up properly that's my daily user. I'm not using it for every task. But as I'm working a lot with soft woods it is my plane to go for and a joy to work with.

All that said, I'm for sure not the wooden plane specialist. But guys if you have the chance to get one cheap, buy it. Spent a few hours in your shop and you will see how rewarding that will be.

If you have questions then I would be glad to answer it. Don't hesitate to get in contact.

Let me know about your experiences with western wooden planes.

Stay tuned!
Stefan