Dan's Hobbies » bench plane

Waterstone flattening

Dan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:42:45 +0000

I finally broke down and purchased some waterstones so that I could take my sharpening skills to the next level. In my opinion the only real drawback to waterstones is that they don’t stay flat. Thus as soon as I placed my order, I spent a little time searching the net looking for the best flattening method. Lots of methods exist, but the two most common are: a coarse diamond honing stone, or sandpaper on a surface plate.

While diamond hones will do a great job of quickly removing material they are notoriously unflat, and thus in my opinion not acceptable. I have a surface plate, and while it is flat, I don’t like the idea of constantly having sandpaper glued to it. Additionally a 70 pound surface plate isn’t very portable. What I finally decided on (shown below) was a hybrid approach.

I took a 1/2″ thick chunk of aluminum plate, and cut it to size (slightly larger than my stones). I then lapped if flat on both sides, using sandpaper taped to my surface plate. Yes I said taped, when you lap a surface this size, you don’t really need to worry about the paper lifting up and rounding over the edges like you do when honing a plane blade or chisel. It’s actually beneficial if the edges are a little rounded over (1/64″ or so), as this will prevent you from slicing open your fingers or hands on the sharp edges. Finally I used spray adhesive to adhere 220 grit sandpaper to each side. PSA sandpaper would be better, but no one in town carries it.

What I have now is a dead flat surface that I can use to flatten my waterstones. When the sandpaper looses it’s grit, I can pull it off and apply a new piece. Additionally, I could use this as an extra course honing stone, if I need to re-establish a bevel, or take a nick out of a plane blade.

Refurbished Stanley #3

Dan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:03:11 +0000

Some of you might remember that back in April I picked up a well used Stanley type 13 #3, that was in need of some TLC. Tonight I finished refurbishing the plane. To get the plane back into working condition, I performed the following tasks:

general cleaning
de-rusted the sole
lapped the sole
fixed the broken tote
refinished the sole with an industrial grade enamel
lapped the frog

The following photos are of the plane after a few test cuts.

My new smoother plane

Dan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 22:11:54 +0000

I’m a power tool guy at heart, however I have come to the realization that some tasks are easier with hand tools. For example, face/edge jointing large cumbersome boards. With that in mind, I’ve been learning about hand planes & their uses. Earlier this week I came across this plane on eBay, it’s a Stanley type 13(1925-1928) #3 smooth plane. Since it looked to be in good shape, I placed my bid and waited. Since it’s a fairly common plane, & not in pristine condition I picked it up for $21.50. The following pictures show what it looked like when it arrived on my door step. All I need to do now is clean it up.