The care and feeding of wooden planes

[William MacBain]

I made three wooden planes this last summer and until recently, have been exceedingly happy with their performance. The problem is that they are no longer flat on the bottom.

The bottom of all three planes hase become convex along the length and I'm trying to determine why. Each plane is made of a different wood. One is a 9" york pitch cocobolo with an 1-1/2" Hock blade. The second is

8-1/2" long made of dogwood with a 1-3/4" hock blade. The third is a scrub plane made for maple.

I'm thinking of two possiblities.

1. When not in use, I've stored them with the wedges still inserted.
2. The winter weather is very dry here in the great white north.

Do either of these make sense?

TIA William MacBain

[J Pagona aka Y.B.]

That may have an effect, but if they are fit properly, it should be very minimal.

That's most likely the culprit. Changes in moisture content of the plane body can put stresses on it that cause it to warp. Not much you can do except reflatten the soles. Of course, every time you flatten the soles, the mouthes will get just a little bit bigger. That's why you often see old wooden planes with wide mouths, and sometimes see them with patched mouths. You might want to get Mike Dunbar's book on tuning and using old tools. It covers flattening and patching mouths on wooden planes.

David

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[Conan the Librarian]

I asked Larry Williams (of Clark & Williams wooden planemaking fame) why they recommended that you store their planes with the wedge removed. He said it was because having the wedge and iron in prevented the (almost) endgrain surface at the bed from absorbing/dissipating moisture at the same rate as those at the heel and toe of the plane. This would then upset the equilibrium and put extra stresses on the plane, and likely make it warp.

Chuck Vance