I already own a Craftsman 3730 made by Sargent and I like it. I used it on quite difficult wood, like the larch wood I used to make some drawer faces, and it gave good results when correctly sharpened.
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| Craftsman 3730 made by Sargent. |
There are two main reason why I wanted to get a Record 778 , first the blade adjustment wheel, second the dual arms. With my Craftsman I noticed that I must be very careful with the fence as a single arm may allow some shift if too much pressure is applied.
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| The Record 778 I received. |
On the format side the Record 778 is about the same size as my Craftsman and very similar, main difference being the blade adjustment and dual arms for the fence.
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| Craftsman 3730 and Record 778 side by side. |
To start the cleaning process I disassembled the plane in parts.
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| The plane disassembled in pieces. |
I started by cleaning the fence and plane body. For this I used my very high tech "machinist precision tool", a simple piece of marble on which I taped sand paper of different grits from 80 to 2000.
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| The precision tool. |
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| Plane sole cleaned and flat. |
I was lucky, everything was already quite flat and did not require heavy workout.
I then switched to the blade and there I found the first issue. I checked that the blade was square and here is what I found:
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| Not square, not even close. |
No drama, back to the marble and time for some more gridding. I do not own a wheel grinder so I am getting this square by hand, should not be difficult I already did this before. After 10 minutes stroking the blade on the 80 grit sand paper I got it back to squareness. I finished the sharpening of the cutting edge increasing grit to 2000 on sand paper than I switched to water stone 4000 than 8000 and finally 3 or 4 strokes on the leather strop with buffing compound and I was done.
The little side cutter, call it a nicker, a spur or whatever, looked to have never been used so it was quite rounded and not sharp at all. To sharpen one edge I put it in the vice and used a little saw sharpening file, easy to do and this does not have to be razor sharp.
After having cleaned the body a bit and cleaned the cap iron it was time to put the blade assembly back in the plane... and there is coming my main issue. To my greatest disappointment, I have not been able to set the blade correctly. Anything I tried the blade was never straight and was protruding more on one side. I am not speaking about having the blade protruding a bit on each side of the sole as I know that this is normal and wanted. I was just not able to set the blade horizontally straight.
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| The blade is parallel to the mouth but still more protruding on the left. |
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| Not easy to see but the blade is not straight. |
As I find this is a quick and dirty way of solving that issue I removed the blade assembly and checked the blade bed, and I think to have found the issue. It looks like the bed is not straight (or maybe it is my eyes!)
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| This bed does not look straight to me. |
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| The thickness at the mouth is not the same across the width. |
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| Not sure it is visible. |
So before I start to file the blade bed and mess with it, does anybody have any idea of what cause this issue? Am I on the right track thinking that this bed should be straight? If someone has any idea, advice or insight please drop me a comment!
I think having a square iron is a modern obsession. What is important is to have the iron edge parallel to the sole.
ReplyDeleteThe skewed bed is clearly visible on your 8th picture. Obviously, if you file the bed, the mouth will be opened. The difficulty, if you file the bed, is to get it flat. I would not do it. Contrary to the body, the iron is a cheaper and consumable.
I will always remember an old video where a Swiss tool maker makes a wooden plane by hand and then grind the iron. He specifically said he is grinding the iron parallel to the sole, de facto compensating skew of the bed (if any).
Here is the video (in French):
https://www.rts.ch/archives/tv/culture/suisse-au-fil-du-temps/3464421-les-outils-de-bois.html
Sylvain
Thank you for your input Sylvain.
DeleteLike many others things the squareness of the blade is indeed a modern obsession. I don't think that the mouth would open if I file the bed as it is extra material to remove from within the mouth to make the bed flat but like you said the difficult part will be to make it of correct flatness.
Your Devoted Wood Butcher
I am of a similar opinion to Sylvain, and yes, that was probably why you found the blade grinded out of square in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe bed is obviously out of square (tilted) with the sole surface, its mouth thickness should be even all accross. Which brings another way to correct problem, file the sole flat to the bed surface.
Yeah could make the sides out of square to the sole but not as critical has having sole and frog surface parallel. Me, i'll stick to grinding the blade to correct problem.
To sharpen the nickers, or maintain them, simply rub the flat surface on a fine media. Sometimes you may have to shim the nicker to align with the blade edge.
Bob
I gently filed the bed to give him a regular thickness across the mouth. Also I noticed that the blade sides were not parallel so when I made the edge square to the side, I made it out of square from the other side. I resharpened it and with the bed filed it solved my problem.
ReplyDelete