Huh?

I handcarved this phrase into the shelf of my tool cabinet in the hopes that one day, some 22nd century woodworker will find my cabinet at a dusty flea market and, thinking that there is some meaningful phrase chiseled into it, will take his new-found treasure home to find out what the puzzling, yet undoubtedly profound message says. After some research, he will discover that it's Latin for: How did you get your hair to do that?

Sharpening a Plane Blade

At last count, there were exactly 3, 970, 000 ways to sharpen a plane iron. Well, maybe it just seems like that many. The point is, you have lots of techniques from which to choose, and all produce the same result—a sharp blade.

Here are photos showing how I sharpen a newly-made plane iron using a grinder and 800 and 8,000 grit waterstones. Make sure your stones are flat. I flatten mine sometimes twice during a job like this.

Flatten the back of the blade on an 800 grit stone. By gripping a piece of wood on top of the blade, you can apply greater downward pressure than you can with just your fingers. Keep the blade flat as you move it forward and backward on the stone and just concentrate on the 1/2" or 1" that is closest to the cutting edge. Once you have uniform flatness, do the same thing on an 8,000 grit stone until you achieve a mirror polish.

I hadn't sharpened the bevel on this blade completely before heat treating, so it's back to the grinder to finish sharpening before using the waterstones. Here is where you'll want to be sure to dunk the blade in water as you sharpen at the grinder so that you don't overheat the blade. Keep your fingers close to the cutting edge because if it's too hot for you, it's too hot for the blade, and you'll know to quench it.

For safety precautions, always wear a facemask at the grinder and let it run for a minute to warm up before grinding. You should also check to make sure your grinding wheel is not cracked. Do this by removing the wheel, slide a pencil through the center hole so it's suspended without you touching it, and tap it lightly with a plastic handle. It should ring like china. If you hear "thunk", throw it out.

You are finished with the grinder once you can no longer see light reflecting on the cutting edge. Next, secure the blade in a sharpening jig at the same angle you established at the grinder. In this case, 25 degrees. Start with the 800 grit stone and only sharpen on the pull stroke. When you have two flat surfaces on the bevel, move to the 8,000 grit stone without removing it from the jig. Once polished to a mirror finish, angle the blade up about 3 degrees in the jig (with some jigs, you don't have to reposition the blade; you can just turn a knob and it will steepen the angle for you) and create a micro bevel using the 8,000 grit stone only. A micro bevel is not necessary; it's just my preference.

You will now have a small burr on the back of the blade which can be removed with a few laps on the 8,000 grit stone.

You're done! That blade will now shave endgrain, hairy legs, and your neighbor's cat.

Heat Treating & Tempering a Blade

Before you heat treat and temper your plane iron, cut it to shape, because the untreated steel is much easier to cut and grind beforehand. There are a number of detailed articles online for the heat treating and tempering process, so here is just a brief rundown when working with O-1 tool steel.

I use one propane and one mapp torch (Why? Because that's the way I was taught). Clamp your steel in locking jaw pliers at an angle so that when you dunk it in the oil (I use peanut oil) and the oil flares up, you won't burn yourself. Position the blade in between the two flames, about 1" from both, so the blade is heated from both sides. Keep the blade moving so the heat is distributed equally across its width. Start heating the blade about 2" from the cutting edge. With a blade this thick and wide, it will take a while to get it hot enough (it took maybe 6 or 7 minutes). Once this part of the blade gets orange, start moving the flame toward the cutting edge until the entire 2" end is orange and glowing. Quench it quickly, dropping the blade straight down into the oil so the width of the blade is cooled equally, otherwise it may warp. The oil will flame for a bit. Keep moving the blade back and forth in the oil while it cools. I'd give it several minutes, then take it out, wipe it off, and let it cool enough for you to touch it.

Your blade will now be black. Before you temper it, you need to remove the black coating so that you can see the color of the blade as it's being tempered. You can remove the coating by rubbing the blade on a sheet of fine drywall screen or sandpaper that is resting on a reliably flat surface, like thick glass or granite.

Now you're ready to temper the blade. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour but keep an eye on it, as ovens temperatures vary. Other sources say 20 minutes at 400 degrees. When the blade becomes a straw color, it's done. Let it cool completely and you're ready for final sharpening.

You can get pretty technical with this whole process, and if you're a stickler for perfection or if you must have consistent and accurate results in making blades, you'll want to do more research than this post. But because I'm just a hobbyist, and chemistry and metallurgy make my brain hurt, this works just fine for my needs.

Here is another article on tempering steel, by Ron Hock, of Hock Tools.

Spill Plane Part II: Shaping the Blade

I purchased a .125" x 2" x 18" piece of O-1 (oil hardening) tool steel from MSC Direct to make the blade for the spill plane. I'm making the plane iron for several reasons: 1) it's less expensive than buying a finished one, 2) it's something to blog about, and 3) I'm trying to overcome my fear of propane torches.

After shaping the blade, I'll temper it with propane & mapp torches. I have done this several times before but every time I do, I'm convinced the tanks will blow up in my face and I'll have to change my blog name to The Village Dark(wo)man.

Dab layout fluid onto the steel and mark your cut. I like a rounded end on an iron, so I used a compass with a pencil. You can also mark it with an awl. Rough cut the shape with a hacksaw and clean it up on a grinder.

Incidentally, if your grinder is not shooting sparks, it has glazed over and you need to redress it.

I ground a 25 degree bevel on the cutting edge, but did not grind it sharp so that the end is not so fragile when I torch it. At this point, you do not have to be careful about overheating the blade since it still needs to be tempered.

Spill Plane, Part I

A friend who works for the York Agricultural & Industrial Museum asked if I would make a spill plane for the museum to be used in an interactive demonstration. Sure, but what does it look like? I had seen one only once before, and briefly, so I checked online and found some great articles here, here, and here.

I used the one posted on the WK Fine Tools site for the layout & construction process. After 3 bungled attempts at not being able to cut the bed so the iron’s cutting edge protrudes from corner to corner at the same height on the wood surface of the plane, I finally decided it was time to ask dad for help. Dad = retired nuclear projects engineer, i.e., dude with some serious brainpower.

Bracing myself for a dissertation on trigonomics, I handed him my mangled pieces of wood and a copy of the article and asked for his advice.

A mere 10 minutes later (thank you, God) he determined that there was an angle missing from the article and that I could actually salvage my last attempt.

Dad felt good about helping me solve the problem, but more importantly, I was able to remain in the dark where trig is concerned... and that's exactly where I want to be!

Landis Valley Museum

Yesterday, we toured the Landis Valley Museum, a living history museum showcasing PA German rural life, which includes historic buildings, demonstrations, workshops, and collections of early farm, craft and household objects.

German-speaking immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th—19th centuries were self-sufficient tradesmen and farmers. We still see their influence today in Pennsylvania bank barns, so called because they were built into a bank or hillside that allowed wagons and large equipment to enter at the second floor. PA Germans designed the Pennsylvania long rifle and the Conestoga wagon, and brought with them craftmaking skills in redware (pottery), fraktur and scherenschnitt, and traditions that have become part of mainstream American culture—the Easter rabbit, decorated Easter egg, and Christmas tree.

Although the museum is very interesting, my main purpose for the tour was to take a few photos of a particular piece of furniture. 130 photos later, I believe I can build a reasonable facsimile of this piece, even though I could only get as close to it as the wall of glass would allow. I hope the curator doesn't mind a few noseprints.

Believed to have been built in 1750, although the date 1805 is carved into the drawer front, this sawbuck table's distinctively German feature is a top that can be lifted off by removing dowels so that it could be used elsewhere as a work surface. What also attracted me to this piece are the tusk tenon joinery and the baroque style of the legs.

In my shop, a huge plank of 12/4 cherry is anxiously waiting to be transformed into a little PA German sawbuck table.

Sawbuck Table photo is from Pennsylvania German Arts, by Irwin Richman.

Grandpa's Broadaxe

Both sets of great grandparents were Swedish immigrants who came to the US from Östergötland in the 1880s. They settled in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and, like many immigrants, were dirt poor. Grandpa, who spoke broken English with such a thick accent that I always had to ask dad for a translation (I was about six), would give my brother and me a nickel or dime if we’d sing Swedish songs for him. So of course, we sang ‘til we were hoarse.

Early in their marriage, my grandparents lived in a one-room log building, a footprint of 13’ x 15’, with no insulation (did I mention this was in Michigan?), no indoor plumbing, and no electricity, along with 3 children, until dad was 7 years old. Then grandpa built a tiny farmhouse for the family which eventually was wired for electricity, but still no indoor plumbing, and 3 more kids entered the fold.

Grandpa worked for the WPA and cut & sold timber while the kids attended school in a one-room schoolhouse, to which they walked through 10 feet of snow, even in summer I’m told, and while grandma cooked on a cast iron stove, washed clothes by hand, and chased bears away with a broom. It amazes me that I am only one generation away from such a remote and primitive existence.

After grandpa died, my dad was given his broadaxe, (which originally belonged to my great-grandfather, Axel), a tool that was used for shaping logs. The person using the axe stood atop the log and sliced along its edge with the flat side of the blade, walking it down the length of the log until one side was hewn flat. Prior to this, a series of stop cuts were made about every 6" into the side of the log, which made it easier to follow the chalk line.

Dad related a story about the time grandpa laid open his own foot with a double-bladed axe while cutting timber. The outside of his foot and his boot were hanging like bark peeling off a tree. Of course, folks back then were a lot tougher than they are today, so he and dad walked back home, grandpa got cleaned up (because you never went to the doctor's dirty) and dad drove him to the doctor's office, in a snowstorm (of course!), 12 miles away.

I hope grandpa's axe will be handed down to me someday and you can bet it will be displayed in a place of prominence in my workshop.

Waterstone Holder

You can purchase waterstone holders, you can make fancy wooden ones which secure your stones with wedges, and you can suspend your stones over a tub of water on a wooden or plastic bridge.

Or, you can use a set up like this, which consists of a shallow baking pan (heaven knows it wasn't seeing any use in our kitchen) and a router mat. Fancy? No. Attractive? No way. Functional? Absolutely. Clamp the baking pan to your bench and start sharpening. The stone will not move at all.

Sharpening is messy business, so I didn't want to build a pretty holder only to have it gunked up with the slurry created with water and stone particles. The odd thing is, with all the water spritzing I've done over the years, I've never had to pour any water out of the baking pan. Not sure where it goes. Could be I have broccoli growing under the router mat, but I'm not about to check.