To flatten or not to flatten?

[lottathought]

I need some advice from some of the card carrying smart guys here.

Got my hands on an old Stanley 60 1/2 low angle block plane in really good shape.
A couple of nicks on the sole but nothing serious.
When I got it, I was tempted to whip out the granite slab and confirm that it was dead flat.

What has stopped me however is the adjustable throat in the front.
It occurred to me that the sliding plate might somehow be damaged if I started flattening this.

Is there any reason why I should not make sure this plane is dead flat?

 

[CarvedTones]

Is the little knob a height adjustment? If it is, it seems like it would be okay. One possibility would be to flatten it with the throat adjusted. Note that I am thinking out loud; I don't know for sure.

 

[lottathought]

Andy..the brass knob on the front actually can be loosened or tightened.
When it is loosened, it allows that lever under that knob to move back and forth. This moves a plate at the front of the sole to either widen or close up the hole ..so you can have the blade come out at different depths.
Normally I would not be concerned with flattening a sole...but since this sole actually has a part that moves, I decided to ask before flattening.

 

[jlimey]

Michael,

If the plane in the 2nd post is yours, it is not a particularly collectible version, so I would go ahead and flatten it if you want. I would remove the adustable sole first, just to make sure it is not rusted in place, reassemble and have at it. If the sole is so out of flat that flattening it would get you into trouble (i.e. you remove so much material that you start to get into the joint between the pieces), it is problematic anyway (hard to plane with a banana). If you are doing this by hand, you would get bored with it long before that happened!

 

[froglips]

I'd do it with the mouth in, under tension and as close to the blade as you can make it.

I also agree to make sure you have good contact between the plate and sole. One way to check is to clean up both mating surfaces, then mark one piece with a sharpie. Work the mouth back and forth a few times, then check to see where you have contact.

It helps to start out knowing the state of your adj. mouth and tweak it.

If its really bad, you have some options. You can install some shims and smooth down more of that adj mouth.

In one plane we worked on, it was so bad, Ed Brant suggested we actually bend the adj mouth to get contact. In this case, the adj mouth was banana shaped and no practical amount of plane sole working got it close to working.

Jim

 

[lottathought]

That picture was not my plane.
Mine is actually in a little better shape.
My plate slides easily also.
I was only considering it as I know I can not really see any dips without flattening on the granite plate.
Based on the comments here and the fact that it is in good shape, I think I might just hold off unless I see something really not working correctly when I start using it.

 

[Travis Porter]

I would hold off as well. If it works and isn't giving you any trouble why bother?

 

[CarvedTones]

That picture was not my plane.

I just found a picture that seemed to illustrate the model well enough to understand the issue. I was intrigued by the question of what kind of plane should not be flattened (besides one in which I am a passenger :rolf. Since I was just thinking out loud, I included the picture of what I was looking at to offer an opinion on so Michael could decide whether to discount my input completely or only partially. I have already told you more than I know...

 

[froglips]

In case you want to "go excessively crazy" on this sucker, I found this to be an excellent tutorial on the adj mouth block plane.

http://fingerlakesguitarrepair.com/...and-supplies/tuning-a-stanley-block-plane.php

Jim

 

[4yanks]

I have about 50 hand planes. Almost all of them are old Stanleys. All of them users. After slaving over a couple in my early hand tool days I have come to the conclusion that flattening offers no practical value. If the front edge of the toe, the back edge of the heel and the mouth are in reasonable alignment it will do what it is supposed to do. If that is not the case an argument can be made for flattening. I am sure that there are planes out there that do not meet my criteria but I haven't had the misfortune to own one.

 

[lottathought]

Thanks for the input all.

And I do have another question.

What angle should I sharpen this blade at?
I will be using it primarily for end grain of hardwoods.

 

[jlimey]

For end grain, the lower the cutting angle the better. Since you can't lower the bed of the plane, the blade is what you have to work with. I would bevel it at 20 degrees and see if the steel is good enough to hold up at that angle. If not, try 25 degrees. You can also skew the plane to lower the effective cutting angle.

 

[jlimey]

Hi, just reread your post and noticed that it was a low angle plane. You might want to just go with 25 degrees to start with if you are not feeling experimental.