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Hollows & Rounds John Moseley & Sons Moulding planes Practical techniques Snipe bill

Making your own moulding planes

Jeff Murray, a reader of the blog from Greenwood, Indiana got in touch about John Moseley moulding planes. Moseley planes are also a favourite of mine. They are very well-made 19thc planes with sharp boxing and a nice wedges. Jeff talked about using the Moseley design when he made his own half-set. The pic below shows Jeff’s plane (top) with one of his vintage Moseley’s below.
moulding plane comparison
I’ve read quite a bit about the techniques involved in making your own hollows and rounds, but Jeff makes it sound very easy. I’m sure it’s not quite easy as this, but here are some notes he sent to me. Jeff reckons on around $8 apiece for making a moulding plane and about 5 hours to make them himself, instead of $200+ to buy them new.

moulding planes
I started out to make maybe 3 sets of hollows and rounds, but ended up making a half set minus the #4 hollow of John Moseley and 2 snipes bill boxed with osage orange. I don’t recommend anyone use osage for boxing because it is really gnarly, but it did succumb to sandpaper. I am planning on making a few side beads and a set of side rounds. I have a number of irons that I got off of eBay, but I’m not reluctant to make my own irons, which I did during the construction of the half set of moulding planes.
It isn’t as difficult as one might imagine to make a moulding plane. I bought a DVD by Tod Herrli on making moulding planes, however he does a few things that require extra work. For instance, he marks all of his layout lines on the beech blank and cuts half of them off only to redraw them. There are a few other things that he does that are a bit unusual also. I got a few pointers from his DVDS, but ended up with using my own methods when they made more sense.

The moulding planes were really neat to make especially since I made 11 of the irons from scratch using an angle grinder. Believe me, my angle grinding skills greatly improvided by doing this. I cut out the blanks and tapered them with the angle grinder and then used files to finish them. The total cost of materials was $144 to make 17 moulding planes and 2 snipes bills. The hardest thing to make on the moulding plane is the tapered mortise and that isn’t all that difficult. In fact that is probably 75% of the work. The “blacksmithing” isn’t that difficult either because you are working with relatively small parts. My blacksmithing consists of a propane torch, a metal container of motor oil to harden the irons and finally a toaster oven or regular oven to temper.

(The pics below show the progress of a pair of side snipes.)
rebate plane for boxing
inserting boxing
trimming boxing
shaping snipe bills
You might notice that the boxing is protruding out both ends of the plane. This feature allows me to do a final trimming to make the plane a “perfect length”. The boxing that I used was Osage Orange, native to North America, a very hard, bright orange wood and capable of receiving a fine polish and with a speciic gravity of 773,6 kg/m3. I used this because I just happened some and thought that it would make a good boxing material. However, I don’t recommend it because the grain twisted and turns and is hard to machine. It does however behave when sanded.  The final edge was 0.015 inches (0.38 mm) and using 1000 grit sandpaper, wrapped around a dowel, I was able to produce a mirror like surface.

In the video by Todd Herrli, he advocates using laminated stock for the body of the planes and if you do some research, you will find that this isn’t recommended. The theory is that the wood won’t properly breathe because the glue layer impedes the moisture and this can cause cracking or splitting.  So I stayed with the quarter sawn solid beech that has been the tried and true method for a couple of centuries or so.  As I said before, he also marks his layout lines on his stock and then planes half of them off just to then redo them, which seems like a waste of time in my opinion. Todd’s video does have some good information about making the irons, from shaping to the hardening and tempering process.

grinding blade
I thought that might like to see the picture is my high precision jig for tapering the iron. You can see that this scrap piece of lumber was previously used as a backer board for drilling through holes and probably a couple of other things. This is one of the irons that I cut out of a piece of tool steel with a cut off wheel on my angle grinder and then changed to a grinding wheel to taper the tang. I used water to occasionally cool the steel when it started to discolor.  “Bluing” of the iron is of no consequence at this point in the process, that can all be taken out when it is hand filed to the final shape.

(Note from Admin.Caleb james is also giving away some very nice wooden plane plans for free. Click here.)

Categories
Hand Tools Hollows & Rounds Moulding planes Practical techniques Richard Arnold

Richard Arnold’s glazing bars

When I have a bit of downtime, I sometimes log into my ‘webstats’, so see which posts (if any!) are considered to be popular on my blog.
Always in the top of the league was a rather ‘cobbled-together’ post about making sash and using ‘templets’ for coping the joints of your glazing bars.
Whilst at Richard Arnold’s open day the other day, I had the pleasure of seeing Richard use these sash templates and their associated planes and I will soon post a few pictures about the technique, because I think people are obviously a little confused as to how they are used.
In the meantime, however, I’d like to show a series of pics of Richard sticking glazing bars before he starts considering the joints, because there are two quite surprising things I learned from his technique. I hope you will also find them interesting.

Any idea what this is? No? it's the tip of a simple cutlery knife. Richard has cut it off and ground the edge to make it sharp. he uses it as a 'bench knife'. Now, I always thought a bench knife was a simple knife that might have been left lying around on a bench, something that might have been used for simple tasks.
Any idea what this is? No? it’s the tip of a simple cutlery knife. Richard has cut it off and ground the edge to make it sharp. he uses it as a ‘bench knife’. Now, I always thought a bench knife was a simple knife that might have been left lying around on a bench, something that might have been used for simple tasks.
But no, Richard explained. Once your stock for your glazing bar is captive at the front end of the sticking board, you need a moveable element that will hold the other end. Bearing in mind your stock will be different lengths, it needs to be simple. Bring forth the 'bench knife'. Here, Richard slots the sharp edge into the end of the stock.
But no, Richard explained. Once your stock for your glazing bar is captive at the front end of the sticking board, you need a moveable element that will hold the other end. Bearing in mind your stock will be different lengths, it needs to be simple. Bring forth the ‘bench knife’. Here, Richard slots the sharp edge into the end of the stock.
A few quick taps and that little blade is biting the stock and securing it to the sticking board. Note it is also small enough not to impede the use of your planes.
A few quick taps and that little blade is biting the stock and securing it to the sticking board. Note it is also small enough not to impede the use of your planes.
The glazing rebate is taken out with a sash fillister. Working from the outer face (which will in fact be on the inside of the window), the upper glazing rebate is worked.
The glazing rebate is taken out with a sash fillister. Working from the outer face (which will in fact be on the inside of the window), the upper glazing rebate is worked.
Cutting until the sash fillister bottoms out. You would work out the thickness you require for the glazing bead, then the rebate needs to be half the depth that is left once that thickness is taken away from the thickness of the stock.
Cutting until the sash fillister bottoms out. You would work out the thickness you require for the glazing bead, then the rebate needs to be half the depth that is left once that thickness is taken away from the thickness of the stock.
Richard flips it over and works the other side to the same depth.
Richard flips it over and works the other side to the same depth.
Now look. The glazing bead is slotted into a rebate on the sticking board to hold it securely. That also has a screw to hold it, but transversely. Interesting. I think Richard just tapped the bench knife back in again after this.
Now look. The glazing bead is slotted into a rebate on the sticking board to hold it securely. That also has a screw to hold it, but transversely. Interesting. I think Richard just tapped the bench knife back in again after this.
Out come the sexy sash-ovolo planes with dovetailed boxing. Ooh, matron! Do you know why these often came in pairs, which looked almost identical? it's not the reason you're thinking. You'll have to ask Richard.
Out come the sexy sash-ovolo planes with dovetailed boxing. Ooh, matron! Do you know why these often came in pairs, which looked almost identical? it’s not the reason you’re thinking. You’ll have to ask Richard.
Off he goes, shaping first side. The planes are sprung, but you still need to keep your eye very much on holding the correct profile.
Off he goes, shaping first side. The planes are sprung, but you still need to keep your eye very much on holding the correct profile.
Nearly there!
Nearly there!
Again, the bead is held by the rebate for working the other side.
Again, the bead is held by the rebate for working the other side.
A few more passes and you just have to make sure things look symmetrical. Easy for me to say, I was just snapping photos.
A few more passes and you just have to make sure things look symmetrical. Easy for me to say, I was just snapping photos.
All that remains is to take of any sliver that might be clinging to the meeting of the top bead. This can be done with an appropriately-sized hollow plane.
All that remains is to take of any sliver that might be clinging to the meeting of the top bead. This can be done with an appropriately-sized hollow plane.
Categories
Cox & Luckman Hollows & Rounds Moulding planes Tool Makers

Cox & Luckman

Cox & Luckman Hollow and Round half-set
Cox & Luckman began making planes on Darwin St in Birmingham in 1839. In 1876, however, the firm became known as Cox, Luckman, & Son. The company was a well-known manufacturer of planes and tools , but also of fire-iron and fenders. From 1855 they are also listed as producing weighing machines and bedsteads.

According to the Furniture Gazette published March 10, 1883:

The firm of Cox, Luckman, & Son, Birmingham, fire-iron manufacturers has become dissolved by the retirement of Mr. George Luckman. The business will however be continued…. and the style of the firm will be Cox, Luckman, & Sons”.

Cox & Luckman Hollow and Round half-set
Cox & Luckman Hollow and Round half-set
I was recently offered a complete half-set of hollow and round planes, stamped with the former name, ‘Cox & Luckman’, dating these planes between 1839-1876, which is a pretty wide spread. I’d love to know a bit more detail about this firm if anyone has access to more details, ideally narrowing the date when these planes might have been made. The planes are in excellent condition, coming from a carpenter’s workshop and having been stored in dry conditions. Great to find a complete half-set from another renowned Birmingham maker, they are as good, if not better, than the Routledge set I found.

Categories
Hollows & Rounds Moulding planes

30 good moulding planes

All these planes are from the tool chest of a gentleman who used to be a cabinet maker in Dorset. The planes have wonderful patination and have obviously been well-loved. NOW SOLD!

Categories
Hollows & Rounds Moulding planes Routledge Snipe bill

A day trip to Worcestershire

Routledge moulding planes
Excited to have such a great collection of moulding planes in such wonderful condition. The gentleman who owned these really looked after them.

Last week I had the pleasure of going back to the Midlands, the place where I was born, to meet an excellent fellow named Robert who had some wooden planes for sale. I’ve been hunting for a nice half, or full-set of moulding planes for a while. These Routledge planes were particularly attractive to me, being born in the Midlands, and Routledge was an excellent planemaker from the area.

Robert was passing on a collection of planes from his grandfather, who had been a cabinet maker. Rob turned out to be a very good salesman. As well as agreeing a deal on an extra bunch of planes and miscellaneous tools, I went back home with a bit more weight than I anticipated!

By the time I left, the planes were joined by some lovely Thos Ibbotson ‘pig-sticker’ mortise chisels, some Sorby and Marples carving chisels, too many awls and screwdrivers to list, and one other thing. Robert made me a deal which included also taking away his grandfathers home-made tool chest. A wondrous great mahogany beast, which will take a bit of work, but will be a nice piece when I’ve finished it. The Volvo was nearly doing a wheelie all the way back to London.

 

Routledge moulding planes
When I bought these I didn’t actually notice the box also included a matching pair of Routledge snipe-bills and a matched pair of side-rounds, both in stunning condition.

 

Routledge snipe-bill plane
Boxed snipe-bill with makers mark, the other snipe-bill is just as crisp.

 

Routledge 'round' moulding plane
Makers mark, ‘Routledge, 64 Bull Street’, BIRMINGHAM’.

 

Routledge side-round moulding plane
Again, matching pair is in fantastic condition for age.

 

Routledge 'round' moulding plane
Irons will just a need a hone, not much more.