Another Old Plane

My friend Nick yesterday gave me another old wooden plane to revive.

This one is a little smoothing plane. It's of a European pattern, as evidenced by the dovetail slot in front that would once have anchored a horn, about which one would wrap one's thumb.

That horn is missing, and I'll have to remake it.

Crack and Nail, all covered in filth

Crack with nail removed, a bit cleaner

There's a bad crack in the body, running back from the corner of the dovetail. A nail has been driven into the side of the plane body, which I very much doubt would have helped stabilize the crack at all.

I will probably carve out a channel along the course of the crack, so that I've got clean wood to deal with, and glue in a patch piece. I'll put in a butterfly across the body of the plane as well, which might be a bit of overkill, but what the heck.

Blade markings

The wedge is a little bit tatty, but fundamentally sound. I don't think I'll do much clean-up of it except to tidy up some edge-splintering; it fits its socket very well right now, and I don't want to change its geometry unnecessarily.

The blade is German, according to the markings stamped on its underside, and it's been forged with tapering thickness from front to back. I'm not sure what purpose that would serve, but I'm sure there is one. Maybe it's just to save weight. Or, as is more likely, it's a laminated blade.