Tool Talk
Woodworking Forum => Woodworking Forum => Topic started by: WiebeLC on November 25, 2012, 08:31:31 PM
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I'm a little confused about the construction of this plane. I can see no real purpose for the way the bottom has been made more narrow than the rest of the body. It can't be used as a rabbet plane because the sole is coffin shaped just like the body. The blade is the same width as the sole but the mortise is a quarter of an inch wider than the blade. I assume its been modified but I can't figure out why.
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The strangest things turn up here...
You can't mortice, you can't use it as a rabbit, it's just a plain blade...so..what does it do that it didn't do before?...apparently nothing
The sides are a different depth , so it's useless as a depth stop, and where did all the wood go on the heel?
How odd...
Perhaps someone's idea of lowering friction?
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The strangest things turn up here...
You can't mortice, you can't use it as a rabbit, it's just a plain blade...so..what does it do that it didn't do before?...apparently nothing
The sides are a different depth , so it's useless as a depth stop, and where did all the wood go on the heel?
How odd...
Perhaps someone's idea of lowering friction?
Or had to use it in a tight place to make repairs to something that was otherwise inaccessable
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It most likely was done, in fact, to use as a rabbet plane. I've seen it done, and it does work. My 18th Century carriage maker's rabbet plane is made very much like this.
Our carpenter was had himself a smoothing plane *and* a rabbet plane, all in one tool. If the cap iron got in the way somehow, he could have made a second wedge to secure the blade without the cap iron.
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It most likely was done, in fact, to use as a rabbet plane. I've seen it done, and it does work. My 18th Century carriage maker's rabbet plane is made very much like this.
Would it have worked as a rabbet plane with the rounded sides? I would think it would have been impossible to cut a straight rabbet that way.
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Would it have worked as a rabbet plane with the rounded sides? I would think it would have been impossible to cut a straight rabbet that way.
I hadn't noticed the curve in the plane's sole, but that rather confirms my opinion. It appears to be one version of a coachmaker's rabbet, made to be used for curved work. The Stanley #68 coachmaker's rabbet spoke shave also has curved sides for just that reason (see picture). I have two brass shop made rabbet spoke shaves, both of which have curved soles. Carriage and coachmakers often dealt with curved work.
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Thanks for the info. I hadn't thought about it that way.
Would Sandusky have made it this way or is modified?
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I figured out today that it would have cut a rabbet with a radius of 1'8".