>In lieu of the table saw or dado blade, what is the best hand method of making a rabbet. I have a Stanley # 45 I just got and a stanley rabbet plane which may be a #91. I would like to use the rabbet plane. It has a nicker,one is missing, if that is important.
Do I saw a line to establish the shoulder and then plane out the rest. How do I begin to establish a full cut to the shoulder etc. Alternatively, is there a better method with say a backsaw and two cuts- one for shoulder and one for depth, or a shoulder cut and a chisel or??
>Don't know how easy it would be using a 45 (don't own one), but it should be possible.
There has never been a Stanley 91 (AFAIK). The ubiquitous Stanley 87 is the iconic metal rabbet/rebate plane. There were many different wooden planes that work at least equally well.
There is only great trick to planing a rebate. Start from the far end of the rebate and work back towards yourself. Other than that; set the fence, iron depth of cut, set the iron laterally and the depth stop. Then keep planing until nothing more comes out!
You may need to concentrate on keeping the plane fence against the work piece and keeping it moderately square but it is nowhere near the hardest thing to learn.
>Put a 1/8" blade in your #45 and set the fence so that you cut the inside corner of the rabbet. This blade cuts real fast and makes a cleaner shoulder and sharper inside corner than nickers. Once you have your shoulder and corner, clean out the waste with the #45 and a larger blade, or with your rabbet. Good luck.
>I use a LN skew with the nicker and a depth stop or a 78 with a nicker and depth stop.With that setup it's really very easy and quick.The only time I resort to scoring and chiseling is when I can't get at it with a plane.---Jack
>sawing them mostly. The 45 or your rabbit will work fine, provided the grain's fairly stright. No nicker should be needed unless your going across the grain.
In certain situations, I saw rabbets (rebates). But in general, a moving filletster is what you want, and IMO it is one of the least appreciated tools, judging by the amount of ink it gets on these pages.
A moving filletster is a fenced rabbet with a skewed blade, a nicker, and a depth stop. The fence sets the width of cut; the skew puts the blade flush against the wall of the rebate; the nicker provides a crisp arris at the surface and keeps the vertical wall square; and when the depth stop hits bottom, it stops cutting. You will get perfect rebates, if the tool is in tune.
An LN140 is a skew block plane which can be set up to do the job, and will do it well. But the full-size real-deal moving filletster is a revelation.
I have a vintage tool shop near home. If I want a moving filister, will the tool be known by that name?
I said I owned a rabbet plane but I may be wrong about the descrption. It has a bull nose and the right side, (when held in hand) is open so the blade can extend to the edge of the sole of the plane. Is this a rabbet plane? I wonder because it does not have a depth stop or fence as referred to above? Maybe I should call it a shoulder plane?
I will look for a moving filister plane and try the #45 with the 1/8 blade first until I get a filister unless someone advises a better way.
>There are two spellings, filletster or fillister. I believe filister is the English (UK) spelling. There two moving filletsters available on Sanford Moss's site (link below). No affliation with Sanford other than a satisfied customer.
>Good catch, Wendell. I have found that, for an Ebay search, a search term like (filletster, fillester, fillister) will bring up most of them. I believe 'fillester' may be a common UK spelling.
Searching the 'single l' spelling errors might bring up an occasional stray, also.
I seem to recall that ECE makes a moving filletster. But C&W is IT, if you can afford.
When you use your filletster, what is your technique? I have seen several posts recommending starting at the end and workng backwards. In Jim Kingshott's video, he demo's a moving fillister (UK spelling in honor of Mr. Kingshott). He just pushs the plane from the beginning of the board to make the rebate. Granted the board was not very long, but he didn't mention doing it differently either.
It's straightforward--you plane the rebate in the usual fashion, from the near end to the far end. Don't have to back into it. The plane gives an amazingly clean cut.
Better check with C&W on current prices. I paid $360 for mine and I guarantee you, Larry Williams didn't make a nickel on all the work that went into that plane. That's not a gloat--I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach about it. C&W hasn't raised prices in years, and Bill Clark mentioned the other day they may have to.
I'm going to try to link to pictures of the moving filletster at Roger Nixon's website. Hope this works.
>According to a conversation I had with Larry a few months ago - they are no longer making moving filletsters. I serieously hope that in some time in the future they resume.
The nicker is about 1/16" thick, but I have a feeling it's the main blade you're asking about. The main blade is skewed and bevel down. The slant width across the cutting edge is about 1-3/8", which is enough to allow a maximum width rebate of 1-5/16". The max. depth is 1/2".
The boxing is lignum vitae, which is inlet in a curious pattern with a long 'flag' up into the plane body.
>Thanks, Wiley, but it really was the nicker I was asking about. Just from looking at the plane I can't tell much about it. It looks pretty large. So how wide is it? What's the bevel angle? Up or down?
The nicker and its housing took a lot work on this plane--like everything else. It's incredible how every piece of this plane is detailed, but all to a purpose. The nicker is a case in point.
The shape is a long stem which flares into a square flag at the bottom, with a short 1/16" nicker dropping down off the outside edge of the flag to do the cutting. The stem is housed in a closed channel mortised through the body. But the flag is housed in a slot cut into the lignum boxing.
The stem and flag bear against the plane body all the way down. The flag is the exact width of the slot that it sits it--this means that the nicker always aligns precisely with the right edge of the plane. It can't slip out of alignment, because the inside edge of the stem and flag are up against the plane body. So it idiot-proofs the nicker setting--you don't even have to worry about whether the little spur is in alignment, the alignment is built in.
The spur was created by grinding back the bottom of the flag by a 1/16", leaving only the spur at one edge. The spur was then sharpened to a knife shape cutting through the wood. The tip is rounded, so you can back up, too. There is no real bevel angle as we usually discuss it--we're talking about a knife point.
I checked with Bill Clark and Larry Williams as to the remarkable nicker design. I was told this is an old design, which for C&W means no later than 18th century.
While I was at it, I asked about the practice--on a plough plane--of registering the skate to the cutter with a tongue on the skate and a groove on the back of the blade. Was told that design dates back to 1680, and a fellow named John Davenport. This was incorporated by C&W into the plough half of a pair of match planes I recently received--it's a big key to the precision of the pair.
Also asked about the fabulous tote on the 30" jointer received a year ago. It is an English design, circa 1750.
Could it be that the design of wooden handplanes reached its zenith in these days, which seem like a long time ago, but not so long in the great scheme of things? Maybe I am getting more attuned to these things from listening to Adam's teachings.
I truly think that Clark & Williams are deserving of greater attention on the forums than they receive nowadays. Time and again, you can point to an extraordinary feature on a plane received from these gentlemen, and it turns out to have been an old design, evolved over the centuries. I find nothing antique or antiquated about the performance--the old design is the very best that evolution could produce.
And although the context in most of our workshops has changed, the tools are still there at their zenith, reached long ago.
I'll try to refrain from my usual sales pitch on C&W trying planes and jointers.....
Wiley ....but you need one.
No affiliation--I send them money, they send me planes.
>From the photos on their site, the tote on the 30" jointer looks like the jack/panel raiser tote with an added front piece. If so, what's the purpose of that front piece other than to brace the top of the handle? Is it a single piece of wood?
I agree that C&W planes are wondrous. I was a bit taken aback when I received the jack (Joel had told me it was what a jack was supposed to be) and it was more like a long scrub; but it works very well. And it's a great first plane to use when milling rough stock.
I'd love to buy more, but simply don't need any more wooden planes right now.
Please see photo link. The tote is a single block of beech, let into the body of the plane. And yes, the forward arc of the tote carries the planing force to ground in a direct way. If it weren't there, the planing force would be absorbed by the attachment of the 'stalk' part only.
