The planes work!
Kelby
>I picked up a couple of old Baileys at a local tool sale last summer --- a 5-1/2 and a 4. They are OK, but I tend to reach for my Steve Knight specials instead whenever I need a plane.
Well, today I saw a precision-ground granite plate at Woodcraft, and though "what the heck." I brought it home and started flattening the soles of the old Baileys. They needed it! Lengthwise they were okay, but the 5-1/2 was a wee bit concave left-to-right in front of the mouth, and the 4 was convex left-to-right everywhere. The 4 flattened out in about 10-15 minutes, but the 5-1/2 took about half an hour --- there's a lot of metal on there!
I took two minutes to hone the blade and flatten the chipbreaker on each, and omigosh! They work!
I wasted half a board of birdseye maple just to watch the fluffy shavings come off.
Which leads me to a quick question about sharpening plane blades. How much of an arch do you put on the blade of your jacks and smoothers (so the end doesn't dig in)? I only put about 1/64" of an arch on the smoother blade, but I think maybe I need a little more. I put about 1/32" on the 5-1/2, but I think I may need a little more there too.
I'm always surprised at how long it takes me to put a reasonable arch on the blade, and I tend to get impatient.
Thanks for listening,
Kelby.