converting a 604-1/2 to a Knight smoother (long)
Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI
>I chose to go first in the planing contest, as I wasn't really afraid of getting beaten, and expected to learn a bit, which I ended up doing. I hope this was the first annual contest, as I think it is interesting to take theory beyond the armchair and see what the actual results are. We ended up deciding the thinnest shaving would win, with the length being a possible tie-breaker, and if there was still a tie we would go to a white oak board that threatened even my Hock iron.
I had been using a 604-1/2 smoother with a Hock iron as my regular smoother plane, and I chose to use it for the contest. I had never really checked the flatness of the bottom or done much tuning on it, so I started working on it last Sunday afternoon. I checked the fit of the frog; a Bedrock frog usually does not need any fettling in my experience, although I did not using bluing to check how it fit, I just set it on the plane and checked to see if I could rock it at all. As near as I could tell it fit flat. I checked the bottom of the plane next (with the iron installed) . The toe was higher than the rest of the plane quite a bit, as was the heel, with a small high spot in front of the mouth. By "high spot" I mean the spot in front of the plane was hgiher than the rest of the sole when the plane was set on the board for planing. I flattened the plane until there was just a small area on the toe and heel that wasn't contacting yet, but the area in front of the iron was nice and flat and there was a good sized flattened length of the plane, enough that I wouldn't have any problems with it rocking. I smoothed the cap iron, sharpened the iron, and went to work.
I found it difficult to make a lateral adjustment with the lever that was just right. I worked on it quite a while on Friday night, and finally figured out I would not use the lever and would just make the lateral adjust with a hammer. I found it fairly easy to get a shaving that was under .002, and after I was done on Friday night I was getting shavings that were consistently under .001 on cherry, measured with my Lufkin micrometer. I put the final touches on the iron, made a few more shavings, removed the iron and taped it to a board in hopes that it would not get banged against anything on the three hour drive in the morning.
I was looking forward to the planing contest, although the real highlight of the day was meeting a lot of people face to face that I normally only see online. The boards for the contest were set up, beautiful cherry boards with pretty good straight grain. I was confident that I would make a good showing with my plane, and figured I would give it my best shot and see what happened. Since I was the first to go, and I was pretty confident I could get a full length shaving that was what I was aiming for; a full width, full length shaving. I figured it would be pretty hard to beat, but wasn't really thinking far enough ahead. If I was to do this again, I would first use a jointer plane to flatten the edge, and then my smoother to get a shaving for the contest. As it was, I took a number of strokes on the board to flatten the edge, and there seemed to be a low spot toward the far end that I couldn't straighten. I ended up having to rewax the sole on my plane after a number of passes, as the plane started to show enough resistance that the supports rocked. I had left my wax in the car. I tend to not let much of anything fluster me, and I don't know if it showed or not but having a crowd of people standing around watching me plane a board flusters me. I got a little nervous, and set the dpeth of the plane a little deeper still in hopes of getting a full width and full length shaving. Of course my iron is getting a little duller with every pass, and I never did get the full length shaving. At one point I was getting pretty nice shavings, and probably thinner shavings than the one I submitted for the contest. It was kind of satisfying to hear the comments in the background, as there were a number of people there who had rarely seen what a sharp plane is really capable of doing. I ended up submitting a shaving that I figured was my best shot, but suffice it to say if there will be things I will do differently if I do this again.
The contest was judged based primarily on the thinnest shavings. I went first, so the other contestant knew what they had to do to beat me; get a thinner shaving. It was really fun to be done with my part and watch them do their best to beat me. I was up against stiff competition; a Lie Nielsen 4-1/2, 62, and another LN plane that I don't know the number of. With the criteria being the thinnest shaving with a minimum length of 12", I should have focused simply on getting the thinnest shaving possible, but had tried for a full length instead. I did a little figuring today, and I'm pretty sure if we had taken the length of the shaving in inches and divided it by the average thickness, with the highest number winning, I would have won and John Weber would have come in second with his LN 4-1/2. I averaged a .0014 shaving around 40" long I think. If we can make this an annual thing, it will be interesting to see how the competition grows stiffer and the rules evolve. I think it's a great plan and a great contest.
I have had my eye on the LV medium shoulder plane ever since they came out, and I just have to have one. I saw the LV large shoulder plane that was one of the prizes on Saturday, and wanted it. I figured on buying the medium shoulder plane anyway and having both the large and medium. The large shoulder plane that I saw Saturday is an awesome tool. I could write a lot of adjectives about it, but will just say that I plan on having one before the end of the year; perhaps it'll be what I buy myself for Christmas ;) I have wanted one for so long that I didn't look at the Knight smoother much, other than a cursory examination that left me impressed with the weight and workmanship. Mac ended up beating me in the competition, so he got the shoulder plane he wanted, and I ended up getting the Knight smoother.
I am used to Bailey planes, and adjusting the woodies is much harder for me, the Baileys work okay for me, so the Knight smoother is not something I would ever have bought for myself; until now that is. I am seriously impressed with this plane. I have had my hands on a Clark & Williams smoother, and was impressed with how well it works. I have an early Knight smoother that is a nice plane, but I haven't used it much after the initial setting up and trying it out. The smoother I won yesterday is a whole different plane. It is farily easy for me to see how Steve has progressed as a plane maker; the way the wedge on this smoother tightens and locks the iron into position is a whole different story from his earlier plane I have. I looked the plane over this morning; purpleheart body, and I think it has a lignum vitae sole and mouth wedge; correct me if I'm wrong Steve. The body is filled with lead to make it heavier. The iron is bedded at 60�. I was trying to figure out if the extra weight would be any advantage, until I used it today. After thinking it over I figured this plane was made for smoothing difficult woods, so pulled out a peice of curly maple this afternoon after sharpening the iron that we had abused yesterday. The iron locks into position well and adjusts well; it will take me some time to get used to it, and the high bedding angle makes it more difficult for me to get a paper thin shaving, but I found it fairly easy to adjust to work well. It made very short work of the curly maple with 0 tearout. After playing around with it some this afternoon, I am very thankful I didn't win the competition and get the shoulder plane instead of the Knight smoother; there must have been someone up above watching out for me ;) This is an awesome plane, and I will use it every time I am faced with a difficult board to smooth before I reach for a scraper, and may not even need my scraper any more. After it acclimates to my shop in a few weeks I'll flatten the sole and put it through it's paces to see what it can really do; I'll have pictures and perhaps a longer writeup at that point. If you read all this, I hope you can see how pumped up I am about planing, and hopefully come out and try to beat me at next year's competition. Thank You to Steve Knight for an incredible plane.