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The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

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The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

#1

The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Some years back, I built a butt mortise plane, when I had to go in and change the swing of the bathroom door in my uncle's house (he kept falling down, and, with the door swinging in, no one could get in to pick him up, so I changed it to swing out instead), and wanted to be able to move fast. Indeed, the entire time I was working, he was in the living room grousing like mad that I didn't need to do that to his house.

Someone recently tried to sell my plane's ancestor on deBay. Nice to know that a similar design was, apparently, once factory made; convergent evolution can be such a comfort. Mine pictured below.


img

DeBay listing

Re: The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

#2

Re: The ancestor of my butt mortise plane

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Bill

I've long admired your plane. A question: how is it used - I've always assumed that it is done from the front face? Is this so, and what about a short Pictorial for us Unenlightened Ones.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

#3

Re: The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

Mark Harrison - Brisbane, Australia

>Derek,

You might want to see the tutorial on the Lie-Nielsen site on their version of this tool. I expect that there would be little if any difference.

Regards,

Mark


http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=40

Re: The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

#4

Re: The ancestor of my butt mortise plane

Greg B�tit, Vergennes VT

>I've got one of LN's making, and I like it a lot. In addition to making butt hinge mortises, I have used it for inlaying maple squares to make a chessboard out of a walnut table top.

But I confess that I have by far used it more with the optional scrub blade. When I get surfaced pine planks for chair seat stock, I often run this little guy over the bottom surface to give it the illusion of being hand planed. The real scrub plane takes way too deep a bite and my other planes have a much more subtle a camber.

BTW, I would be nervous about using this little plane in a true scrub plane role. With the large opening in the sole it seems to me that it might not hold up to real heavy use in this fashion. The plane can't be described as fragile, but neither does it seem to be rugged.

greg

Re: The ancestor of my butt mortise plane *LINK*

#5

Using the butt mortise plane *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I use a slightly different technique than Anthony Guidice does, discussed at the end of my article on making the plane (link below, scroll down to "use" section). His technique sounds really fussy, but, as always, everyone's mileage varies.

Note that the depth setting, as outlined in that article, assumes you're using swaged hinges, where the hinge leaves touch when the hinge is closed. If your hinge leaves don't touch, you'll have to set the plane based on half the hinge's closed "thickness."

I can't do a picture show right now, as I'm neck deep in the kitchen remodel (bad news: rot is worse than expected. Good news: there's clearance for the plumbing vent for the washing machine).


My ramble on the butt mortise plane

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