This is part 4 in my plane tune-up series. In this post, I’ll be fettling the body of the plane. I got it back from the machinist a while ago, about two weeks after dropping it off. However, I didn’t take a good look at it when I picked it up. Steve at Winger Tool was having some problems with his grinding wheel and the sole wasn’t as smooth as I wanted. It was probably just fine from a functional standpoint, but it didn’t look that great, certainly not up to his usual standards. It took me a while to get it back down to him…
He cleaned it up for me, taking off an additional two or three thousandths. Here’s a photo of the bottom.
The grinding process leaves the edges of the body pretty sharp. I use a mill smooth file to lightly file the side edges, hitting them just enough to keep them from cutting me.
Similarly, I file the front and back edges. I’m careful not to remove too much material here, as rounding these areas too much may allow the plane, in use, to ride up and over shavings or debris in its path. Here are before and after shots of the back edge of the plane.
The mouth of the plane is next. The mouth holds the shaving down during use to help reduce tearout. In order to do that well, the front edge of the mouth should be square to the body and straight. It should also be relatively sharp; when viewed from the side of the plane, the arris between the sole and the vertical part of the mouth should not have any radius. Here, I’m checking the mouth with a combination square.
Another view of the mouth prior to modification:
The mouth on this plane is surprisingly good. Typically, they aren’t quite square and rarely this straight. It won’t take much to get this one in fine shape. I’ll discuss fettling the mouth in the next post.
























