How to Fix a Clogging Hand Plane Mouth | Hand Plane Foundations

Welcome to my Hand Plane Foundations course. In this course I'm going to introduce the different types of bench planes and discuss their setup and use, focusing on the planes you’ll need most as a new hand tool woodworker. I’ll cover sharpening the iron, setting up the cap iron, and troubleshooting and tuning the tool up to perform at its best. I’ll finish up by building a modern two tone cutting board from some beautiful North American hardwoods, completely by hand.

[@joeleonetti8976]

Thanks Bob. One of the things I do to my well fitting cap iron is give it a few swipes on my strop after I sharpen and strop my iron. My thought is that during use, sap and resin can build up on the cap iron and a few swipes on the charged strop (keeping in mind the angle like you did) cleans off any gunk build up.

[@BRFineWoodworking]

Definitely a good idea. I often do the same myself. If I don’t strop it I at least clean it to remove the gunk.

[@HouseDoctorRay]

Thanks Bob.

[@kz.irudimen]

Perfect, I just finished cleaning up my new (to me) Record No 04 and I needed to find how to properly dress the cap iron :)

[@davidclark9086]

Very well made and informative video.

[@edwardog]

Super good stuff.

[@dpmeyer4867]

thanks, good info as always

[@cfbarnett]

Looking at the video at the 3:45 mark or so, surely that is not the setback of the cap iron from the edge of the iron? I've always heard that you shoot for about 1/32 of an inch.

[@BRFineWoodworking]

No, of course not 😂. The cap iron is just pulled back to make it clear how there’s a significant gap between it and the cutting iron.

[@cfbarnett]

Thank you. Good stuff!

[@BRFineWoodworking]

Thanks!

[@HusseinAbdi-l2k]

Nice one

[@aslamtu]

Thank you

[@reaper060670]

Is it best practice to use Sand Paper on a flat hard surface for flattening the Sole of a plane?

[@reaper060670]

I picked up a finishing plan a while back. I'm having issues with the plane blade where it's not level all the way across. I sharpened it correctly but it left small breaks on the edge. U can clearly see it as i little bits broke off. It's not the usual from the back end of the bevel like normal. Something else is going on with this blade. Could it just be a bad blade from the manufacturer. Now I have to also say that it cost me 40 odd euros. It was a 1st buy on finishing planes for me. I bought cheap to learn on. Maybe that's wrong but I wasn't spending big the 1st time bcos I honestly didn't know if it was something I would enjoy that much. I love it now but I still want to learn how to get the best from this plane before moving up to a really good hand plane.. Is it just a bad Iron or could it be something I was doing wrong? I would very much appreciate some advice on this subject if u have a minute please.. Thanks for this video too btw. It helps a lot.

[@Tobsen660]

I like that you speak of a capiron rather than a chipbraker. In my opinion that's what it is and it's a myth that the capiron breaks any chips. Setting it close to the edge helps stabilize the blade but have no Interaktion with the cuttingaktion. What's your opinion?

[@BRFineWoodworking]

There’s really no opinion in this matter. The interaction of the cap iron with the shaving is not a myth but is a fact proven by research. The cap iron 100% absolutely does interact with the shaving, but only if it is set close enough to the edge of the cutting iron. To see the research that was done on this use your search engine to look for the video published by Japanese professors Kawai and Kato. It is very clear from their research that the cap iron will absolutely break the shaving and help with tearout, but only if it is set up correctly. I will touch on this more in the next installment of this course (video to be published on Friday).

[@Tobsen660]

@@BRFineWoodworking this is great! Thank you very much. I now do believe in an effect of the chipbraker. Interestingly the effect got better when the edge of the capiron was about 80⁰ what seems to me much stepper than what we usually have on the western planes. Thanks again!

[@mizikacibalik]

My problem is that, the mouth is small for the blade so, When i advance the iron forward for heavy stock removal there is almost no gap between the blade and mouth opening. And if i try to put frog back to compensate it, then there is not enough adjustment that blade almost not stick out. And tried bunch of times for the find a sweet spot but failed its either too close or iron can't stick out. And i did file the mouth to open it but at one point it felt like i'm taking off to much and might effect the integrity of the plane idk. Is there any guidelines to look for for fixing this issue?

[@SkylersRants]

Where was this video several yeara ago when I found my dad's No. 6 Stanley and it got clogged up so often? It took me a long time to figure it out.

[@BRFineWoodworking]

Sorry! Better late than never, right? 😁

[@SkylersRants]

@@BRFineWoodworking The good news is that because it wouldn't work, I started to research planes and then other hand tools extensively. It's become quite a hobby. I'm still a terrible woodworker, but you don't have to be good at a hobby to like it! :)

[@elioth.g.w2976]

Thank you for these