It will plane!

I used the restored Stanley #101 plane for the first time in anger yesterday and it performed so,so well. Here I’m planning the part of the walnut archtop’s fretboard extension/support. I’m doing a video of the whole neck to body process, so watch this space.

101 Resurrection

You’ll remember a few posts back the old Stanley #101 plane? Since then I’ve made this new cap iron from some brass. (Just a hack saw and files used for shaping).

 And I’m glad to say this old chap is now back in service; originally made around 120 years ago and repaired by me 120 years later!

I was fortunate to have a box of nice 2BA thumb screws knocking about- when I was at the LCF back in the 1970’s, fellow student luthier Bill Dinsdale and I, used to club together to buy supplies in bulk, we must have bought at least 40 of  these for the purfling cutters that we made in the metal work classes.

 I’ve now used 3 and got 17 left!

Planes!

No doubt, you’ll remember that in previous posts I’ve extolled the virtues of my Veritas miniature block plane. Well, not anymore!

The thread on the small screw, which holds in place the cap iron, has stripped thus rendering it unusable.  I got on to Axminster and you can get a replacement screw, which I’ve ordered, so now all I have to do is wait 12 weeks for it to arrive! Looking at the plane’s design I can’t help feeling the some of the components are just too small to be robust enough for daily luthier usage.
Coincidentally, at the weekend, I picked-up this old Stanley #101 plane.

 Back when it was first introduced, it was sold by Stanley as a toy plane, but as it proved popular with craftsman it was re-advertised as small plane block plane.
Unfortunately the cap iron has broken, so the intention is to make a new one from some brass.

The wee plane is clearly old and after looking at various web-sites, it seems that the S foundry mark on its castings means that it was made between 1894 to 1902. At least 116 year old then! Not sure if the complex miniature mechanism of the Veritas will last that long (well, not if I use it regularly!).