To tune a plane, start by removing the blade. On a flat, hard surface, such as a table saw table (cast iron), a 3/8" thick piece plate glass, a Formica table top or other flat surface, place a full sheet of 220 emery (you will need several sheets). Pour on a little water and with even hand pressure using circular strokes, flatten the sole of the plane. This takes a while to complete. You will see the witness marks from the emery and you just keep going until all the factory sanding marks are gone. You don't have to go any finer than 220 grit but some guys like to have a mirror finish and get down to a 400 grit or finer, but I don't think that is necessary as the sole will get scratched immediately in use anyway. The concern here is to get the sole flat.

Next, close the throat plate all the way and make sure the opening slit is square to the sides of the plane and the gap is the same all the way across. You may have to file (8" mill file) the edge the moveable throat plate or the slit in the plane. Be careful on the slit in the plane -- the cast iron is very brittle there.

Next, with everything removed from the plane, lay the blade in position on the anvil and look underneath the blade at the throat opening. Make sure the blade lies flat across the base of the throat opening. If not, remove the blade, and lay the mill file on the anvil and extend it out the throat opening and gently file until the blade lays flat. Check frequently! Put some electrical tape on the file so you don't file down the anvil and change the blade angle.

Finally, with 220 paper, sand the sides of the plane to get a smooth feel to the grip then sand all edges and corners to remove any sharp areas. You may want to put a coat of lacquer on the sides.

This will give you superbly comfortable and great performing plane. It may take a couple of hours or more on your first one, but it is worth it! Do this to all your block planes and you won't believe the difference it makes in your planing. (John Long)

I've got another one of my typical rookie questions, thanks for putting up with me. Another interest of mine is homebrewing, which has an incredible internet list similar in many ways to Rodmakers. On the Homebrew Digest, when a rookie or lurker asks a basic question it often times turns in to a thread that ultimately fleshes out a new insight unknown to the more experienced brewers. Anyway, I hope my newbie questions have a similar effect along with helping out lurkers who don't want to ask the stupid questions that I do. Thanks for hanging in so far...

I bought a new Stanley 9 1/2. I soled the plane and grooved it. I sanded the blade slide area where it exits the plane. I bought a new Hock blade, and sharpened it on the water stone, and flattened the backside. Before I use the plane, I sight the blade so that it is even (parallel) with the sole and at a depth that will produce the desired cut. I do this using the lateral adjustment and the depth adjustment. This has worked fine for me, but I am a little worried because the blade isn't square to the throat opening. If I look straight down on top of the plane, the edge of the blade is not square to the throat, but is at an angle. Seems like the edge of the blade should be parallel with the throat. It looks like one side of the blade should extend deeper on the sole than the other side, producing and angled cut. However, this doesn't happen, I can plane down to the forms and produce equal sided cross-sections. Should I be worried about this, and is this normal? 

IMRR - is my rod ruined? (Kyle Druey)

On my Stanley there is an adjustment for the side to side rock of the blade. Yours should have it, if it is a newer one. Look at the plane again and see if it has a two little tabs that hang down just under the blade (near the forward adjustment screw). These are it. If it doesn't have this, you might have an older model. You can just tap the blade to (side to side) level it if your model doesn't have this. (Tony Miller)

This is a classic example of how far Stanley has fallen from the quality level it used to maintain. I have a 60 1/2 that has the same problem, it is because the part of the body the blade rests on where it comes out isn't ground correctly, mine has more metal on one side than the other. I do hereby warn one and all about planes (even name brands) purchased new at flea markets! Fortunately for me, I bought this marvelous piece of work years ago to use on the job (carpenter), not for rodmaking, so it is no big deal to me, at least it was cheap. Kyle, take the blade out and look at the edge of the opening where the blade sits, it should be an even sharp edge all the way across, if it isn't, either toss it or get out a file and fix it. (John Channer)

The blade contact area on the body had one side higher than the other. I guess that's what I get for buying Chinese made tools. The $25 difference between the Stanley and the Record looked good at the time, but I have easily spent 5 or 6 hours "tuning" up this bad boy. Guess my time is worth less than minimum wage these days, sure can tell that by the $0.50 year end bonus I got this year.

I filed down the blade contact area so that it was even all the way across. The blade now aligns square to the throat after it has been sighted parallel to the sole. Thank you. (Kyle Druey)

Look at it as knowledge gained, not time wasted. Almost any plane can benefit from tuning. A much more common problem is a heavy paint edge on the bed, which creates the same condition you just corrected. (Larry Blan)

It's pretty much normal. Shouldn't be but is. All you need to be concerned with is the iron (blade) edge is square with the surface of the sole. (Tony Young)

Just got finished working on my Stanley plane, it was giving me fits on keeping the apex on top. Seems like I've always fought it with this plane, and I think I know why. I believe the throat of this plane was not correct, as I filed the throat until the blade depth was even all the way across the sole of the plane. If it is not, it's like tilting the plane and trying to not chase the apex. Some new guys might be fighting this thing like crazy, because of the throat area. Sure this is not new news, but... taking the plane apart, and filing it might keep some guys from becoming too frustrated. (Jerry Andrews)

On the last rod I attempted to make, the tips came out fine. When I planed the butt, I chased angles till I had no choice but chucking the strips. I am going to flatten the sole and I will file down or sand the throat as someone (Tom Smithwick?) posted on the tips site. (Mike Canazon)

That's a very common problem with newer Stanley's and will drive you nuts until you figure it out. I was lucky, I had a bad one for use at work years ago, so I knew to look for it when my first few strips with a new plane didn't come out as expected, sure enough, throat was way out of whack, fixed that and the angles fell in line. Another fine reason to get a Lie-Nielsen. (John Channer)

How do you know when your plane is properly tuned? For someone who has never been around tools like these before what can I do to make sure my planes are in top working order? I purchased a couple (9 1/2 and 9 1/4) off of eBay and all I have to them so far is to sand out the small gouges on the bottom of the sole on a sheet of glass. But there must be more to it then that. (Scott Wolfe)

Keep sanding the bottom on the glass until the whole sole is shiny, many Stanleys don't have flat soles. Another very important thing to check is the throat of the plane where the blade sits, take the blade out and look at where it sits from the bottom side of the plane under magnification and make sure the back of the throat is even all the way across. It is not unusual to find planes that are thinner on one side than the other, this makes it impossible to set the blade right, it will cant to the narrow side no matter how you adjust it. If it is not even, use a file and make it so. (John Channer)

Check out the excellent resource by our own Tom Smithwick found here. (Bob Maulucci)

I was planing last night and noticed that with one of my planes (both the new made-in-England Stanley), no matter how I fiddle with the blade, it always extends more on the left side. When I was getting down to the last 0.010s, I could only plane with the far left side of the plane.

Now, I JUST flattened and sharpened that blade. I notice that there is some pebbly looking metal where the blade tip touches the plane.

Do I remember someone saying that one should sand this area of the plane to remove machining marks? Have I answered my own question, here - or is it something EVEN MORE SINISTER??? (Joe West)

The old Stanleys have a lever that you can use to adjust the squareness of blade to the sole. Not all planes have them so I'm not sure that the new English Stanleys do. The Stanley clones made by Record do. (Maybe we are talking the same plane here.)

I've got a book about planes at home that goes through a procedure for tuning a plane. Gives you all the real names to the parts of a plane like throat, frog, sole etc. Actually anywhere that the blade comes into contact with the plane needs to be lapped flat. On Todd's site, Tom Smithwick has a good article on tuning up a plane and there are other articles floating around in space on the internet.

Before I would do too much I'd verify that the edge of the blade is square to the side of the blade. (Tim Wilhelm)

If you haven't tuned your plane yet, you should do that. You need to flatten the sole of the plane, and on Stanley planes you should also clean up the bed of the plane where the blade rests. Tom Smithwick has a quick tutorial on Todd Talsma's tips site.

If you have already flattened the sole, take a close look at the gap between the edge of the blade and the front of the slot (throat) where the blade protrudes. If the gap is uniform across the plane and the blade protrudes more on the left side, IE, it will only cut on the left side of the plane, the problem is with the body of the plane.

Take the plane completely apart and carefully examine the bed, where the blade rests. If you are lucky and there is some "pebbly looking metal", or some debris from machining on the right side of the bed near the throat of the plane, you may be able to simply remove that with a file. Use a file, do not sand the bed of the plane. Do this slowly and carefully, and check you progress frequently. You need to make sure that you keep the bed perfectly flat. That's why you can't sand it.

If there is not debris in the bed of the plane, mic the edge at the back of the throat where the blade rests, and I think you'll find that right side is thicker than the left. I have both the Stanley 9 1/2, and the Stanley 60 1/2, both newer models made in England. When I flattened the sole of the 9 1/2, it took off several thousandths more on one side of the sole near the throat than it did on the other side. In order to get the blade to take a uniform shaving, I had to skew the blade pretty severely. You need to file the right side of the bed until the the edge along the back of the throat is uniform in thickness. I repeat: you need to do this very slowly and carefully, and check your progress frequently, to make sure that you keep the bed perfectly flat. (Robert Kope)

I own more than my share of hand planes. Lately I've been using three different Stanley 9.5's (the old style); and one newer model Stanley G12-020 (modern version 9.5) I've got several more planes, but those are my everyday "users".

Here's my quandary. One of the planes is markedly better than the rest. Not in appearance, but in function. It isn't the best looking of the four planes. In fact, it's more worn than any of the others; less Japanning, etc. But it zips and sings as it cuts it's way through bamboo. I can change the blades out between planes, and this one plane always comes through as the best. Never tears a node. I've examined all of the planes closely to see if I can figure out why this plane is best, but haven't got a clue. One of the 9.5's is made differently than the rest (not the good one). The inner area of the sole on which the flat part of the blade rests is 3/4" long. On the others, it's about 3/8". The good plane is one of those with the shorter bedding area for the blade.

Any ideas about what might make this plane so superior to the others? (Harry Boyd)

I don't know how to explain the difference between planes, but I have somewhat similar experiences. I have 8 planes that I have used at various times over the last 10 years. I've gone from the old high carbon blades to standard blades, to Hock blades, to A2 blades, and currently, high speed steel (HSS) blades made by local toolmaker, Alan Taylor. I just finished the splines for three rods (54 individual splines) using the HSS blades to do the final planing to size. The shavings on the final sizing are buttery smooth and node tearing just doesn't seem to be a problem (yet!) The HSS blades seem to wear, and wear, and wear. I did touch up the blades midway through the 54 strips, but I'm not sure that it was necessary. At present I use a 50 year old Bailey #4 1/2 with a A2 blade from Lee Valley to rough the strips down to about .030" oversize. Then I use a Stanley #9 1/2 with one of Alan's HSS blades to plane to final size. I've found that fine tuning the plane is crucial to good results. The plane bottom must be perfectly flat, and the mouth opening must be at exactly 90 degrees to the body of the plane. It's serendipity when you get a combination that works. (Ted Knott)

You get that and it's weird.

About all I can think is the bed is slightly differently angled so the iron sits in a slightly different way or the bed is better ground so the iron sits in such a way there is less chatter or something like that.

I get the same with chisels though I think the reason some chisels are better than others is the steel gets compacted with age due to all the pounding which improves them. The better the chisel the more it's used so the better it gets. I have a very old chisel that is simply a pleasure to use. It's a bench chisel made by an old long defunct Australian company made in a style they called Cast Steel. It's not cast steel of course but is a combination of cast iron and steel sort of like the way Japanese chisels are made but not in a channel as the Japanese chisels are done, these guys laminated the layers one on to the other. After seeing how well it works I went on a buying binge and collected every one of it's kind I could find but none are as good.

Did the same thing making chisels from Tojo coil springs. One is superb and I've made about 20 since trying to make more the same. Some are close but none as good though all are what you'd call good to use. As far as I can tell I'm doing everything the same but they just don't cut the mustard. All I can think is I hammered this chisel more and the steel benefitted for it though anybody who ever made a chisel for a coil spring knows there is a lot of hammering done anyhow. The tempering and annealing and all that is the same so I don't know. If I can ever get it right I'll be a very happy little chisel maker. (Tony Young)

I have had similar experiences. I have one more piece of data to add to the puzzle. I have a Stanley 9.5 that I use for initial tapering and a Lie-Nielsen I reserve for final tapering. The Stanley I had for years, the Lie-Nielsen only a few years. I use the "scary sharp" method followed by water stones for both blades. As time has passed, I have found I can not get the Lie-Nielsen to get as sharp as the Stanley. Its gotten so bad I have thought about getting a replacement blade just to understand if is it something intrinsically different with the blade, or has somehow my sharpening technique failed me. I can recall when I built my first rod, the guy who taught me had dozens of planes. He had 6 Lie-Nielsen's, all the same type. Each one felt different when cutting strips, even if the same person sharpened them. I have come to the conclusion that planes and or their blades are close to human and each one is a bit different even if they have same upbringing. (Taylor Hogan)

Is it possible that only the very end of the LN blade is hardened, and you have sharpened enough to get past the hardened part? Might give Tom a call and see what he says. (Harry Boyd)

It may be the plane iron has been sharpened beyond it's hardened edge and you're getting into the annealed part of the iron. We rodmakers may well be the last holdouts of hand planing in a big way and most people, even cabinet makers wouldn't wear out a plane iron in a life time. I've worn out 2 just from continual re sharpening. As far as different irons holding edges differently that is quite likely as they'll all have some variation in hardness. (Tony Young)

It could be a lot of things.  Try all the measurements. Length, width, weight. I've got several planes and almost all of them (though 9 1/2's) are different.

Is the adjustment finer on this plane? Double check the angle of the blade at rest. Is it really 20 degrees? Can you tell if anyone's changed anything on it? For example filed the mouth or made other adjustments?

Maybe it just likes bamboo. (Terry Kirkpatrick)