Stuff I liked lately on wkfinetools.com

[Arlin Eastman]

Thank you for the link and I will keep it and use it.  So much neat things to read.

[EricU]

I don't think any of them were ever ground.  The new ones were sanded.  I have a 20 y.o. #5c that's about to be shot out the airlock because it was rotated across its width while it was on the belt. I started to try to flatten it and realized that life is too short. The old ones are really smooth.  Not sure if that's evidence that they were on a planer or not

[Arlin Eastman]

I found the "machining' process described to be quite informative.  I don't believe what is described would be termed as machining (surface grinding) today.  Back then they had a process known as "linishing", which is kind of a more robust belt sander that we use today.  When I look at the couple of NOS planes I have from Stanley, they look like they have been sanded, as opposed to ground.  The marks are not consistent with a precision truing of a surface and look as if the casting might have be held by hand during the process.  Either I am close to correct on this or the castings distorted with age, because most planes are far from flat and true when found today.  It's hard to believe that wear causes this, particularly when the rest of the tool shows no signs of wear.

Mike

A lot of that maybe they did not let the iron sit for a while outside (I forget the term) to let it age and then do all of the machining.  They do that today with TS tops and many other big and small solid metal pieces.

[C. in Indy]

FYI,  I just exchanged e-mails with Wiktor.   While he has had a "donate via Paypal" link up for several weeks, very few have volunteered.  If you're feeling grateful for his excellent work, please consider donating.

Thanks,
Chris

[Adnick]

Here is a great one, didn't know such a thing existed:

http://contrib2.wkfinetools.com/priceJ/b...ool-01.asp