OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

271326 scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> 2020‑06‑24 something new
Well, I'm incorrigible, and there can be no doubt

Imagine a spokeshave shaped body with a full plane blade in it.
Many years ago I came across a tool base. Never saw another like it. I 
am pretty sure it was a one-off invention someone had. Probably a cooper 
of course haahaha
My guess is, it was conceived to be a swift....
or downright, plucker, cooper's shave

If it ever worked it was missing parts when I met it.
And truly, just between you 'n me, I suspect it never worked.

So I tossed it into the corner and totally forgot about it for years. 
Not that you ever did anything like that I'm sure, lol

One day on a wild hair I decided to make it work.
I quickly found out why it had been hard to get going originally.
I decided to mount an old Stanley plane frog to it, to hold the blade 
and provide adjustments. Only it didn't want to go, at all! I had to 
alter the frog pretty seriously and make a block to get it to mount 
securely, at the proper angle.

Then of course, no normal chipbreaker would work. A regular wouldn't 
reach and a transitional was too long.
So I "moved the slot" on a regular chipbreaker.
With the thick aftermarket blade the adjuster wasn't catching well 
anyway, so I made my added lug thicker.
I silver soldered (brazed) the lug in place and cleaned it up.

For a lever cap I chose a transitional cap and cut it down a bit.

With a quick blade sharpen and a trial, it was working!!

Now, to get a bit of lipstick on the girl.
I have nothing against good ol black. But this is a tool nobody ever 
made before, so I totally got to choose.
I do love a good polished candy apple red!
Transitional lever caps were originally painted black. nothing wrong 
with that. But this was a special.
So I lightly sandblasted it clean, filed and polished the edges and 
smoothed up the little bow in the leading edge. Then I cold blued it. 
Its hard to see in the pic but cold blue doesn't work on cast iron the 
same as steel or copper or brass. It gives a dark color but its also 
iridescent sort of like color case hardening. I hope you can see it 
because I really love the way it looks.

http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/swift3.jpg

Here's how I "moved the slot"
I filed it open and made a lug to fill the space
Due to the thick blade there was a lot of slop in the adjuster so I made 
the lug overlap the chipbreaker, and also much thicker to grip the adjuster
   Its silver soldered on (brazed)

front
http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/swift6.jpg
back
  http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/swift5.jpg


Bye bye

http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/swift7.jpg

   yours scott

-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html

Recent Bios FAQ