Bailey #4 Hand Plane Restoration : Day 2
RECAP : DAY 1
In the previous day I disassembled the plane and started trying to remove all the rust from the parts by soaking it in a bath of white vinegar and salt and I have to say that it did a great job.
TODAY’S EVENTS
I needed to go out and get some supplies for the shop today and while I was at it I decided to visit my favorite woodworking shop and that is Woodcraft while I was there I picked up some sanding paper and also purchased the Veritas Honing Jig MKII. My old eclipse style honing jig was just not cutting it as far as sharpening anything in my shop and so I decided to upgrade it, the jig is very nice and I will get to using it tomorrow, bit more about that later.
HERE IS WHAT I DID TODAY
Removed the plane parts from the vinegar solution
My temporary sharpening station
The Veritas MKII honing jig
REMOVING THE PLANE PARTS FROM VINEGAR
As I said the vinegar method that I saw on Jay Bates Youtube channel that I previously talked about really did a nice job, when I opened the lid to the container I saw all the rust residue floating on the water so I could tell it did a decent job, in the picture below you can see the immediate effect this had on most of the parts.
In the future I really need to establish a set sharpening station in the shop as I see a lot of hand-tool use going going forward.
Most of the rust is gone, and I didn’t use any harsh chemicals which is something that I am please about.
TEMPORARY SHARPENING STATION
When I was researching online for the best method in cleaning up the plane lots of people had lots of different methods but I went with the cheapest and also the most used method and that was using a couple different grits of sandpaper on a true flat surface.
I had a little assembly table that I use from time to time and figured this would be ideal because of its height and its medium sized work surface.
Since I needed a known flat surface and I didn’t really want to use my cast iron wings on my table-saw I found some solid granite floor tiles that fit the bill so I used them and added 3 different grits of sand paper to the , so I also used some contact adhesive to attach the sandpaper to the granite tiles, and so far its working good.
While I am thinking about I recently saw a guy use Micron sandpaper it had a different consistency than sandpaper and it is a little more expensive but it had really nice results.
Here you can see my 3 granite stones with my regular sandpaper on it, I used 120 - 320 grit paper.
I used this setup to start flattening the plane sole and I think that came out great, I have pictures below.
Plane sole looks great
A rear view of the plane bed.
I used WD-40 to clean the black painting on the inside of the plane and it came out awesome.
While I am talking about cleaning the plane parts I also cleaned every component of the plane and sanded everything, I also used by bench grinder with a buffing wheel to polish the brass screws to a high sheen, I need to do a little more and I will show you the results. I also used a wire brush in my drill press to help clean some parts especially the frog because there were some very hard places to reach and while I was cleaning the frog I couldn’t help but remove the japanning so I I resprayed the frog, that’s all the plane cleaned, I need to sharpen the plane blade tomorrow and I got a nice tool to aid me with that, more about that next.
VERITAS MKII HONING JIG
I had a very old eclipse style honing guide that was pretty inexpensive and it served its purpose but I needed a better honing jig because I needed more help getting a scary sharp edge on my chisels and plane blades so I purchased the Veritas honing jig , its not that cheap but in this craft you get what you pay for.
Here you can the blade registration jig that has a dovetail on the back to register into the main honing guide, once the blade is aligned with honing degree bevel via a stop block you can remove it and start honing the blade.
Here is the main honing guide, there are 2 thumbscrews that tighten the jaws that securely hold the plane in place.
The honing jig is made extremely well with a solid construction. The Veritas Mk. II will set bevel angles from 15° to 54° and back bevels from 10° to 20°, and it will accommodate blades from 1/4" to 2-7/8" in width. Included is a blade registration jig which slides onto the guide body, centering and squaring the blade with the integral fence ensuring accuracy. Features include a blade stop that has discrete positions for preset bevels and a three-position eccentric roller that allows you to hone micro bevels quickly and accurately with a simple turn of a knob. Manufactured from die-cast zinc with precision machined brass and steel parts.
That’s all I have for today, tomorrow I need to sharpen the blade and put the plane back together and hopefully start using it.
Until then, take care