Bill Henzel started our July meeting with a short presentation about his recent visit to Kyrgyzstan for a Habitat for Humanity project. Kyrgyzstan is 90% mountainous with snow capped peaks. The Habitat team built two houses while there. The framing was sawn by hand from rough lumber harvested on site. The walls were made of reeds covered with a stucco plaster. Radiant heat was built into the floors. The cost per house -- $10,000. He will give us a detailed presentation at our December meeting.

Craig Mineweaser has been honored by the Santa Clara Junior League for his tireless efforts to preserve and restore historic houses in Santa Clara County. See the This 'n That page for more information.

Per Madsen briefly described the upcoming meetings. The August 17 meeting will present information on the ShopBot CNC routers. Bruce Woods will talk about shop CAD programs. The September meeting will be the Annual Dinner and focus on show & tell from the membership. Robbie Fanning says the dinner will cost $20 each and start at 6:30pm. Volunteers are need to help set up for the dinner. Contact Robbie at rfanning@mac.com or 650/323-1183. The October meeting will be a shop visit to Delphi Products in Alameda. The November meeting will be Jigs & Fixtures and the Box Contest. In December we will have the Annual Pot Luck Dessert party and meeting and we will hear more from Bill Henzel about the Habitat for Humanity projects. The Saturday Plane Workshop has been rescheduled for Saturday, September 23 at Woodcraft in San Carlos. Per also said that he received a thank you note from the Sophia Project for the "functional objects of arts" which they received from our Toy Workshop projects. Functional arts are the building blocks sets that were made.

Stan Booker, our Rafflemeister, presented a passel of door prizes, including spring clamps, bungee chords, Gorilla glue, a new wood file with handle (from his shop) and free safety glasses. He also mentioned that the Red Birch also Wenge boards are begging to be won by some deserving member. You know the drill, $1 per ticket or 6 for $5.

On another note, Stan and family are leaving the first week in September for Tanzania and Uganda. He is looking for hand tools that can be donated to vocational schools and native craftspeople. Items can consist of chisels, hand drills, brace and auger bits, carving tools, small planes, small saws, files, sharpening stones etc. or just about anything that may be used to create craft and wood products. Members should bring these items to the August meeting or contact Stan at 510 522-7879 or sbooker07@alamedanet.net for possible pickup. Each family member can take 50 lbs so he can take a whole bunch of stuff and one T-shirt and a tooth brush for himself.

Neil White has a Jet Cabinet saw for sale, see the Classifieds. Arnie has 3 last classes before he closes down his shop, see the Classifieds. Arnie also has all kinds of stuff including veneer and plywood for sale. Jim Voos has a Homecraft Delta Table Saw looking for a home and it's FREE! See the Classifieds.

Our Librarian, Dan Goodman had library materials for check out. If you want a certain item then contact him and he will bring it to the next meeting. He is at 650 299-1822 or dan_m_goodman@yahoo.com.

Show & Tell was next with Richard Winslow showing one of two bedside Maple tables he made. He used a French Polish finish for the first time and likes it very much. The tables have a curved front, curved drawer front and a hidden compartment in the back. Some of the things he learned from making these tables include: make a prototype first it will help you to figure out some design details before you begin the final piece. He would have beveled the stiles to match the curved front and figure out how to cut dovetails in the curved front to match the sides without leaving a small, yet visible gap.

Bill Henzel led a discussion on how to extend the working time of glues such as Titebond II when the ambient temperature is high. Some suggestions were: put the glue in the refrigerator to cool it, put the wood in the refrigerator, do the glue up in the refrigerator, and dilute the glue slightly with water. There have been some reports of glue failure when working with Titebond III in structural bonding. According to Neal White, Lee Valley has extended time (up to 30 minutes) glue.

We had one guest, Gary Roldan who is interested in refinishing, repairs, making bats and construction. He also described some things that he has made.

After a refreshing break with all the goodies baked by and provided by Fred Reicher (recipes provided upon request), we had the main presentation. Neil While moderated a panel of member experts presenting information on hand planes. Don Naples talked about sharpening, Harold Patterson talked about tuning the plane and Neil delved into the history and value of antique planes.

Don Naples

Good sharpening is totally dependent on starting with good steel. Don recommended that the old Stanley steel blades be thrown away and replaced with the thicker Ron Hock or Lee Valley steel. He also recommended that the thicker chip breaker be used instead of the less sturdy Stanley chip breakers. Vibration will be reduced. He pointed out that old wooden coffin planes usually have thick blades and can be found at garage sales and on eBay for around $5.

Recently more attention is being paid to the so-called Scary Sharp method of plane and chisel sharpening. Fine Woodworking has a feature article in the June 2006 issue (our library has a copy). Don says, if you use this sharpening method, be sure to use aluminum oxide sandpaper only. It is a better abrasive and doesn't break down as quickly as the silicon-carbide wet-or-dry variety. There is a problem to be aware of -- swarf, that is, worn abrasive that accumulates on the paper, impairing its cutting effectiveness. Swarf stays on the surface causes lumping, and thereby creates gouges in your tool.

Don showed us the 30X lighted, battery powered hand microscope he uses to inspect blades. It is called the Lumagny and can be purchased from Amazon or Highland Hardware.
Next, Don showed us how to sharpen the cabinet scraper. First, create a dead flat edge on the four sides of the scrapper. He explained how to do this with the Lap Sharp machine. A filed edge is still too ragged. The flat edges are burnished flat with one pass of a burnishing tool held at 90 degrees to the scraper edge. Then make two or three passes at 15 degrees to create the hooked edge. A sharp cabinet scraper will remove ribbons of wood, not just create saw dust. He tried making scrapers from some sheet metal but found the steel to be too hard. He likes the Sanvic and Lie Nielsen scrapers.

Harold Patterson

Harold said to throw away the Stanley blades, too. Get some good steel and sharpen it well. He gets very good results using the Scary Sharp technique. If sharp blades are going to work effectively, the plane must be tuned. Is your plane worth tuning? The adjustors must be sturdy and the frog should be big and flat. He likes Stanley planes built before WWII because the frog has a large flat surface, not just a flat profile surface as is seen on newer planes. The older planes are distinguished by looking at the plane knob. It is not as high as on the newer planes and there is no raised lip in the metal around it.

Bedrock planes can be distinguished by the word "Bedrock" on the lever cap and the plane number on the front of the sole is always preceded by the number "60", as in 60-4. Look for both clues on the same plane otherwise it might be only partly genuine.

When beginning to tune the plane, start by flattening the sole of the plane. He recommends using aluminum oxide sand paper on tempered glass. Begin with 80 grit and focus on three critical areas -- the front, the rear and the throat. All must be in the same plane of flatness. He cleans the paper by passing a rare earth magnet held in a zip lock bag over the paper. Be sure to leave the chip breaker and retracted blade in the plane when flattening the sole. If not under tension, the sole may distort. The sides of the plane must be 90 degrees to the sole. Use a shooting board.

Electrolysis can be used to clean up rusted, old planes. Harold distributed his handout titled, "Restoring metal hand planes." (It can be found in our library.) You need an automotive battery charger, an electrolyte (baking powder), a non-conducting container, a piece of steel to act as an anode or source of new metal to replace the rust on the plane, an insulator and the plane itself. Please read Harold's handout for complete instructions. Before you start the electrolysis, however, Harold recommends you first try the easy way. Get a 3M abrasive pad, soak it in mineral spirits, then scrub your plane to see if the grime can be removed.

Neil White

Old Stanley planes are generally worth about $25. Pre-WWI planes may be worth up to $50-75. Bench planes are numbered 1 to 8. Block planes are numbered up from 100. Parts for used and antique metal planes are available from: Pete Niederberger 415-924-8403 or pniederber@aol.com

Planes are made in two categories and three styles. The two categories are block planes with the blade bevel up and bench planes with the blade bevel down. The three styles are: Smoothing; Joint Making, such as the router plane and rabbet planes; and Shaping Planes such as hollows, rounds and compass planes.

Neil divulged a secret technique for jointing two boards. First, sharpen you plane blade with a slight convexity to it. Next, use a machinist's square to mark the high points on the edges you wish to join; one knick for a slight elevation, two a larger high spot. A line all the way across the board indicates it is flat in that area. Then, use your jointer plane to remove the marks and the designated high spots. It is easy, so try it.

A shooting board is another useful way to flatten boards for jointing. Neil likes to create a ramp on the shooting board so that he can use the whole plane iron and blade, not just one section of it. As the plane rides up the ramp, a new section of blade is exposed to the wood you are cutting. For more information on shooting boards see the David Charlesworth book titled, "Furniture Making Techniques."

He also divulged the answer to the question he posed last month. The question was "Did metal planes replace wooden planes for technical reasons?" You can breathe again because here is his answer. Metal planes became popular because they could be produced more cheaply. AHHHHH!

The meeting ended with the much anticipated door prize raffle with your editor finally winning something! Speaking of raffles, the Red Oak and Wenge are mighty lonely. Buy some tickets.