My scrub plane is the first wooden plane I ever made.  It has a regular
escapement, and is quite narrow.  It wasn’t quite finished when I found I needed
to work some very rough, very green timber.
So I found a blade - something like a No12 from a moulder, sharpened it, and
glued in a rought tote I had intended to finish.  Made up a knob and glued that
in, and set to.
It worked wonderfully.  All the agonising and blether I had read (here,
sometimes)  meant nothing.  It has stayed as a scrub plane ever since.  Most
recently it did duty on some part dried beech which a fellow green woodworker
needed flat  (actually he’s a ranger at an urban park/reserve down near the
Tyne, and is only beginning a journey into spokeshaves, bench planes, and real
joints after a life of farm gate hinge setting, stiles, thinning, felling, and
so forth)
It can dig out a near 1/8 divot at a time - narrow, but deep.  A few strokes and
the job is done.  Because it is narrow, the ‘lands’ on each side of the mouth
form a natural depth stop if you were to run it over the same place twice.  If
forces you to alter your angle and line on each stroke.


All of that to say - think laterally if you are altering a No4.  First off - you
need a wide mouth.  No, wider than that.  Second, don’t aim to camber the entire
width of the blade.  Grind back 5/8 at each side, and make a deep curved cutting
edge in the centre. - like a mouth with only the two centre teeth in place.


Here - I’ll take photos.. I’m not going to make ascii art work for this.



Right.  photos going up now.  I see the blade is clearly marked, and I’ve set it
for a green wood job.  plenty of depth, but not much width, so you can really
clear timber going cross grain.
I also find that I’d got that Tote ready for install on a bench plane - drilled
for the rod and footscrew and all.  I could just use that right now for a
restore I’m busy with.


Richard Wilson
Yorkshireman Galoot.

Pics in my album here in groups.io 


> On 5 May 2021, at 14:01, Andrew Heybey  wrote:
> 
> On May 5, 2021, at 12:01 AM, Ken Wright via groups.io
 wrote:
>> 
>> Gathered Galoots,
>> 
>> Andrew's post got me to thinking.  I have a crappy Stanley "Handyman"
>> #3 that I'd like to use as a scrub.  Can anyone recommend a radius to
>> grind the iron?  Or is that more a matter of personal taste?
> 
> I watched Paul Seller’s “turn a #4 into a scrub plane” video and IIRC he did 7
1/8”.  I did about 6.5” because that was as wide as the compass I had on hand
would go :-).
> 
>> On Mon, 2021-05-03 at 22:41 -0400, Andrew Heybey wrote:
>>> I have turned my crappy Stanley “Handyman” #4 into a scrub plane by
>>> grinding the iron in an arc,     
>>> https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/263744/3219531, and started in 
>> 
>> On a personal note, the gem of my tools is my Stanley Handyman #4.  It
>> was my father's, and was the first plane I ever used.  I wouldn't part
>> with it for anything!
> 
> Mine was also my father’s, though he was not a woodworker and I don’t actually
ever remember him using it.  It’s mouth is a little wider than my other #4s
which is a good thing in this case.
> 
> andrew
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



-- 
Yorkshireman Galoot
in the most northerly county, farther north even than Yorkshire
IT #300