The Traditional Tools Group Inc.

Screw Threads in wood require: a suitable timber species, to be of V form, to be of course pitch, if they are to prove efficient in use. Traditionally timbers used included beech and horn beam. For occasional use mahogany or pine was also used. In North America maple was substituted for the European preferred species.

The first step is to appraise the moulding plane. If it is very old or rare it is best to leave it alone. If the stock is bowed or worm eaten it is best to leave it alone. If the iron is very heavily rust pitted it is usually beyond use.

This article by J. Geraint Jenkins of the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagan's Castle, Cardiff was originally published in Woodworker magazine in November 1963.  It was reprinted in NEWS #149, August 2016.  It is now re-published as a classic reprint for the TTTG Website.

Just tried the new Sharp Oil. The first thing I noticed was the absence of a strong smell that you get with more volatile liquids like kerosene, citronella, lamp oil or white spirit.

For some time now, I have been intrigued that the tool we in Australia (and in the U.K.) know as the "rebate plane" is (or was).known in the U.S.A. as a "rabbet plane".

Photos from the February 2020 TTTG Tool Sale

For many years a great air of mystery surrounded the selection, heat treatment and use of tool steels. Perhaps this was due to the secretiveness of the early steel-makers. However, it may also have been fostered by the jargon and spiel of commercial marketing, and the seemingly endless parade of ‘new’ types and grades of “high speed steel”. To a certain extent this may still be true today.

The term “high speed steel”, or HSS, is derived from the fact that such steel is capable of cutting metal at a much higher speed than ordinary carbon tool steels. The reason for this performance characteristic is that it has a special property known as “red hardness” meaning that the steel is able to retain its hardness even when heated to dull red and so retains its cutting qualities.

The investigations by Taylor and White, which culminated in the development of ‘high speed steel’, required an exceptionally large amount of money to be spent and infinite patience to be exercised. In 1906, Taylor presented his monumental paper, “On the Art of Cutting Metals,” before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as his presidential address. It was the result of twenty-six years of experimentation during which time more than 800,000 pounds of steel and iron were cut up into chips with experimental tools.