How to make wooden mortising plane work?

[rich pierce]

My lovely wife bought me a large and potentially useful mortising plane. It’s a beast. But there is nowhere for the chips to go. I’m very sad about that!  Ideas?  Should I create an outlet in the whammer-jammer wedge?

[Clint]

Rich,
I'm not sure of what I'm looking at , but it looks like a router. I have a more "modern" Stanley router and the chips fall in front of the bit and are chased out by it (the bit). These routers are a little hard to steer, but are useful to get a uniform depth on ram rod grooves. The mass of the tool helps to reduce chatter. I also have a few old hand made tools that I know I'll never use, but I keep them because I like them.

[rich pierce]

Clint, you’re right, it’s a router. I’m thinking if I made a groove on the base parallel to the cut so the tooth was hanging down with some clearance, the chips would have somewhere to go. Or I could put it on the shelf without altering it. I’m just thinking it must have worked as designed and I have not figured it out yet.

[okieboy]

 It is sometimes difficult to judge things by looking at photographs, but this tool just doesn't look right to me. I've got more planes, spokeshaves, and routers than I can keep track of (better at collecting than anything else), and none of them are set-up without means of chip evacuation.
 One of the things that I have seen in recent years in antique shops and such is stuff that is new made, but made to look like something old and that is how this piece strikes me. I'm sorry to say it, but I think you will have a hard time making a useful tool out of this.

[Eric Kettenburg]

Rich a tool that doesn't work is just junk!  That's how I see it.  That looks cool, and simple, and I'd do whatever you need to do to make it work.  I think it's more "respectful" of the tool and the maker to put it back into use, even if you need to modify it, than to stick it on a shelf and look at it.

Possibly the wedge is not original to this tool, and somewhere along the line whether in an antique shop, or flea market, or wherever, someone found an old wedge that fit and stuck it in there to 'complete' it.  Maybe it did originally have a wedge with some manner of clearance groove.

[mark esterly]

  for smoothing and leveling a groove you've already cut with a chisel.  think of it as a smoothing plane after you rough out with a scrub or jack plane.

[old dog]

Lei Neilson Tool Works makes a copy of a similar Stanley plane, however it is bronze.  It is a beading plane supplied with several cutters.  You can also get blanks to shape your own cutters.  These things are supper for cleaning up mortises like barrel channels .  These also come with a fence.
The  handles on this thing remind me of a wood spoke shave.  They are very popular today among wood workers.  The fit, angle of the blade, and several other factors must be perfect for these things to work well.  Neilson also makes a router plane that works very well.  The blade is about 1/4 inch wide  and adjustable in height.  It is made to straddle a mortise and scrape the bottom of the mortise to be sure the depth is consistent. Got A love those and tools.
Old Dog

[Hungry Horse]

 I think Okieboy may be on to something. I don’t see the smooth well worn patina most old hand tool exhibit. What I see is places where stain, or some other juice has run down the wedge, and none of the smooth worn finish lots of handling produces.

  Hungry Horse

[rich pierce]

Well, I see your points but it has a router bit nicely fitted to a body with a wedge. That’s a lot of faking for a $20 second hand shop sale. At the moment I am favoring the hypothesis that the wedge is not original.

No doubt this is a shop-made tool. Body is ash most likely. Not beech as would be found with planes made in a factory. Updates to follow.

[RAT]

A router plane will have a blade with a (more or less) 90 degree bend at the end. This blade looks like it was used as a scraper. It should do the same thing, but in a different way. Try pulling it towards you instead of pushing it away.

[Elnathan]

I think what that is a shop-made tool that either was made by someone who didn't quite understand how the tool was supposed to work, or it worked fine originally but the blade has been sharpened wrong/worn out. In either case I think that the body and wedge are original.

I base that opinion on the evidence of this here picture of a Coach Router, which I found in my files (origin unknown, but probably some auction or tool site a decade back or so.)

I don't have a picture showing the blade area, but I don't see any provision for the chips on this tool, either, except for perhaps a tiny hole on the front, which looks scarcely adequate:



Not the same plane, but apparently the blade and mouth of the same type:



This one doesn't have any provision for chip clearing either, but still has the remnant of a bend or hook at the end of the blade, so I think it worked very much like the "Old Woman's Tooth" style of router, in which the blade is bent and projected far enough below the body of the plane that chip clearing wasn't an issue.

However, if you look up Coach Maker Router Plane, it isn't hard to find variants with mouths, either, such as this example:
https://www.tooltique.co.uk/corefiles/wp-content/uploads/T3687-1.jpg
https://www.tooltique.co.uk/corefiles/wp-content/uploads/T3687-5-450x450.jpg
(Pictures from this page: https://www.tooltique.co.uk/shop/antique-coachmakers-beech-wood-hand-router-plane-measures-13-long/)

Lots of other pics out there, too.

This variant has the blade at a normal plane angle, whereas the other kind and goes straight up and down. So I think if you are to get your plane to work correctly, you need to either make a new iron, if the blade angle is close to 90 degrees, or make a provision for a mouth, if the blade angle is closer to that of a normal bench plane.

[rich pierce]

Elnathan, thanks, very helpful. Yesterday I made a new wedge with some provision for chip clearance with unimpressive results. I think the best use is deep enough that chip clearance is not an issue. Perhaps deepening and leveling a patchbox cavity. I’m going to try the pulling action today. Though I can use a spokeshave either by pushing or pulling, this may be particular.

[Acer Saccharum]

The farther the tool point sticks out from the base, the more likely the tool will catch and try to flip. As in patchbox floor planing.

A tool like that could have been handy to clear backgrounds around low carvings, like a sign or panels with carved raised relief motifs.