Thread: Fume bluing two planes

Should be really proud of the result.
Well done

Damn that's very interesting! Will be interested to see how they hold up in use as you say. Could still be useful for the non moving parts, I sweat like a maniac when I'm planing in Summer so I really need to be careful of stray drops of sweat.

Great result Bob.

Will be interested to see your report back on any issues with marking wood. And also how it holds up for rust prevention!

Originally Posted by RossM

Great result Bob.
Will be interested to see your report back on any issues with marking wood. And also how it holds up for rust prevention!

I've done quite a bit of it by now and it depends of a bunch of things
- how well the job was done in the first place
- Storage conditions
- how much it has been handled

I have stuff I blued back in 2014 that is still rust free and I have stuff that I did in 2018 (probably rushed it too much) that has the odd small spot of rust on it.

The beauty about if it rusts is that you rub any loose rust off with steel wool and put it back a couple of times through the process again and it converts the rust to black oxide.

The stuff blued in winter tales longer to do but it lasts longer than stuff done in summer. I think its related to the slowness of the process produces a better finish.

Originally Posted by BobL

The stuff blued in winter tales longer to do but it lasts longer than stuff done in summer. I think its related to the slowness of the process produces a better finish.

Well, THAT'S an interesting observation!!

I think the back oxide in blueing is magnetite, and that has a crystal structure. In general (if I remember my chemistry) higher temperatures in a crystal growth solution leads to larger crystals & more variation in crystal size. So maybe the slower & colder growth leads to smaller more uniform crystals, means better & tighter coverage of the underlying metal?

Actually the first thing I blued was in 2012

Before: A tool post and mounting bracket I made for the rotary table for my MW lathe
The rotary table is a bought one I made the rest.
toolpostjpg2.jpg

After - just the tool post and the bracket have been blued.
The bits were polished and degreased (very important)
toolpostjpg3f.jpg

It still looks like that today.

It will be interesting to see how the finish stands up to use in a woodworker's environment Bob. Bit different to blueing exposed to the oily hands of a metalworker I imagine.

Bob.

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

It will be interesting to see how the finish stands up to use in a woodworker's environment Bob. Bit different to blueing exposed to the oily hands of a metalworker I imagine.

Bob.

Yeah especially the rebate plane which has the most definite contact whereas the #5 will mainly get handled by the wooden front handle and rear tote.

Can someone please measure and tell me the length of the steel rod that supports the fence for a 78 - I have the fence but not the rod so I will have to make one.

Thanks

Had mine out for a project, you're in luck!

Rod is 9/32" (7.1mm) or close to it from my calipers. Overall length is 74.5mm with the threaded section being approximately 9.5mm of that. The actual threads are about 7.5mm.

Thanks Dan, much appreciated.

The hole for the rod in my fence is a whisker over 5/16" so was thinking of using some 5/16" stainless if I can get it. The thread in the hole on plane body on mine is 1/4" BSF for which I already have a die.

No worries mate, looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I finally finished bluing the all the steel screws, pins etc for these planes, and polished and lacquered all the brass bits.

Remember, apart from the Carter 78 whose parts are pretty distinctive, all I had a was box full of half assembled planes and parts.

The one shown below has a
Bailey base
Unknown Frog, loose in the parts box
Stanley Blade, also loose in the parts box, it's not in that good a shape as the back is lightly pitted but I got enough of a flat near the end to generate a half decent edge.
Sargent Cap, again loose in the parts box. The other choices I had are Falcon and Footprint?
Unknown front knob and tote, also found loose in the box.
The tote is probably a Bailey as it's the only tote with a short front base screw, as well as the sloped long rod and brass screw that holds the back of the tote to the body. that The Bailey body is the only body in the box of parts which use two screws for the tote.

Bailey4.jpg

Bailey5.jpg
The Tote has a burn mark on the other side from which I sanded the loose stuff before oiling and waxing.

The 78 is more clearly defined as the lever cap and blade were the only ones in the box although the blade appears too wide for the body so it's probably not original. The cap screw is borrowed from my Stanley 78 till I make another although I might just use IanW's when it arrives.

781.jpg

7812.jpg


I've taken couple of dozen swipes with the Bailey to see how much of the bluing comes of (I fully expect it to come off but I don't care as the bottom and sides are usually bare metal any). Some of the bluing does appear to be coming off, mostly with the first half dozen swipes as some faint streaks can be seen on the timber and light streaks are present on the base of the body. However with subsequent swipes it then appears that less and less comes off and not stress are visible on the wood - maybe the first bits to come off were loose? There still appears to be some bluing left on the base.

Your #5 is going to puzzle anyone trying to figure out its parentage, Bob!

I think that could be the "right" frog for it, though, the adjuster knob looks like the one on the (1964-ish) Aust-made # 5 I had for a long time. I'm pretty sure the little finger-piece on the lateral adjuster shaft was a swedged in piece like the one on your plane, too, & not just bent-over ends like on the more degenerate late Stanleys. There should be "Stanley" stamped on the top of the shaft, but I seem to recall someone saying that it isn't there on Australian-made models (or some, at any rate). Can't remember what the wood of the handles was; if they were northern hemisphere Beech like the ones you've put on yours, it would have to have been imported, which is perfectly possible, of course. Chief Tiff is our resident plane historian, maybe he can enlighten us?

Anyway, the original 'tote' was a bit too crudely shaped for me so I chucked it very early-on & replaced the woodwork with Rosewood, styled after pre-WW2 versions. Despite the disparaging comments I've read about the Australian-made planes, it was a good tool, & it did a lot of work for me. I gave it back to my brother about 10 years ago. He'd given it to me 35 or more years before that when he decided he was more interested in diesel engines than wood, but has drifted back to more civilised pursuits in his mature years....

Cheers,