Why are old wooden jointers so badly worn?
#11
Here's a historical puzzle, at least to me. This past weekend in an antique shop I came across an old wood jointer, about 26 inches long, that had an iron that was worn down to almost nothing. This seems to happen often. The shorter wood planes I see don't seem so badly worn. Were these old wooden jointers used for some job that made them frequently used, compared to other wooden bench planes?
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#12
Here are two GUESSES (underline, exclamation point).

1. If the wood was well-sawn, flattening may have started with the jointer. That makes for a lot more surface feet of work than smoothing.

2. There could still have been grit in/on the wood surface when the jointer was used, helping to chew up the blade faster.
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#13
I have a friend who built a log cabin using a lot of traditional methods, and used a jointer to flatten the floor boards after they were installed. That's a lot of wear-and-tear, and I wonder if that was a common usage for them.
Bill Schneider
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#14
Well, first off, they are old, and someone put them to work every day to earn a living. Second, stock prep, as already noted, was a primary use for these woodies. It's not only the iron that wears down, but the sole from regular truing, and after a decade or so of daily use you expect some significant wear. I keep looking for wooden jointers that have life in the body, as even a short iron will last a hobbyist quite a long time. They are few and far between, and its really nice when you find one, and they sell quickly precisely for that reason. Price new wooden jointers........
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#15
I wonder if part of it is that there is more of an advantage for a wood over a metal plane in the largest size, where the metal plane gets pretty heavy after a few hours.
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#16
(10-10-2017, 05:26 PM)Admiral Wrote: Well, first off, they are old, and someone put them to work every day to earn a living.  Second, stock prep, as already noted, was a primary use for these woodies.  It's not only the iron that wears down, but the sole from regular truing, and after a decade or so of daily use you expect some significant wear.  I keep looking for wooden jointers that have life in the body, as even a short iron will last a hobbyist quite a long time.  They are few and far between, and its really nice when you find one, and they sell quickly precisely for that reason.  Price new wooden jointers........

.................
+1...These tools were used daily to make a living at a time before electricity was common...most of what is done by machines today was done by hand...Carpenters sharpened their saws frequently and we used to see files and oil stones in old tool boxes..I have seen many stones that were stored in a jar of kerosene which had dried up and gone hard...they sharpened their planes and other edge tools very often because sharp tools make the work less tiring after ten or twelve hour work days....And many of the vintage tools we see at antique stores, flea markets etc. may have been used for several generations of woodworkers or carpenters.
Most Americans today do not really know how hard it was to make a living in days gone by...we have it easy and dont realize or appreciate it..
Crazy
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#17
Here's my theory(s), only because everyone else has already stolen the preferred ones. Doesn't matter. Any following mine is stolen too.
Laugh

1. These things were a dime a dozen back when tailed tools and machines began surfacing wood. It was colder then than now, so the hobby jointer from Gramps was tossed into the furnace; big hulking things fed from big black boxes and pit rooms with asbestos and graphite sealant fluttering around. A fire doesn't distinguish fresh wood from old, ancient wood.

A carpenter will be less inclined to throw away his tools of trade. He retires them, the same way he does. He may sell them. There were not a lot of tools in this stash we found, which leads to:

2. My famous ... uh ... something removed cousin(?) Nelson--he's famous as of now--was a carpenter in Des Moines, IA. The welcome wagon of commerce, newspaper, welcomed him in 1870. Now, before I go further, I need to dig up that messy fruit basket of his tools.....   ..... ...... 

Well we can get to that later. I do remember all those irons, besides rust, were pretty ugly looking. I am convinced the old sandstone wheels with a water drip box (or not) that took every kid who saw one on a bumpy bicycle ride for as long as boredom held away .... I lost my train of thought..... Oh!  He used one of those to keep his irons sharp? (?!?) I know honest workmen never heard of 30-degree primary bevels.

But that's another topic and I'm talking about my famous cousin whose girls, my other not-so-famous cousins, gave me his work tools. They were really old fossils (the daughters) funny, but old spinsters when I knew them. And, they kept everything. Every thing! I mean E.V.E.R.Y. thing.

Man!! I don't want to unwrap all that wire. It's been 30, 40 years since we looked in that thing. Why did I volunteer this! 

Oh, somebody else will steal my thunder. And, I know the entire life of some tools approaching over 150 years age....
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#18
(10-11-2017, 07:22 AM)Timberwolf Wrote: .................
+1...These tools were used daily to make a living at a time before electricity was common...most of what is done by machines today was done by hand...Carpenters sharpened their saws frequently and we used to see  files and oil stones in old tool boxes..I have seen many stones that were stored in a jar of kerosene which had dried up and gone hard...they sharpened their planes and other edge tools very often because sharp tools make the work less tiring after ten or twelve hour work days....And many of the vintage tools we see at antique stores, flea markets etc. may have been used for several generations of woodworkers or carpenters.
   Most Americans today do not really know how hard it was to make a living in days gone by...we have it easy and dont realize or appreciate it..
Crazy


Can you tell us what it was like back in the 1500's.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Big Grin
Big Grin
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#19
(10-11-2017, 12:21 PM)Arlin Eastman Wrote: Can you tell us what it was like back in the 1500's.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Big Grin
Big Grin

Here you go, at least in Tudor England....... pretty interesting.

https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programm...ract-4.php
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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#20
(10-11-2017, 02:22 PM)Admiral Wrote: Here you go, at least in Tudor England....... pretty interesting.

https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programm...ract-4.php

I bet the woodworkers back in 1500 were to busy to use the internet much..eh?
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