Today I was dumb enough to try fixing a couple of broken plane handles I made a while back. But, of course, after cutting and cleaning them up, and then re-gluing them, they just broke again. Wasting time/energy. Balls!
So after failing to repair those, I bit the bullet and grabbed a little block of oak I had laying around. It was a bit too thick. I got around that in a rather convoluted and silly way. But ne’er mind! I got around it.
Part of the foolishness in thinning this new oak handle to the right dimensions was that I did so after cutting out a rough handle shape on the bandsaw. Oh, and the latter is all out of whack, yet again. Despite my most recent set up, which included putting it on a trolley, to lessen the impact of moving it around on the alignments. So that’ll need seeing you yet again. Arse!
Once I’d got the basic shape, and thinned the resulting handle blank to roughly the correct dimensions, it was rasps and files a-go-go. I have to confess, rasping oak and other hard woods is peculiarly satisfying. Even the aromas the oils in the wood give off are enjoyable.
Teresa insisted I shut up the workshop and come inside. And I was happy to comply, as it’s getting durned cold out there. The freezing concrete floor makes my feet feel like two iced lollies. So I brought the blank and a plastic ‘original’ inside, along with mucho sandpaper, and set to finessing the shapes.
This also is peculiarly gratifying. I spent ages sanding with various grits, whilst watching old Top Gear, n’ Grand Tour highlights. As you’ll see in the pics, I’ve left more wood on the base. This is where all my other handles broke. So I figure I’ll shape any such handles I make from now on, and even drill and major holes, etc, before finally cutting this part down to size.
At present the top ‘horn’, that comes back over one’s thumb when holding the plane, is, like the base, thicker than the handle shape I worked from. But I actually quite like it as it is. So I might leave it that way.
The last thing I did, in order to see the wood colour and grain better, was rub a tiny bit of veg oil into the handle. I reckon it looks rather lovely! I’ll finish it off as soon as I next get a bit of time.