[Ken]

I picked up a Sargent 3424 last week. I got it cleaned up and sharpened the blade. I need to flatten the sole still, it’s in pretty good shape.

I was wondering if there are any resources out there for tuning these planes?

Right now, it cuts beautifuly. Leaves a nice glass like surface, but cuts heavy on one side. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to fix this.

Topic

[Mike in TN]

#2027055

There really isn’t a lot of information out there specific to transition planes but many of the videos associated with metal and wooden planes apply. I assume that you have used the lateral adjustment lever and that hasn’t been enough to even out the cut. Have you checked to see that the blade edge is at right angle to the blade edge? I would also check to make sure that the bed is flat and square to the plane body. If all still looks good and the plane still wants to cut deeper on one side you might want to try sharpening the blade edge at a slight angle to the sides to compensate. I have found that fix in several old planes where the previous owner apparently didn’t want to try to square up a plane bed. You can also camber the blade and use them for rough work.

It has been my experience that transition planes can do very good work, especially as scrub, jack, and fore planes, and are more reasonably priced than metal planes seem to be.

[Ken]

#2027056

Thanks for the reply Mike. I flattened the sole and made sure the body was square, tightened everything up and then found out I had ground the edge way out of square. This blade has a very slight taper on both of the side edges. Once I figured this out I was able to re grind the edge closer to square. I can get a consistent shaving now. All I have to do now, is figure out how to plane square :)

[Mike in TN]

#2027057

Old Tools

You certainly do find a lot of unique circumstances in older tools, changes made by previous owners, unusual features specific to individual manufacturers, or differences just because the manufacturing standards weren’t all that high for some makers. Glad you worked out the bug.

[Author]

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