Forescrub - Beware the Worm!! by Scott Grandstaff

2 of 2

One wedge cheek had a classic crack on one side.  There was evidence of an old attempted, and failed glue job here.

I wasn't anxious to do it, but I pried on it until it cracked all the way free, making sure I watched where that chip was going to drop!!  (--Never-- take your eyes off the chip, or the screw, or whatever it was you just dropped.  It's a habit that that must be developed that is totally mandatory to survive this life.  Watch that doohicky hit the floor, or you'll be sorry !!)

I snagged it and could easily see why the first attempt had failed.  The crack was old and filthy dirty all the way to the bottom with muck and old dried oil, etc.  No glue on the planet would have held that.  So I got a small wire brush and a dental pick and scrubbed both parts clean and then de-greased with mineral spirit.  Clamping was a tap-dance! I used a very small C clamp in the middle, and 2 clothespin type spring clamps at each end.  Lotta clamps packed together to get the little chip securely immobile.  You never know what it's going to take to get the job done, do you?

While I was waiting for the glue to dry I started in with the Galoot cleaner finish (turps/linseed/wax) on the rest of the plane.  Scrubbing it in, wiping it off Tony style until decades of gunk and dreck came floating off on my paper towel. When the glue was fully dry, I started in on that spot too.  Everything got lots of coats scrubbed on with a green pot scrubber and wiped back off soon after.

Now it was ready for action!!  (please don't tell the museum police I salvaged a plane they all would have -all- turned their noses up at)

Oh yeah, the cherry on top??

I got a hand cut stamp from the one and only Peter McBride earlier this year.  Neeeeener neeener!!!  That's my little canary :-)  Looks like a sparrow, sings like Bono!

And now... how does it work??

Guys it's divine!

You can't quite hog as much of a chip cross grain as you can with a narrow blade iron scrub plane. Almost, but not quite.  I experimented with them side by side.  Took the forescrub up to where it started resisting in medium hardwood to see.  But you can still hog a mighty chip and it is totally effortless! Plus you are preserving, or creating the geometry of the piece you aere working on with the longer bed. Dow the grain with tremendous deep bites are just so cool!

I have an old "second line" Miller's Falls jack that I radiused the blade and backed off the frog on.  I've had it 20 years at the minimum, and I have always used it for this kind of service.

The forescrub fits neatly, perfectly in-between the iron scrub and a rank cut jackplane.  Bigger chips with the forescrub than the iron bench plane, and it seems like even less effort!!

You gota try it!!
yours, Scott