Saturday, November 02, 2013

Plane Adjustment Hammer

The tap, tap, tap of adjusting my wood stock planes has just been made easier. I noticed some small wooden hammers while looking through one of the Japanese tool catalogs. I ordered a couple of sizes thinking they might be good to use with some of my un-hooped western bench chisels. As it turned out the largest mallet is nice for chopping dove tails with western chisels but the surprise was how good the smallest hammer works adjusting the iron in my wooden planes. The smallest one, 36mm and I think 4 oz, is perfect for adjusting plane irons. They are cheap, $6 to $9 USD for the 36mm one depending on which importer you buy from. It has really cut down on the over shoots and it allows me to sneak up very quickly on the perfect cut. I've spent a lot more and got less.


2 comments:

  1. I'd be interested in reading about this hammer a year from now to see how it held up. I bought a metal one rather then a wooden one.

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  2. Ralph,

    I have a metal one as well. For some reason the wooden hammer seems to give better control. I would guess because it is softer and maybe slightly lighter.

    No harder than the taps are I expect it will last, if not, at $6 USD a copy it will not make much difference.

    BTW, I enjoy your Blog very much.

    ken

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