Our July meeting started with Announcements. Craig thanked Ron Gerard and Mark Ferraro for taking notes at last month's meeting. Craig read, and passed around three examples of the notes we received from the Kindergarten & First Grade class at Riviera Elementary School. The students were thanking the BAWA Toy Workshop group for the math blocks they recently made and donated to them. Fred Reicher announced that he was going to look at a small, antique organ that an acquaintance has. The organ can no longer be repaired effectively, and Fred wanted to know if anyone knew what quality the lumber might be in these typical old instruments. Arnie Champagne said he bought some very high quality hard wood from Northwest Timber while on a recent trip to Oregon. He left a few brochures about the company, but you can visit their website at www.nwtimber.com to place an order. Jamie Buxton said that he'd had one extremely bad experience ordering from them. Stan Booker just returned from Spain and it is 3:00 AM for him. He looked very tired and acted that way too. He did manage to announce that there were two wide pieces of Maple for the raffle. Bruce Bell our Open Shops director is looking for volunteers to throw open their shops to hordes of BAWA members. He can be reached at bell422@earthlink.net or 415/681-8353. From my experience in going to these shop tours, both the shop owner and the "tourist" learn a lot and it is an excellent opportunity to get good feedback from fellow members. Robbie Fanning is making plans for the September 15th club dinner. It will be catered. A sign up sheet was circulated with many who signed up. Remember, your significant other is also invited. A good chance for them to see why you spend hours slaving over a workbench. We won't mention the language that is sometimes used. The location will be the same as last year at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center in Redwood City.and cost is not yet determined. Eric McCrystal reminded members of the Finishing Seminar that was going to be held at Woodcraft-San Carlos the next day (Friday).

Self-introductions of guests was next. We welcomed Madeline Bakarick of Redwood City who builds miter boxes and has her father's old tools including planes. Rick Dahlgren of San Jose found us on the web. He likes toys, furniture and animated things. From Saratoga came George Gray, a beginner who found us on the web and again at the Santa Clara Woodworking show. Another beginner from Mountain View was Nelson Soria, who found us on the web.

Show & Tell:

Mark Ferraro brought a Boston Side Back Chair he made. He had taken a class at the Windsor Institute in New Hampshire. Michael Bray demonstrated the use of a coachmaker's hatchet and bench. Neal White showed us some of the old hand planes he has collected.

The Program for the evening was Hand Planes, Part One: Types, Sharpening Techniques, Restoration put on by Harold Patterson, Neal White, Arnold Champagne, and Don Naples. Part Two was held on Saturday, July 23rd.

Harold Patterson opened the program saying that plane shapes haven't changed much since Roman times, over 2000 years ago. He passed around a drawing of a Roman plane from 200-400 AD found in England. Another drawing showed a Donkey's Ear fixture used to plane boards at 45 degrees. The 13th Century British plane looked very much like the earlier Roman plane.

Neal White explained the fundamental differences between bench and block planes. Bench planes always have the blade bevel facing down towards the sole of the plane. Bench planes are usually numbered 1 through 8, depending on size. Blades are set at high angles, making these planes effective in highly figured wood. Some larger smoothing planes had been made with grooved sole plates, ostensibly to reduce friction. In fact the grooves do not function this way. It is better to use wax. Nevertheless the planes are rare and actively sought by collectors. Block planes are set with the blade bevel facing up from the sole plate, thereby achieving low blade angles. Block planes are good for cutting across the grain. Shoulder and rabbet planes and used to cut tenons. The Stanley or Record 78 can be found on eBay for $35.

Neal and Harold recommend Graham Blackburn's book Traditional Woodworking Hand Tools for an excellent discussion of hand planes.

The three essential steps to tuning the hand plane, or fettling are:

1. Get the blade sharp.
2. Flatten the sole of the plane
3. Make sure the frog of the plane sits firmly on the bed of the plane.

Arnold Champagne explained how James Krenov from the College of the Redwoods revitalized the art of wood hand plane making. Krenov made it easier to fashion wood planes by slicing thin sections of either side of a block of wood, dividing the center main plane block into two sections, front and rear, then reattaching the side pieces with glued dowels. In this way, the angle of the blade could be easily and accurately set in the rear plane block. The result is a tight throat, thick plane iron, solid bedding and no vibration in the plane. The sole typically is made of Lignum Vitae wood. To restore a sole, simply plane the damaged sole off in a jointer and attach a new one. An excellent plane of almost any plane angle can be made in four hours. Arnie offers an excellent class in hand plane making. You get to take your efforts home.

Don Naples talked about In-Fill and Japanese planes. In-Fill planes such as the Norris and Spier have thick, laminated blades, tight throats, with solid heavy plane beds, all making for thin cut sheets of shavings, no ripping or gouging and no vibration. Japanese plane blades are made by laminating a hard steel, usually with a Rockwell hardness of at least 65, to the flat side of the blade. The flat side is hollowed behind the front cutting area of the blade to reduce surface area that must be flattened when sharpening. These blades must not be hollow ground on grinding wheels, but sharpened instead using water stones or the new LapSharp sharpening system. Don described the "Scary Sharp" sharpening system that employs using progressively finer wet or dry abrasive sheets secured to a flat surface. A significant shortcoming of this system is the low grit consistency, usually 55%, meaning the surface looks like pebbles and boulders. Silicon carbide sheets abrasives should not be used under any circumstances because the material breaks down too quickly, clogs and becomes non effective. It is preferable to used aluminum oxide abrasive paper. It has higher grit consistency, around 98%, and does not break down as quickly as the silicon carbide abrasive. The Lap-Sharp System, developed by Don, is used to flat hone woodworking tools and knives. It offers all the advantages of using water stones with the benefit of speed and reproducibility. It can be used wet or dry, turns at low rpm, less than 200 rpm. It is ideally suited to hone laminated steel tools such as Japanese chisels, plane irons and carving tools. The system uses 3M Microfinishing film and a variety of PSA backed replaceable abrasives ranging from 120 grit to finer than 1 micron (8000 grit). It produces a polished edge requiring no stropping. Hand scrapers can be easily sharpened on this system.

Neal White discussed how to remove rust from hand planes. Surface rust can be removed with coarse steel wool. Surface pitting, however, requires electrolysis. An electrolysis system consists of a battery charger, a plastic tub, an anode -- a plate of sheet metal works well, a cathode -- the rusted tool or part, baking soda in a water solution, and a rubber carpet pad to separate the anode and cathode that allows for close proximity without contact between the two. Reference materials include Harold Patterson's handout, www.woodcentral.com, and the Shop Notes publication.

Some electrolysis tips:

• The electrolysis process is self limiting—when the rust is gone the reaction stops
• Connect the red line charger clamp to the anode The process takes 1-2 hours
• The gas bubbles are hydrogen, so use the system in a ventilated area and don't breathe the gas
• After the tool is removed, dry it with a towel
• Bake it dry in an oven for 1-2 hours at 250 degrees
• Finally, rub it with oil and a Scotch-Brite pad

Our meeting ended with door prizes given out. The lucky winners were: Tool Bag-Mike Bray, Brushing Lacquer-Dick "Lucky" Reiser, Veneer-Al Semenero and a $10 Certificate - Rick Dahgren. The mobile base in the Silent Auction was taken away by Craig Mineweaser.