Turning Knobs for a Stanley 71 Router Plane
A few years back, I purchased an old Stanley 71 router plane that was made between 1906 and 1908. It didn’t come with any cutters or knobs. Fortunately, the screws were still intact. Since Stanley used an oddball thread size on most of their planes, it would have been difficult to find replacement screws.
One evening after dinner, I moseyed out to the shop with no particular project in mind. I saw this plane sitting on the shelf. I remembered I had a turning blank of bubinga I had purchased last winter. It had been a while since I had used my lathe, and I knew this would be a nice evening project.
So, I asked the Galoots up on the OldTools list about the dimensions of the original knobs on the Stanley 71 and got several responses. It occurred to me that I had a box of old plane parts sitting way up on a shelf, so I got it down and starting nosing around. I found an old knob that matched the dimensions I was given. Now I had something I could visually match and put some calipers on to get real dimensions.
It took me a little figuring before I found a reliable way to chuck the bubinga blank in my lathe. Once I figured it out, it went pretty quick. Let me just say right here that turning bubinga is a pleasure. No tearout and it finishes really nice.
It’s always the first knob that’s the easiest. It’s trying to get the second one to match that’s the trick. I must have fussed around with it for a half hour trying to get it to match the first one. A little rounding here. A little shave there. I finally said, “Close enough!” and called it quits. I sanded the knobs through 400-grit on the lathe. Then while still on the lathe, I applied some boiled linseed oil and paste wax. I was pretty happy with how they looked. And you have to get real close to see that they aren’t an exact match.
Now all I’ve got to do is get some irons for it. I’m told that the ones from Lee Valley/Veritas will work. I guess I need to place an order. They know me by first name by now.