# How do you store your handplanes?



## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

I am looking for a way to store my handplanes. They used to be in a metal tool cabinet drawer, but I don't like the idea of the razor sharp blades coming in contact with the metal. Now that I have sharp planes, I am trying to come up with some way to store them, and yet have them handy if I want to use them.

Any ideas or pics anyone?

Fabian


----------



## Icutone2 (Nov 4, 2011)

Watch Stumpy's video he shows a rack. He may have plans to build one.
Lee


----------



## ChiknNutz (Apr 22, 2011)

On their side...


----------



## sawdustfactory (Jan 30, 2011)

You should be retracting those blades back into the plane before storing anyway :blink:


----------



## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

Icutone2 said:


> Watch Stumpy's video he shows a rack. He may have plans to build one.
> Lee


This is what led to my question. I saw the rack, and liked it, and yes he does have plans. 

I was just curious what everyone else does.

I didn't know I should retract the blade everytime.... makes sense though.


----------



## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

I don't store my planes. They sit on a shelf under my workbench. That shelf has a strip of wood that I rest the toes on. This keeps tje iron off the shelf. I use my planes so often that I want them close at hand.


----------



## cocheseuga (Dec 15, 2010)

thegrgyle said:


> I didn't know I should retract the blade everytime.... makes sense though.


If the blades aren't touching anything, I don't see why.


----------



## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

I just lay them on their sides for now. Once a get this new bench built I have plans to build a rack for them with a wide mortice where the irons fall so they can be place there upright.

I plan on leaving a spot for every size bench plane there is :smile: I her a couple more to go and I suspect the spot for a No 1 will forever remain vacant... But ya never know!

EDIT:

Like Wrangler I dint retract the iron after use. Unless I spend an eve honing and have yet to use them they are set and ready to go. I use them daily and for hours a day. It doesn't make sense for me to retract the iron before I set the plane down between tasks.

...build n burn - live n learn...


----------



## sawdustfactory (Jan 30, 2011)

When on use I lay them on there side. But when putting away for the day I retract the blade and put them sole down in the cabinet under my bench.


----------



## ChiknNutz (Apr 22, 2011)

I am not a hardcore plane user, but I would find having to retract the blade an incredible PITA since I spent a lot of time getting just to my liking in the first place. Maybe if I were more experienced, it would not matter too much since you R/R a lot to re-sharpen if used a lot.


----------



## knotscott (Nov 8, 2007)

Mine are in an old vinyl clad pressboard video cabinet. Most of them are laying on their sides, but I'm not too worried about blade contact with this surface....I might more concerned if it were metal.


----------



## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

ChiknNutz said:


> I am not a hardcore plane user, but I would find having to retract the blade an incredible PITA since I spent a lot of time getting just to my liking in the first place. Maybe if I were more experienced, it would not matter too much since you R/R a lot to re-sharpen if used a lot.


Like Firemedic, I use my planes every time I am in my shop. Like ChiknNutz, resetting a plane is a PITA. Once I get it set, I usually don't change things until I resharpen.


----------



## Roger Newby (May 26, 2009)

Do a Google Images search for plane till and you'll see the proper storage method. Didn't have time to take a picture of mine.


----------



## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

Yeah, I agree about retracting them and then having to reset them. That would be a PITA, and probably a deterrent for me right now, since I am so used to using power tools. I think I will try to find a way to store them without retracting them, for now. 

I like knotscotts deal with a vinyl clad box, and I have a perfect type of material at work that would probably fit the bill. 

I will do a search for a plane till, and see what I come across.... Thanks for that..... I didn't know what it was called.


----------



## cocheseuga (Dec 15, 2010)

I like Tom's idea of storing them with the bench. That is where you're going to be using them after all.

TWW has some techniques you could incorporate into your till with his 'Wall-Hanging Tool Chest' build. Vids 152-154.


----------



## CJWillie (Oct 31, 2011)

Mine are in a wood drawer, with the blade retracted. It might be a PITA to reset the blade each time you want to use it but it's easier than having to resharpen because the blade got nicked up because I was too lazy to retract it. I also have a rack to keep my chisels from getting knocked around. Properly taking care of your tools will make them last a lot longer. I never did like sharpening tools any more than I have to. Anything I can do to keep them sharp makes my life easier.


----------



## WillemJM (Aug 18, 2011)

My hand planes sit on pull out shelves inside my bench.

They are stored face down, don't retract the blade, as they are stored on wood.

I always use a power jointer and planer, then use my hand planes just before final assembly/glue-up to make sanding minimal.

Personally, I enjoy the sharpening part and the setting is a few seconds. I often change setting, depending on how thick I want the shaving, ranging from 0.001 to 0.004" for hard woods. Nothing is more satisfying than using a sharp hand-plane, taking a long continuous shaving and leaving that shiny finish.


----------



## Greg in Maryland (Jan 6, 2011)

Here are some pictures of my storage solution and a write up: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/63910































Greg


----------



## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Greg in Maryland said:


> Here are some pictures of my storage solution and a write up: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/63910
> 
> Greg


Wow, Greg, I like that. Nicely done. You have some great hand tools too!


----------



## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

Nice work guy.


----------



## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

I put mine in a drawer with a thick rubber drawer liner. I retract my irons, but I don't worry about them either. I put them down on my bench all the time when in use on their soles. My bench is wood, the irons stay sharp.


----------



## amckenzie4 (Apr 29, 2010)

I've got an old book (something about building shop jigs -- I can't recall the exact title) that recommends a carpet base for hand planes. Basically a piece of scrap wood with some medium-pile shag carpet on top. Drip some oil into the carpeting, and you've got a surface that can't scratch the sole or chip the blade, and will also leave it lightly oiled and rust-resistant.

I haven't tried it, but as long as you pick an oil that won't interfere with your usual finishes I don't see why it would cause trouble.


----------



## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

I have built a couple of those pegboard clamshell cabinets from Wood Magazines designs, on one of them, I have lined the shelves with heavy felt that I got from the fabric store and tacked down with Super 77 spray adhesive. While the Super 77 is different, the felt over plywood is the same method my grandpa used for decades. If it was good enough for him, should be good enough for me!


----------



## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

I drill hang holes and put them up on hooks on a pegboard rack. The trick is sizing the hole to the plane. A #1 Stanley gets a 1/8" hole. A #4 gets a 1/2" hole (4/8) an a #8 gets a 1" hole. :no:

Then to further aid in plane ID, I spray paint the bodies based on style. Green is for jointers. Yellow is for Jacks, Red is for smoothers. The #6 is kind of in the middle so they get a lighter green that kinda looks like watered-down mountain dew. Of course the specialty planes get glitter. :no::no:

I used to worry over the whole blade in/out thing. It got to the point where I was disassembling the entire plane after every use, and storing it away in a velvet lined, fitted mahogany box with a little cutout for every piece. :thumbdown::thumbdown:

But seriously - I like Greg in Maryland's cleat system. It's been in a few magazines over the years and I had a poorly built one a while back until I needed to put tools in front of it and ran out of wall space. The latest lathe acquisition threw the entire shop balance out of whack. I lost another shelf and now I've got planes scattered in every direction. I've been working on a solution for three days now using up scraps of 1x2 oak. Now I'm out of scraps and I'm off to the Borg for the finishing piece - a 1/2 sheet of plywood. I hope to post the results this evening.


----------



## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

joesbucketorust said:


> I drill hang holes and put them up on hooks on a pegboard rack. The trick is sizing the hole to the plane. A #1 Stanley gets a 1/8" hole. A #4 gets a 1/2" hole (4/8) an a #8 gets a 1" hole. :no:
> 
> Then to further aid in plane ID, I spray paint the bodies based on style. Green is for jointers. Yellow is for Jacks, Red is for smoothers. The #6 is kind of in the middle so they get a lighter green that kinda looks like watered-down mountain dew. Of course the specialty planes get glitter. :no::no:
> 
> ...


:thumbup: PLEASE DO!!!

Btw, I spray my fore planes hot pink... Much more appropriate!


----------



## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

joesbucketorust said:


> I drill hang holes and put them up on hooks on a pegboard rack. The trick is sizing the hole to the plane. A #1 Stanley gets a 1/8" hole. A #4 gets a 1/2" hole (4/8) an a #8 gets a 1" hole. :no:
> 
> Then to further aid in plane ID, I spray paint the bodies based on style. Green is for jointers. Yellow is for Jacks, Red is for smoothers. The #6 is kind of in the middle so they get a lighter green that kinda looks like watered-down mountain dew. Of course the specialty planes get glitter. :no::no:
> 
> I used to worry over the whole blade in/out thing. It got to the point where I was disassembling the entire plane after every use, and storing it away in a velvet lined, fitted mahogany box with a little cutout for every piece. :thumbdown::thumbdown:


:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Thanks for the laugh! I needed that after the last 24 hours or so. This would be a good candidate for the Woodworkers Journal April 1st edition.... You shoud submit it for next year.


----------



## cocheseuga (Dec 15, 2010)

amckenzie4 said:


> I've got an old book (something about building shop jigs -- I can't recall the exact title) that recommends a carpet base for hand planes. Basically a piece of scrap wood with some medium-pile shag carpet on top. Drip some oil into the carpeting, and you've got a surface that can't scratch the sole or chip the blade, and will also leave it lightly oiled and rust-resistant.
> 
> I haven't tried it, but as long as you pick an oil that won't interfere with your usual finishes I don't see why it would cause trouble.


The thing that might hold me back from doing that is how much dust the oil might wick up. If you're a neanderthal-only shop, that's probably not that big of a deal.


----------



## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

*Almost finished with the plane shelf*

I didn't get as far as I wanted, but it's taking shape. 40" wide, 18" deep and I don't know how tall but not too tall. It doesn't solve the problem of the woodies, but it gets most of the metal users (except for block and shoulder planes that are in the drawers of the bench) in one place. I've got a lot of dust to clean up since I got in a little tussle with the shop vac. It won.
Edit 1: Well there should have been a picture here. But there's not. Just wait a sec, it'll show up.


----------



## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

*Try it again with the pic*

We'll just pretend this picture is up in the previous post....


----------



## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

joesbucketorust said:


> We'll just pretend this picture is up in the previous post....


Now just hold up one darn minute... Where are the holes and spray paint? I went and did the same today figuring if it's good enough for the plane god it's better than good for me! :laughing:

Looks nice, man. Is that a No 2 sitting all lonesome on the center top row?


----------



## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

firemedic said:


> Now just hold up one darn minute... Where are the holes and spray paint? I went and did the same today figuring if it's good enough for the plane god it's better than good for me! :laughing:
> 
> Looks nice, man. Is that a No 2 sitting all lonesome on the center top row?


 I said I wasn't done yet. I'm waiting for the bedazzler to arrive. :laughing: Actually one of the #7C has a hang-hole. I didn't put it there though. The #2 on the shelf is a Sargent. My grandfather's Stanley #2 is in the house.


----------



## HandToolGuy (Dec 10, 2011)

Greg in Maryland said:


> Here are some pictures of my storage solution and a write up: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/63910
> 
> Greg


Good Lawdy Ms Claudy! That is pretty. Flexible too?


----------



## HandToolGuy (Dec 10, 2011)

Nice shelves, Joe. Actually, there are a lot of good ideas on this thread, but I think that they all might share a common weak point: tools in the open and exposed to dust. Christopher Schwarz claims that dusty tools rust a whole lot faster and we all HATE rust, no?

Why not in a cabinet or a tool chest?


----------



## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

HandToolGuy said:


> ... claims that dusty tools rust a whole lot faster and we all HATE rust, no?
> 
> Why not in a cabinet or a tool chest?


LOL. I don't care if he's God's gift to the DIY publishing world, someone has been inhaling too many BLO fumes. If such a premise was even remotely true then all those big stationary tools too big to fit in a cabinet would be rusted piles of trash. 

Oxygen dissolves in water, reacts with iron. That is rust.

Dust is dust. 

There is no difference between a tool "in the open" or in a cabinet unless that cabinet is hermetically sealed and all the air is vacuumed out. Think about it. You have a box. You open the lid to put in a tool. The air in your shop is now the air in your box - all you've done is put another set of walls around it. I've seen a large # of vintage tool chests, none of them were air-tight. And yet we still have tools over a century old floating around? 

Want to prevent rust? If you're living in a swamp like Georgia with 100% humidity, you're on your own. For me in southern AZ it's quite simple - Keep the tools dry. Keep the air in the shop dry enough that the dew point stays lower than the air temp, even at night when it cools off so that water doesn't condense on the metal. Run an air conditioner instead of a swamp cooler or just do without.

As for why not a cabinet or a tool chest - that's a personal decision. I say why? I've still got a dozen or so machinist chests left after thinning the herd - because small tools are easier to store in machinist chests. And I've got 15 drawers under my workbench to store small tools there because it's an easy way to keep them all close at hand - shelves would take up way too much space. But big things like planes sit on a shelf in easy reach, and braces hang on a rack ready to be grabbed. Saws sit in the saw till on the wall and so on.


----------



## Greg in Maryland (Jan 6, 2011)

HandToolGuy said:


> ...... I think that they all might share a common weak point: tools in the open and exposed to dust. Christopher Schwarz claims that dusty tools rust a whole lot faster and we all HATE rust, no?


I used the tool chest for a while and for me, it was not a workable solution. I would have liked to built a furniture quality cabinet out of the finest, most exotic hardwoods available, that makes woodworkers green with envy. But, if I had gone that route, all the tools would still be in the tool chest and I would not have accomplished anything.

I am a bit obsessive/compulsive with my workshop. I have a simple motto: "Everything has a place and in its place it goes." At the end of the night when I am done, I put all my hand tools away. I do this for three reasons, 1) I have a small workshop and cannot afford clutter and 2) I have a 2 3/4 year old and a 4 3/4 year old (as they refer to themselves) and I cannot afford to have little hands get a hold of things. For their safety and mine (SWMBO would kill me if anything happen to the little guys), and 3) I hate clutter. I can only blame my mother and father for that one.

Try putting your tools away using a tool chest ... all the time. Try retrieving them ... all the time. It gets old, really, really old. We are not talking about Craftsman screwdrivers or wrenches you can just throw into a drawer. I do that for sure. We are talking about a hand plane that you value greatly and don't want to see damaged or otherwise abused. 

For me, the benefit of easily retrieving a tool and putting it back far outweighs any drawback of having them out in the open. Perhaps if I lived with high humidity and rust, I would feel different, but so far I have been spared that. I just built this shelving system, so I cannot vouch for the long term flexibility, but I built it with the hopes that it could accommodate growth in my tool collection. Ask me in three or four years when a few more planes come calling ...

Regarding the humidity thing, with everything, I think that at the root there is some validity to that. It just really depends on where you live and what type of environment you work in. I am not 100 percent convinced that it really works this way, but perhaps a tool chest could be considered a humidor in reverse. It seals the contents from the changes in humidity on the outside. Put some desiccant packets in the tool chest, and perhaps it would be dryer inside than outside. If I was battling rust, I would seriously consider that approach. It probably beats fighting rust all the time.


----------



## lawrence (Nov 14, 2009)

they make a really thin blue insulation board...use it to set them on. as for closing them, that wont do for me, I use the 4,5,6,7 and 110 ,220, 80 everyday and cant reset them all the time,


----------



## lawrence (Nov 14, 2009)

shouldnt the boshield work on a plane too?


----------



## BWSmith (Aug 24, 2010)

Heres a trick for C Schwarz....tell him to put a seal around his tool cabmet's door.Then at the end of everyday you take a shot of Argon and fill the cab.It'll force out all the oxygen....same thing you do for expensive paint cans.Then all his tools would be completely protected.

Our dz or so planes live on a very nice angle'd shelf.It has little strips installed to keep blades clear.I was taught and still firmly practice,never setting a plane down on its sole....this is when its in use.Just one of those things passed down from my dad that I never questioned....about 50 years ago.

Retracting iron may work for some....I'm in way too big a hurry.Good luck,BW


----------



## HandToolGuy (Dec 10, 2011)

I read the dust promotes rust thing in "The Anarchist's Tool Chest". Something about the acidity of the dust defeating our attempts to keep rust off our shiny things?
And if our big machines don't rust when our backs are turned, why do I keep reading so much advice about waxing down the unpainted surfaces iron surfaces of table saw and bandsaw beds to prevent it?


----------



## HandToolGuy (Dec 10, 2011)

Btw, I agree with the notion of not setting a plane down on its sole unless you have a slot under the tip of the iron, but I grew up with that thought and have no memory of where I first heard it. The little standoff strips seem like a good idea.
One thing is for sure: from the condition of the irons on the planes that have come into my shop, there must be a whole bunch of folks out there who don't love their planes as we do.


----------



## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

My god these things aren't art objects. They are tools. They are meant to use. They are to build things. 

Make it convienient to work with them. The planes most of us used were once rusted and abused. We refurbished them once, it can happen again!!


----------



## lawrence (Nov 14, 2009)

I keep building boxes and then everytime I leave the house I come home with something new, makes it obsolete. quite humid here so I'm not sure about the shelf plan, I'm already steady wiping things down to combat surface rust and do spray they once in a while, but I feel a little edgy everytime I wipe one off to use, always worried one drop is got kill the whole project. One guy I met recently wipes his with diesel, and while I do use a lot of it on construction equipment, there is no way in hell it's going on my planes and chisels....lol


----------



## HandToolGuy (Dec 10, 2011)

Wrangler said:


> My god these things aren't art objects. They are tools. They are meant to use. They are to build things.
> 
> Make it convienient to work with them. The planes most of us used were once rusted and abused. We refurbished them once, it can happen again!!


I know my planes and saws were meant to be used and use them I do. But I also look on these tools as a trust. I don't want to leave a nasty cleanup job for the next owner or have to watch them deteriorate in front of my eyes.

Besides, craftsmen have used tool chests for hundreds of years. Are they actually inconvenient, or is that just our "modern" view?

I am actually building a smallish tool box now from some parts of a bookcase that didn't go as planned. At present, I have a saw till in there and some planes, but it is a work in progress. Anyway, it is no less convenient to open that little chest to get the tool I want than it is to pull it down from the wall.

In the end, I will try things that I have seen or read about and then just go with what works.


----------



## HandToolGuy (Dec 10, 2011)

lawrence said:


> I keep building boxes and then everytime I leave the house I come home with something new, makes it obsolete. quite humid here so I'm not sure about the shelf plan, I'm already steady wiping things down to combat surface rust and do spray they once in a while, but I feel a little edgy everytime I wipe one off to use, always worried one drop is got kill the whole project. One guy I met recently wipes his with diesel, and while I do use a lot of it on construction equipment, there is no way in hell it's going on my planes and chisels....lol


I hear you! I think we are all dealing with too many tools in too little space. I have outgrown several wall hanging systems already. In fact, my wife recently asked me if woodworkers ever get through getting ready to work and get down to work.

It is humid here in the Ohio Valley too. I wipe my plane soles down with camilla oil, wax my saw plates, inspect my chisels on a regular basis and hope for the best.


----------

