Hand Plane blade saver.

[keakap]

...If his bench top is used by not abused and no metal ever touches his handsaws or his plane and he always lays his plane on the side I know he is old school craftsman. He would never ask to borrow a tool.

"Old school craftsman" or someone who never learned the why of how to treat tools?
I like the point "never ask to borrow a tool". I think I would only lend a tool to someone like that.

[keakap]

Good read. I'm with Paul.

I'm not a big hand tool user but It seems obvious to me that you have a sharp tools with delicate edges. Be careful with them.

The "delicate edge" thing is a curiosity. How delicate is something that can shave .0005" off the end grain of a beech board without damage?
But can be destroyed by setting it down on a chisel, say.

So yes, be careful, especially if they are someone else's tools, or if someone else will do any repairs.

[keakap]

To me the question is not ruining the plane iron it is ruining the bench top. Each time you lay a SHARP plane blade down on the top you make a cut into the top. Do that over and over and the top will become so rough it will be useless. If you use a top that MDF, hardboard you will damage the plane blade.
Also I often do metal work on my bench top (sharpening my chisels and plane irons) if I then lay my plane down onto the metal filings it dull the blade.

Why not lay it aside in a safe place on it side?

Fair question methinks. Or on it's bottom in that safe place?

But Sellers made another point that made good sense- blade adjustments getting altered by setting the tool down on its side and perhaps because of the awkward wrist-work involved maybe not put down gently. I guess any of the six or so adjustments on a metal plane or the key adjustment on a wood one could be easily knocked outta whack by even a minor "bump" especially a lateral one.

As for the metal filings thing (good point), I think that unconsciously that may be partly what got me putting my planes down on a pile of fresh shavings. Can't be a cleaner surface than that.

[robinson46176]

I am getting better and better at rule #2. Rule #2 may not be the exact # but it falls somewhere about there. Anyway, the rule is to not take any of my many hobbies or myself too seriously... Even life shouldn't be taken ultra seriously. No matter what you do you won't get out of it alive...
By the way, rule #1 is to NEVER bleed on your tools...
As a farmer my father did mostly farm carpentry. He only had one good smooth plane and a small block plane that I never saw him use. He had prior to farming spent 18 years in the shoe repair trade among some other things which also included some time traveling the state fair circuit with an early auto dare-devil show. He didn't have a lot of woodworking tools but always bought good quality stuff. Good quality but not the real pricey stuff.
He held that smooth plane in high regard and had made it an open top box out of fairly heavy leather. The box (which I still have) was like the old wooden Velveeta cheese boxes except for being leather. in the bottom it had a small strip of leather to keep the blade even up off of the leather bottom of the box. The box was soaked in neatsfoot-oil now and then. He kept it in that box and carried it to various locations in it. He would plane with it and set it down back in the leather box.
I have a small herd of planes, nothing really special, just functional planes. I store them sitting on their bottoms on a steel shelf... Did that get your attention? Oh, did I not mention that there is a rubber mat between the planes and the shelf. Bazinga!
I try to take good care of my planes and normally have a foam tile at hand on the bench or sometimes I might set it on its side. What I don't do is assign any magic properties to the plane or its iron. If it becomes dulled in any manner I will sharpen it. I have spent a zillion hours using all manner of cutting tools and have also spent a lot of hours sharpening them. I spent over 20 years using and sharpening all kinds of leather cutting tools not on a hobby basis but for daily production. None of those tools were magic and neither are any of my woodworking tools. I've operated a part time sharpening service for a very many years. Some years pretty busy, some years I mostly just let it lay in the background. Actually more recently I tend to avoid many woodshop tools, I just don't list them on a price chart. Most guys do a lot of their own wood tools and I just have no interest in saws except for mine. The best money makers are lawn mower blades, chainsaw chains and scissors and pinking shears. I still do a few of those in retirement. I do still get some planer blades now and then.


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[Ed in Tampa]

I was watching Roy Underhills program on PBS Saturday and there was someone on with Roy that was using a plane. I don't recall who but one would set the plane down and the other would reach over and turn it on it's side.

This happened once or twice that I caught and I was sitting thinking of the this discussion. Evidently one simple set down planes and the other trained as I was always turned them on their side. I had to chuckle.

[nothungry3]

Great thread. Thanks to all.
Jack