For Christmas, Santa gave me...

Well you know that. But everyone else and their Aunt Lillian seems to have acquired a combination plane over the holiday period and I've had a rash of emails on the blighters. Which is fine, 'cos I like 'em lots as you know, but on the other hand after my long layoff there are great gaping holes in my memory of what's what...

So when one emailer asked about the Shaving Deflector on a Record 050, I was faced with a long-distance diagnosis without the aid of an example of said plane.

Yes, kiddies, this user doesn't have a Record 050.

You may gasp here -> <-

I had a mental aberration one day some years ago and sold it. Sigh. Anyway... Of course muggins here managed to have completely forgotten that the Stanley 50 has one too, hadn't she? D'oh. So I spent a couple of days trying to imagine the problem in the abstract - don't try that at home. No, really, don't. I imagine it's akin to trying to knit with spaghetti.

Anyway, by some stroke of serendipity, someone else emailed about the same part in reference to a Stanley 50, jogged what passes for my memory and I hot-footed it to the cold workshop to finally look at the problem in the flesh. I ended up taking a few pics of the set up 'cos trying to discuss this thing without the aid of pictures is a bit of a nightmare, which I might as well include here because it's amazing how often I find it handy to refer back to the archive.

Now in Planecraft - subtle advertising and how-to manual on the complete line of Record hand planes - it helpfully says:

The Shaving Deflector.
When tonguing, under certain conditions it may be found that whilst the shavings clear themselves from the right-hand prong, there may be a tendency for them to fail to clear themselves from the other prong. Should this be experienced, the Shaving Deflector provided can be attached. The Shaving Deflector should be set *close up* to the face of the iron, to act as a cap iron (chip breaker); and care must be taken that no gap is left, as a gap will result in worse choking. The deflector acts as a guide to clear the shavings. The bottom of the deflector should be set a trifle below the face of the runners of the plane. When the iron is properly ground and sharpened, and correctly set for depth, it will be found under most conditions that the operation of tonguing can be performed quite satisfactorily without the aid of the deflector.

Which is great. But below the skate? Really? Obviously mine doesn't, and neither does my correspondent's, but would you really want it to anyway? I must admit at this point that despite obviously being a user and not a collector, I've never actually used the T&G facilities of a 50 or 050, never mind the Shaving Deflector. So on the off-chance, has anyone out there in blog land got any actual experience of the thing? Does it want to set below the level of the skate on yours? Anyone fettled one of these things to work? Because it seems to me it's in need of some careful filing of the ramped part that rests against the cutter, both to improve the fit of it to the back of the cutter, and to lower it. But I'm loath to do so and possibly make things worse. After all small parts like these don't exactly grow on trees. Any input gratefully received, because at some point I think I'm really going to have to do something about a page on the 50/050 for Combi Plane Central and quite honestly they're my least favourite and I don't want to spend longer on it that absolutely necessary...

I know. Shocking , innit? What a way to start the year ;)