I have had this
little 1840’s plow plane for a few years now and
it has been a great tool.
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A while back I did a whole
write up on it that you can see
here. This
has been a dandy little plane and performed very well over
the few years I’ve owned it. However, lately I’ve noticed
that if I am cutting a deeper groove a problem arises.

What happens is that the plane
begins to bind up, as it gets deeper into the cut. I thought
about the problem for a while and finally came up with the
solution. The answer is actually quite simple, and one a
craftsman of old would have easily understood.

Like all wooden planes over
time the sole, or in this case the fence, begins to wear.
Being that most of my cuts have not been very deep the fence
has worn unevenly and mostly along the bottom ½”. This
created a wedge shape that essentially made the fence
“tighten’ up against the work as it cut deeper. Above is a
picture showing where the fence has worn out of square in
relation to the metal skate.
To further show this problem I
took the fence out of the plane and checked it against a
square. Here you can see that the fence has indeed worn on
the bottom and is no longer square to the guide arms.

Fortunately the solution to
this is pretty simple as well. I clamped the fence into my
bench vise and carefully planed down the high side.

I took my time in planning it
down and checked it frequently with the square. In the end I
smoothed the whole surface of the fence.