Strike Button

by delsur777, Sunday, August 09, 2009, 14:53

I see beautiful wooden handplanes on a lot of websites and in books and a lot of them have "strike buttons". This looks like a good idea so I was wanting to put one on the "Ohio Tool" Jack Plane that I got on ebay. Since I haven't actually been near a plane, that had a strike button, I'm not sure about the orientation of the button's grain. I had originally thought that a "strike button" was simply a hardwood dowel sunk in the plane. As time has gone by, I have noticed that many of the fancier planes have texturing or "knurling" on the buttones which leads me to believe that to top of the "strike button" is face grain and not end grain. If this is true, that leads me to the second question. Is the "strike button", just that, a button glued to the top or rear of the plane or is it counterbored slightly to let the button into the plane. I have the slightest round indention mark on the upper front of my plane and I am thinking that there was a strike button glued there at one time.

I am hoping that some of the knowledgeable folks that haunt this website can guide me on this and let me know what the procedure for "letting in" or "sticking on" or "whatever" a "strike button" and if it should be "face up" or "grain up".

Thanks, in advance, for your help.