A small dovetailed plane I made

[george wilson]

This little plane is only 4" long,made from dovetailed steel body with decorative finish. It is stuffed with rosewood.

The inspiration for this plane was a very rare 19th.C. salesman's sample that I liked. Cost a fortune,so I just made one.The scew on the cap is freehand turned and the "knurling is actualy free hand filed in. This plane had the sacrifical screw on the front. This is what you would tap on to adjust the plane,so the actual plane body would not be hurt.

[steve swantee]

Another beauty George, the way the steel is finished gives it a really neat look too. How did you get that look?

Steve

[george wilson]

It is made of very rare curly steel. Actually,you wrap a piece of 600 grit around a file,and present one edge to the metal,moving back and forth,and sideways at the same time.

[Dominic Greco]

It is made of very rare curly steel.
:D:D:D
Thanks for the laugh!

The plane is a work of art! The level of detail is amazing.

[Jameel Abraham]

Nifty!! I love the lever cap...

[Justin Green]

That's really nice, George! One of these days I'm going to hunt down the tutorials on how to dovetail metal!

I picked up a rusty old plane recently, a Stanley 18, and when I removed the rust, I discovered it had been made out of birds eye steel.

[george wilson]

You use the edge of an 8" bastard file to start with,first sawing cuts to almost the depth of the dovetails pretty close together. Then,with the file on edge,for small dovetails,file away the bulk of each dovetail. Then,use a triangular file,then needle files to sharpen the corners. The curved dovetails are the hardest to fit. Start with a straight sided plane. The curved dovetails on the front of the small plane should be attempted after practice generates skill. Finally,the dovetails are peened to fill out any spaces,because those dovetails along the bottom of the planes are dovetailed in BOTH directions,so must be spread with a cross pein.

Actually,these planes are made of "black iron",a very low carbon steel that we used in the museum for various maintenance work in the sheet metal shop. It was available in the shop up to 3/16" thick. The small plane is 1/16" thick,and the full size smooth is 1/8" thick.

[Scott Mark]

I hope you appreciate all the time I wasted trying to figure out what Birds Eye Steel was.:confused: Now I'm the only nitwit with that on my google search history.:D Beautiful plane by the way!:cool:

[Ron Brese]

George,

Thanks for posting the pictures of the drill and the planes. This was a most interesting look at some of your tool making pursuits that yielded some beautiful tools with some very interesting features. I thought the pattern in the steel on the side of the small plane was quite inspired, I may try that myself at some point if you don't mind.

The drill was just an awesome piece of work. Some of the small finial details were quite exquisite. Got any more pics of your tool making? I'd sure be interested in seeing them.

Once again, thanks for posting,

Ron Brese

Brese Plane

[george wilson]

No!!! You MAY NOT copy my curly steel,and don't let me catch you doing it!!!

Actually,these are the kinds of tools I wish I HAD been able to make in Williamsburg as toolmaker. But,the zenith of toolmaking was yet to come,in the 19th.C.. I am glad I didn't work in the Tudor era,as the tools from the Mary Rose,Henry VIII's ship,had tools that were like new(except the iron was gone),but the wood was buried in silt,and was still as new. However, CRUDE !!!. Henry the eighth even had to import armor makers from flanders to start armor making in England. The king of Austria,Maxmillian,sent him an incredibly elaborate suit of armor-even had steel eyeglasses! Probably to show Henry how far behind England was in the arts.They were always the last to learn arts,like making harpsichords,which started in Italy.Migrated across Europe untill it reached the last outpost,England. Elizabeth I's virginals were Italian pentagonal spinets.

Other countries did have some metallic planes,even in the 1500's.

[george wilson]

Jameel,I don't know how you make your caps. I just saw them out of 1/2" brass plate,and file them to shape. The small plane is 3/8" thick brass plate.

Ron,I'd be pleased if someone used these tools as models,and any decorative surface techniques,too. I'll have more pictures when I figure out how to scan 8"X10" photos into the computer,and especially when I can get my slides put onto a disc. I've only just unpacked a lot of slides. The pictures and slides are actually much better work.

[Eric Roberge]

Was that Curly Steel before or after Joe? Personally, I think once Curly left it was all downhill. :D

Seriously, that is a good looking piece George!

[george wilson]

Well,Eric,maybe there'll be Moe of it!

[Eric Roberge]

Well,Eric,maybe there'll be Moe of it!

That was good!:cool:

[Raney Nelson]

George - I'm stunned with all of these posts. I knew of your work at W-Burg, but these designs add a new level of fascination. It's always great to see what the great tool reproducer LIKES to make for himself, on his own dime.

It's a tour-de-force. Thank you for sharing these photos - and more are always welcome!

[scott spencer]

That's stunning....downright impressive!

[george wilson]

Thank you,Raney,but so far,my photo posting attempts are almost a tour-de-farce !

[Ken Werner]

George, if you post Moe, I'll drink a Shemp-pain toast to your good health.

[Raney Nelson]

This plane had the sacrifical screw on the front. This is what you would tap on to adjust the plane,so the actual plane body would not be hurt.

George, I've seen these somewhat more often on the back of a plane for withdrawing a blade a bit, but what would the advantage be in the front rather than just tapping the blade itself? I suppose there's an argument to be made for finer adjustment with the off-axis tapping, but I've never found the blade itself to be problematic. Also, is there any precedent for these screws in both front and back?

Also - I'm still puzzling through the idea that you hand-filed those knurls so uniformly in the lever cap screw. I don't even know what I'd use to do that - knife file perhaps? A triangular jeweler's file would probably be my first guess, but the filing angle there is remarkably tight, and I don't think it's possible with a triangular or taper file...

[george wilson]

Ken,ARF ARF ARF!! Keep milking it!!

Raney,the original had the screw on the front,none on the back. Usually the screw on the back withdraws the blade a bit. This one extends the blade. It's the only example I've seen like this.

The knurls were filed with a gunsmith's checkering file.They consist of files with lengthways rows of teeth,with V shaped channels in between. They are for checkering metal,not wood. They start at about 16 lines per inch,and go down to 75 lines per inch. Brownells Gunsmith Supply sells them. You must keep the files absolutely making perfectly parallel cuts as you work,or it will look very bad.Your lines will not be parallel with each group of lines you file. On a round object this size,the flat file will only contact the metal for a short distance,and you must blend the cuts it makes,if you see what I mean.

By now,I have quite a collection of antique knurls,like old microscopes used,and some purely decorative.But those are more recent,and none are as slight a curve as on these planes here.

[Steve Pirrelli]

great looking plane. very handsome lever cap. What's the screw in the front for? Some kind of adjustable mouth?

[george wilson]

Steve,read Raney's post above. Sacrifical screw.

[David Weaver]

Wow..I never should've stopped reading here, I missed all of this.

Love the dovetailed front plate. George, what did you do with these tools-have you kept them, or were they commissions?

It is so much more fun to think of what tool you'll make next than to think about when you'll have the money to buy the next tool on your list.

I hope you get back in the picture posting mood, I'm a rank newbie to making tools and really like seeing tidy hand work, as I'm limited to hand tools for the most part.

[george wilson]

Actually,David,I still have the 3 planes I posted. the drill was made as a commission for a collector years ago. He was planning to make a museum of his huge collection,but I guess he waited too long,and got too old and tired. He was in Williamsburg for an Early American Industries meeting. He told me that his museum had never happened,and offered to give me back the drill. That was very gracious of him.

He was the gentleman who had the salesman's sample that inspired me to reproduce it.

He still has several other tools I'd made for him.

[John A. Callaway]

This is great work. Really looks like a user, but also could pass as art.