A Great Woodie Build Off

[Leigh Betsch]

What do you say to a Wooden plane build challenge? Anyone interested builds a plane. Any size, shape, construction, type, anything goes. No voting, no winning or loosing, only rule is you gotta make the base out of wood, and it's gotta be done in 3 months. Any interest? Maybe get some plane maker wannabes mixing in with some old pro's and see what comes up.

[Kevin Grady]

This might actually get me to try my hand at making my own plane. Now the difficult part will be to choose between two good chunks of wood I have to build one with. Either the fat chunk of cherry I have or one of the chunks of zebrawood I just picked up from an estate sale this weekend.

[Shaun Mahood]

I'm in! I've got all the books, an iron, some (hopefully) suitable wood, and I've just ordered a wooden plane for comparison. Of course, I've had most of those for months, so this challenge will get me off my butt to actually build something.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

I'm tempted to jump in, Leigh. Want to make a special woodie since a few months but never found the time. Maybe that build off would be the right motivation to do it finally...

Klaus

[Stuart Tierney]

Why would I want to do that?

(Looks on shelf, sees a full dozen under utilized planes varying from "new, at their new home" to "well used, but not recently"...)

Besides, I'm 2 weeks behind on everything...

If I have a chance, I'll throw one together for the heck of it. Not like they take very long to throw together.

Stu.

(Only buys planes because they're quite inexpensive and has the maker on speed-dial. And has an email in his in-box with a list of 'outlet' planes. Or in other words "What the heck are we going to do with these? I know! Scrape off offending identification and flog them off cheap!")

[Chris Griggs]

I'll do it if I can get a big enough piece of wood. 8/4 is the thickest hardwood I can get around here. That's thick enough for a Krenov style plane if the blade is 1 7/8" or less right? I'd really like to build a traditional plane, but seeing as how I've never built one it may be good to start with a laminate.
Question: The krenov planes I see always use those short double irons - why is that? Any reason I couldn't use one of these?

[Jack Curtis]

...Question: The krenov planes I see always use those short double irons - why is that? Any reason I couldn't use one of these?

If you use those, I'd consider building in abutments rather than depending on a wedge.

[Chris Griggs]

If you use those, I'd consider building in abutments rather than depending on a wedge.

I was thinking I might try a laminate with abutments like this. I think the HNT Gordon planes are made this way too. Out of curiosity why for a single iron plane would this be necessary over a pin? Do abutments support the blade bettter?

[Leigh Betsch]

I'm not sure if I'll use one of the irons that I made or go with a Lee Valley one. I made a bunch of short irons for woodies but I used a Lee Valley iron on my Anarchy plane, and it was a lot easier since it was already flat. I like the Gordon abutment idea. But I also like the plane I made using a frog I robbed from a transitional plane.
You can always do a glue up if you don't have thick enough wood stock. I'm leaning this way, depending on how my dwindling supply of mesquite looks when I get into it.

[David Weaver]

If I can find any suitable wood large enough to do a one-piece smoother, maybe. But laziness and desire to finish other projects will probably win out. I think building a one-piece coffin smoother would probably be a good skill builder for most of us - me included.

Not a fan of laminated planes, but if I needed to build 3 in a day to do work, I probably would be.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Chris -

I think the "Krenov" style planes usually use shorter blades because that's what Krenov used. His opinion, at least from his books, was that he preferred the low slung style, particularly because it it allowed a variety of grips in different situations, whereas a traditional style plane sort of forced you into a couple of simple grips. I'm not sure there's anything wrong with the grips a traditional plane presents, but if being able to hold the plane in a variety of different ways is important to you, a shorter iron and a low slung body makes it easier to get there. Certainly, if for whatever reason you want the "low slung" style Krenov appeared to like, a longer iron could dig into your hand in certain grips.

Does anyone sell new tapered irons, or is the best source for those either making/tapering yourself or picking up a used vintage iron?

[David Weaver]

I would buy a vintage iron if you want a tapered iron. I think the most I've ever spent on one was $15, and I know i've gotten 3 for $10 on ebay before.

Having built a straight and short infill with a long iron, I agree on why the krenov irons are short - they'd be in the web of your hand on a lot of planes, and I guess he decided on comfort over longevity.

It might be nice to build the kind of smoother george mentioned a while ago - a one-piece coffin smoother with a metal sole in the front.

Who here really needs more smoothers, though?

[Jerome Hanby]

How about a visual glossary to kick things off. Define things like "abutments" in the context of plane making (with pictures of course).

[James Carmichael]

Having built a straight and short infill with a long iron, I agree on why the krenov irons are short - they'd be in the web of your hand on a lot of planes, and I guess he decided on comfort over longevity.

I can't speak to the infills, but my 2" Krenov iron only gives up about 1/2" of usable edge to a Bailey #7. I doubt that I will use up either in my lifetime. I also haven't handled any of the new BU planes, but their irons can't be very long, either.

Yes, Krenov designed the low slung style to allow a variety of grips. He started with the German style woodies and didn't like them. Even my stubby fingers can plane one-handed using a Krenov jack with 2" iron .

I'd rather build projects than planes, so I'll stick with the laminated. Mine won't win any beauty contests, but they work, and are less-expensive in time and money than restoring an old Bailey or Bedrock.

[David Weaver]

Most of the krenov style planes I've seen have less than an inch of iron exposed so that it can be tapped by a hammer and laterally adjusted (maybe that's the way a lot of people are building them, and not how they're supposed to be).

None of us will probably use up much of anything, we're "gentlemen woodworkers" and even at that, there are few professionals who use a hand plane for probably even an hour a day.

If I were in a boat where I'd rather build projects than planes, I would skip building any. A properly set bailey or bailey style plane will plane with just about anything in tough wood (it will certainly plane anything grown in the US easily) without giving up the finish that higher angle plane can't give (and I can buy - and have bought - everything except for the jointer for less than the price of a premium iron).

What I can't figure out is why all of the literature thrown at us does so little to describe how to properly set a bailey plane to eliminate tearout on anything regardless of the wood and regardless of planing direction.