A Great Woodie Build Off

[Roderick Gentry]

I have a few Krenov style planes with long irons. Mainly because I had them lying around. The only real downside other than the look is just that my hand runs up onto one of them and it isn't all that comfortable at times. That has a lot to do with the shape of the block. Krenov built a few with a bit of a Beavertail to them.

[Stewie Simpson]

The plane is glued together already. After removing the clamps it had to go on the balance. I was rather curious about it's weight. Well, it ended up with 3219 grams what's a little more than 7 lbs. For comparison: my #8 is 3672 grams, the LV BUS is 2731 grams. So it really is hefty, maybe a little less would have been more. That can't be judged before it will be used however. For now it's a surprising thing every time I lift it although I know that it's a heavy beast. The eye still doesn't accept that a woody is that heavy.

It has to get some shaping now and a few other things. When I'm done, I'll be happy to post a few pics.

Klaus

Hi Klaus. Did you think about shaping the wedge before you glued the sides on.

Stewie;

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Hi Klaus. Did you think about shaping the wedge before you glued the sides on.

Stewie;

Hi Stewie, yes I shaped a wedge. Unfortunately it doesn't fit like it should now, after the plane is glued up. I think that it can be saved for temporary use however. That's all I need for the moment because the plane will get another blade. I want to have a thicker one which isn't tapered. Right now I have a vinage one from an Ulmia jointer that is tapered. When the new blade will be inserted I need to make a new wedge anyway.

Klaus

[Trevor Walsh]

From what I've seen of die sinker EDM (at mold making facilities) there isn't a reason why the bed and ware couldn't be formed at the same time. They have formed complex geometric shapes with much larger surface areas. Die sinker EDM is different than "EDM" that most are familiar with, which is spark erosion with a very small diameter wire. Die sinker uses a solid carbon negative geometrical shape to spark erode that shape into something.

[Chris Griggs]

So, just for giggles, I ended up attempting to make a plane from what I had on hand. I didn't have a spare blade around and at the moment I don't have any stock thicker than 4/4 so I decided to pull the blade out of my LV little victor and try to make a wooden body for it. I used two part lamination with abutments (like the steve knight kits) which allowed my to get away with using 4/4 stock. I cut the bed at 40 degrees to make a low angle bevel down plane. The plane is curly maple (soft) but I initially ended up with a monstrous mouth so I glue on a white oak sole and recut the mouth with chisels. The mouth still came out a fair bit bigger than I wanted but it was a heck of a lot better than before. I've been messing about and tweaking it for the past few days and have it working pretty decently - not phenomenally well, but plenty well enough for a little trimming plane. Probably not the worst plane ever made and for a first try I'm pretty happy. I'm not sure if I'll actually end up using it since the blade belongs in another plane, but it works well enough that I may throw spare little victor blade in my cart next time I order something from LV just fun.

Anyway, I really just did it as a learning experience and by doing two part lamination with abutments I really got a better understanding of how the interior of a wooden plane works, and after doing this would be much more comfortable attempting a one piece plane. Truth be told - if I did this size plane again I'd probably still do the two part lamination but use a pin instead of cutting the abutments. On this small plane the abutments seem a bit fragile and a cross pin just seems like it would make more sense and be sturdier for something this small scale.

Please forgive the crappy cell phone pics

In hand for scale
IMG00281.jpg

End grain and face grain shavings on the piece of wood it was made from (plane cannibalism)
IMG00286.jpg IMG00287.jpg

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Neat plane, Chris! You did a good job on this one. It's about the size of a block plane so the bed angle is right to my eyes. It's about the angle of a low angle block plane that is primarily designed to cut end grain. On this job it doesn't matter if the mouth is some wider as intended. To cut end grain, a tight mouth isn't needed.

The wood is very very nice and -what I like especially- is the proper blendings of the shape. Especially on a one handed used plane, a smooth shape is very important to make the tool feel comfortable. I think that you will have much pleasure with the little gem.

Klaus

[Bob Strawn]

It's a beauty Chris, cute and functional! It makes a nice shaving and it looks comfortable to push or pull, so I think it's a keeper.


Bob

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks Klaus and Bob,

Regarding the shape. I had originally planned to try to make a mini coffin smoother, but 1) I didn't really have anything to base it on and 2) It didn't seem like it would be comfortable as a one-handed plane. So I just decided to put aesthetics aside start removing material until it was comfortable and the curves were fair. It funny, I wasn't trying to make it look like one of Krenov's planes, but by the time I got it to a place that I thought it was comfortable the shape was darn near identical to a Krenov - it really is a comfortable shape and makes me want to make a few more like it. I also really want to make a miter plane like the one oyu are working on Klaus, but that will need to wait.

Also I agree Klaus, though I wanted a tighter mouth it doesn't matter that its a little wide - if I end up using this plane much it will mostly be for little chamfers and trimmings so the slightly over-sized mouth isn't a big a deal.

[Zach Dillinger]

Nice looking plane Chris! That would make a nice addition to anyone's kit.

[Zach Dillinger]

Here's my finished entry for the contest. All finished now, with the obligatory shavings shot.

The major design change that I used was to use a copper skate instead of a steel one. I thought it would look good against the dark walnut finish, and I feel I'm right. The plane, in person, looks an awful lot like rosewood. Finish is 8 coats of linseed oil and 6 coats of blonde shellac, which was then rubbed out with amber paste wax. Works great!! Total time invested is about 25 hours over 8 days.


front.jpgrear.jpgskate 2.jpgskate side.jpgin use.jpg

Just scored a copy of Rosebrook's plow plane book for $20 at an antique store, so I'll probably be making more plows. This was a lot of fun! Now I just need more sets of plow plane irons to make it worthwhile.

[Leigh Betsch]

Looks great Zack.

[Leigh Betsch]

Ok here's what I've been working on. It's a 40 bevel up block plane with a 1/2 wide blade. It's a experimental version. I want to try out few idea's I had on a small plane before getting into something more complicated. I wanted to make a small plane with a fairly open throat, with low and narrow cheeks. So I used steel for them, with the cross pin this close to the edge wood would surly crack. I anchored the steel cheeks to 3/8 dia steel cross pins buried in the beech body, then pinned thru them with 1/4 brass rod. I also used a 1/4 brass cross pin for the clamp. Lignum sole, dovetailed to the beech body. It has an adjustable mouth held in by the front thumb screw. Add some brass strike buttons, some Tru Oil and there you have it.

I will start my real entry into this contest that's not a contest, tonight. Based a bit on this block plane design.

[Chris Griggs]

Zach your plane is so awesome. Beautifully done!

Leigh you've always got something innovative up you sleeve - your block plane is great and I can't wait to see your "real" entry.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Great work all around guys. I'm digging watching this thread.

Zach - I'm assuming the extra wooden bit rising from the plane body (on the forward end, further to the fence than the wedge and iron) is some form of depth stop? Does the depth stop get stopped by the same wedge that holds the arm in place?

[Ryan Baker]

I had a few minutes this afternoon, so I got started on my plane build. I am chopping a traditional escapement in a one-piece maple body. This stuff is really hard. This may take a while.