A Great Woodie Build Off

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Klaus,I am delighted to see that you designed something extremely good from scratch. Too often,there are makers and manufacturers who copy things well,but totally lose it when they try to design something themselves.

Great looking plane. I like the handle very much.

Coming from you, the praise count's a lot, George! Many thanks. Actually there's a design influence by George Wilson. Recently you've posted some pics of a very nice 18th century jointer plane you've made. I liked the top chamfer so much on this plane, sharp edged on the front and curved down at the rear end. I've copied that without asking you...

Klaus

[george wilson]

Feel free,Klaus. All I have asked is if someone uses my design,just GET IT RIGHT!!!! You obviously don't need that request.

[Chris Griggs]

Ok fellers here's my toothing plane. It works OK, pushes harder than I thought it would, I guess because it's bedded at 70*. I think it's tuned pretty well but it is hard to get the exact depth set. Once I get it set it makes some nice spaghetti curls. I also made the iron.

I like it. That iron looks massive! What are the woods? What's your intended use - veneer work, gnarly grain, or both?

Awesome that its your 2nd plane in this thread. How many more you got in the works?

[Leigh Betsch]

I like it. That iron looks massive! What are the woods? What's your intended use - veneer work, gnarly grain, or both?

Awesome that its your 2nd plane in this thread. How many more you got in the works?

I'd hoped to use it to scratch up shop cut veneers before gluing. Others have posted that gnarly grain is best done with a different pitch blade. Oh well I guess I'll have to make another iron.
I didn't think much on this one, I just started working. Maple and some farm cut wood for the center section, I'm really not sure what kind of wood it is. I'd do it different next time. I'd make it all of one wood, that way I could have gotten the champhers to be larger and better looking. As it is I had to keep them too small so they wouldn't cut into the darker center wood. I cheated and glued in the cheeks. The goal with this one was to build fast and see what comes out! Not a total flop, but it could have been better.


Well since you asked, it begins again:

[Tony Shea]

Klaus, what a great design and execution. I really like what you've done with this plane. Truely something special. Your handle is also an incredibly nice looking design and looks extremely comfortable. The two different angles you have to deal with in bedding this plane must have been very challenging but looks as though you nailed it.

And Leigh, i also really like what you've done with your plane. I personally like the different species used as it almost has the looks of an infill. This is a plane that would get a ton of use in my shop. As of now I do not own a toothing plane, therefore all my veneer work is done with just scratched surfaces off of coarse sand paper. I have to be extremely careful to not introduce any dips and rounded edges to create a nice glue joint. This plane would be a time saver.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Thank you Tony!

When I developed the handle for this plane, I didn't know where I would land, the only thing I knew was, that it would be something else than a hot dog. So I cut down a scrap saw handle and tested the fit. After some tries I found a shape that was comfortable to me. After having shaped it, I loughed. The handle on a shooter is called "Hot Dog", regarding the shape of mine I thought that this would be the "Hot Pig".

It's not that hard to deal with 2 angles while making the body of a Krenov styled plane. After the layout is properly done, the rest is sawing and planing. On a 1-piece-body it will be a complete other story of course. The hardest thing was the shaping of the wedge. There were some nasty words to be heard in my shop until it worked finally.

Klaus

[Chris Gilly]

Special plane Klaus.

[george wilson]

Klaus,if your blade is chattering,it may not be laying flat against the incline. You have said that the wedge fits.

Take a candle,and soot the back of the iron. Put it into the plane and tap down the wedge. The soot will print black where it touched. Carefully cut off the blacked areas until you get blacking all over,as much as possible.

The 18th. C. planes we made had these THIN 18th.C. irons in them that the blacksmith's shop made. I never liked them. They chattered,and had to be fitted like I've described. They were stingy with metal in the 18th.C.,since it was refined by hand,and we just had to deal with it.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Klaus

What a striking (!) looking plane!

I echo all that George has said about the blade. There is really only one reason it could chatter, and this is if it is not held flat on the bed. Did you check the blade's back for flatness by lapping it? I imagine that sorting this blade out would be easier than fitting a new one.

Regards from Perth

Derek (who won blades on eBay last night needed for my plane build)

[Peter Pedisich]

Ok fellers here's my toothing plane. It works OK, pushes harder than I thought it would, I guess because it's bedded at 70*. I think it's tuned pretty well but it is hard to get the exact depth set. Once I get it set it makes some nice spaghetti curls. I also made the iron.

Leigh,
I just compared this to my ECE toothing plane, and my iron would be embarrassed to be seen on the same bench next to yours! Nice stout wedge as well.
-Pete

[george wilson]

Our plane irons had to be fitted,because they were roughly forged on the back,like the old ones. I'm wondering if Klaus's blade has a curve to it,or something like that isn't laying flat.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Klaus,if your blade is chattering,it may not be laying flat against the incline. You have said that the wedge fits.

Take a candle,and soot the back of the iron. Put it into the plane and tap down the wedge. The soot will print black where it touched. Carefully cut off the blacked areas until you get blacking all over,as much as possible.

The 18th. C. planes we made had these THIN 18th.C. irons in them that the blacksmith's shop made. I never liked them. They chattered,and had to be fitted like I've described. They were stingy with metal in the 18th.C.,since it was refined by hand,and we just had to deal with it.

Great advice, thank you. I've checked the blade and you're right. While the bed is dead flat, the blade has indeed some high spots. I don't want to work on the bed by bringing it out of flat since the vintage blade doesn't have much rest life and has to be changed anyway for that reason. I checked the body of the vintage Ulmia and it seems that the bed had been adapted to fit the blade indeed. That was quite surprising since the plane isn't that old. I guess that it was made at the beginning of 20th century.

Klaus

[Stewie Simpson]

Thank you, Chris. Actually it seems to be a blade problem. The bed is dead flat, it couldn't be better. The wedge made some problems since it was tricky to make skewed in 2 directions. It took some time but finally it had a very nice fit. So I'm pretty sure that it's the blade what's causing the problem.

Klaus

Hi Klaus. I am not a big fan of Krenov style planes but in your plane I see a great deal of innovative thought has gone into its unique and eye catching shape.The high quality on construction is but a reflection to high standard you put towards your backsaws work. The move to a thicker blade I believe should resolve your chatter problem based upon your description to how well the wedge has been fitted within the abutments. How have you found the extra weight within the movement of the plane when in use. I included extra brass weighting to a number of my earlier built hand planes like these 2 Toothing Planes attached below.


Great work.


Regards; Stewie.

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Thank you, Derek!

The most surprising thing on this plane can't be showed by photographing it, it's the heft of the tool. After some lead went into the body, it feels more than a heavy metal plane than a woodie.

You won some blades? Let me try a guess... one of those has the right size to become part of a block plane

Regards
Klaus

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Thank you, Stewie!

As mentioned already, the weight of the plane surprises and feels good. I'm too curious myself how it will perform once a new blade is inserted.

I knew your beauties from a former post of you. Stunning pieces!

Regards
Klaus