Shop made T-square and smoothing plane

[Mike Allen1010]

Here are two shop made tools - a 24" long square and a 6" long smoothing plane;

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When laying out crosscuts for wider panels, the 14" Marples T-square I've had for 30 years sometimes isn't long enough to mark the full width of the cut.

Inspired by Jim Tolpin's's book "The New Traditional Woodworker" (which I highly recommend), I built this cocobolo and maple square with a 24" long blade to fill this need.

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I am strictly a hand tool guy so I don't work to the exacting tolerances of some folks, but based on the "draw a line, flip your square, draw another line and see if they're parallel" test it turned out to be more accurate than expected.

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Continued below

[Mike Allen1010]

When I finish plane larger panels, it seems like I always have one small area of reversing grain/tear out somewhere in the middle of the panel. I have also been eager to try one of Lee Valley's new PM -- 11 plane blades. These seemed like perfectly good excuses to build a woodie.

This small 6" smoother, (slavishly copying one of Derek Cohen's). It's made of Goncalo Alves, which I've had good luck with before for wooden planes, with a brass wear plate at the mouth and 55° pitch. (BTW, the PM-11 blade came with a 30° primary bevel, as compared to 25° bevels I see on most plane irons -- why is that?).


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Here are the obligatory shaving pictures:

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Thanks for looking, and thanks to Lee "the plane anarchist" for pushing me down the slippery slope of building wooden planes - which I find myself using more and more frequently.

All the best, Mike

[Chris Griggs]

Excellent stuff as always Mike. I could see a really big square like that coming in handy!

[Leigh Betsch]

and thanks to Lee "the plane anarchist" for pushing me down the slippery slope of building wooden planes

Happy to be of assistance! I've taken a turn and now I'm into building metal infills but woddies are still pretty cool. I like yours very much.

[David Paulsen]

Wow Mike, that's really some beautiful tools. I love the Goncalo Alves - Stunning grain, me thinks. Is it hard timber to work with?

[Mike Allen1010]

Wow Mike, that's really some beautiful tools. I love the Goncalo Alves - Stunning grain, me thinks. Is it hard timber to work with?

David, I am certainly not a would technology expert, and I know tropical woods are not traditional for hand planes.

I've had good luck building several wooden planes out of tropical hardwoods including Goncalo Alves. It's hard, dense and stable (I use small offcuts that have been aired drying for some time. You might want to be careful if you're breaking down longer stock with twisting grain). It also works well with edge tools,files, rasps etc.

I've had good luck getting tropical woods for tool making from a local place here in Carlsbad California called "Exotic Hardwoods of South America" -- or something close to that. They supply a lot of the local instrument makers and I think do business over the Internet. I have no affiliation with them, just a satisfied customer.

All the best, Mike

[george wilson]

It is goods to see you are making tools. However,you need to get rid of the extra blade sticking out of the back of your square. It will prevent you from using the square against an inside corner,which is something you will want to be able to do.