The Ugliest Plane I Have Ever Made

[David Weaver]

In the middle of a few things, not the least of which is buying and selling things I don't need, dodging the daytime sleep schedules of two very young kids (and a wife who enforces those like a sheriff running for re-election).

One of the things I'm doing is going to require drawers. I have a plow plane, like everone else. Actually three. And match planes that would cut a drawer groove, but I couldn't resist trying to make a plane as fast as I could possibly make it in the design of the bouvet plow that Warren discussed. Open sided, I could've spent twice the time and made a neat and tidy plane out of nice wood, but that wasn't the point.

Scrap cherry, scrap beech (that was about the right thickness for a wedge) and no power tools in any of the process. An hour and a half, including making the iron.

Total cost? I guess, probably about two dollars.

And it works fabulously - better than any metal skated plow I've used, cleaner grooves and faster. About 15 seconds of time for each drawer length groove.

Thanks for the idea, Warren! I'll be making two more of them now.

[Sean Hughto]

Very cool! Id love to see a step by step photo log. If you're making two more .... :-)

[David Weaver]

Will do. You can see the broken out skate and the blow out in front of the wedge, and the bench chisel cut solution for feeding above the iron. I put off making drawer bottom planes because I didn't want to spend 20 hours making three of them. I also didn't know how well an open sided plane would hold the iron, but it holds it extremely tightly - you can't tap it out by hammering it laterally.

[Judson Green]

That's pretty cool David! Could I burden you for a few more photos of the plane?

[Ron D Davis]

Looks very good to me and looks like it works fine, price is right also. I would enjoy a photo log of the next one also.

[David Weaver]

Yeah, what do you want to see? It's not so much about this plane, it's more about the principle of some of the types of planes that you can make like this almost for free and without spending much time or being burdened with being overly neat.

The other two planes in the picture are just normal in-process hollows and rounds. They are made almost exactly the way larry williams says to, and they take me about 10 hours a pair (I don't use power tools on them, either, except for a cordless drill to get the mortise started), not even to prepare the rough beech or thickness it.

After making the type larry advocates (which work fabulously, better than you can imagine, and look good when you're done, too), I'd have had all kinds of questions about the open sided type that warren vouched for, like:
* how well is the iron held
* is there a chance that the wedge could literally just drive off the front or back of the plane and break it out?
* what if I do it fast, and don't do a great job of it (the other planes will have the iron properly bedded and the profiles very carefully made), will it chatter or just be a poor fit?
* what if I don't taper the iron?

I just noticed I didn't even get the direction right - the grain is running uphill from front to back on the plane. Ideally, it would go the other way.

All of those turned out to be not worth worrying about. It works great despite the intentionally quick work. The abutment is just saw cut with a backsaw and the other stuff is just plow planed and chiseled. The wedge was just cut out of quarter inch thick stock and sawn and planed (via holding the plane in one hand and running the wedge across it with the other - never checking anything for square or doing anything other than eyeballing.

I did measure the iron when I made it. It turned out 5 thousandths narrow, I can live with that.

There are probably some things that some folks won't have on hand, like O1 stock, a good hack saw blade that can actually cut it well, a metal scribe, etc.

Come to think of it, an enterprising individual could just take a cheap long 1/4" firmer chisel and use that for an iron if wanting to avoid making the iron, but having the few basic things needed to cut, file, harden and temper an iron are worth having around just in case you ever need to make anything.

[george wilson]

Your plane looks very much like one of those found in the Mary Rose excavation.

[David Weaver]

Your plane looks very much like one of those found in the Mary Rose excavation.

those had to rot a couple of hundred years to look as bad!

[Judson Green]

Guess I'm wanting to confirm what I think is the profile. Something like this?

Screenshot_2014-02-16_21-57-14.png

Please pardon the sketchy sketch.

[Steve Voigt]

Looks good to me. The groove is pretty; that's the most important thing.

[David Weaver]

Yes, that's the profile. There is nothing on the outside of the runner to act as a depth stop because its not needed.

[John Coloccia]

You need to try harder. I've made far uglier tools than that. Don't fret. You'll get there.

edit:
What's the wood? Looks like some lightly quilted cherry, maybe?

[Kees Heiden]

Good job! Worthy of replicating. Oh wait, I allready have several drawer grooving planes...

[Chris Griggs]

Super Neat!!!! I love it!

When Warren mentioned that I found myself thinking I'd like to make one too. Glad you did. Seems like it would do the job of a plow 90% of the time, with better result since the fibers are supported in front of the full width of the cutting edge.

What is this one? 1/4" blade, 1/4" from edge,1/8" deep? What will the other two be and for what/why?

I take it those two other planes are the pair of 8s you've been working on? Coming along nicely too. Looks like they are nearing completion

[David Weaver]

You need to try harder. I've made far uglier tools than that. Don't fret. You'll get there.

edit:
What's the wood? Looks like some lightly quilted cherry, maybe?

It's an offcut of cherry that's pretty close to quartered. I didn't want to waste a nice quartered beech blank.