The Ugliest Plane I Have Ever Made

[george wilson]

I saw an exhibition of Henry VIII's ship,the Mary Rose years ago in Portsmouth,Va. The tools were still just like new except any iron parts were long gone. The contents of the hull were buried in silt for those hundreds of years and no rotting had taken place due to lack of oxygen. The beechwood was still pink.

The molding planes had open sided wedges,and IIRC,the wedges themselves were just like yours. The jack planes had handles flush with the side of the body,inlet with just 1 big dovetail.

Toolmaking in England seemed to be in a very primitive era in England back then. I don't think tool making there got going in quality until close to the 18th. C..

England was a far Eastern outpost of European civilization. Everything seemed to get there last. They were the last to make harpsichords,which started in Italy in the 1500's. Henry VIII had to import armor makers from Flanders,and set them up in Greenwich. He did this after Maximilian of Austria sent him a very fancy suit of armor just to rub Henry's nose in the fact that Austria was far ahead of England. This was at the end of the age of wearing suits of armor anyway. Guns were making armor obsolete. The making of GOOD guns was finally brought into England by French Huguenots fleeing from France. Guns made before them in England worked,but were primitive looking compared to continental guns.

The English were fierce fighters and excellent sailers. They built their ships heavier and loaded them with cannon. They drilled the men constantly to learn to shoot faster. Their long bows accounted for a lot of advantage in battle. Men were required to spend many years learning archery from boyhood. Those bows drew about 130#,and it took years of building strength to learn to draw them ,develop the muscles and shoot accurately. That's how they held their own.

[Wayne Morley]

Looks like a nice easy to build plane, and the results speak for them selves. My question is: how are the shavings cleared from the groove? The design doesn't seem to leave any place for them to go.

[Richard Line]

Yes, the world (or at least me) want to know how the shaving exit.

[David Weaver]

There is a hastily chopped out area right in front of the iron below the wedge. Instead of being cut evenly and nice like a rabbet plane, it's cut in a cone shape and I opened the mouth a little to make it feed. The wedge is cut to face out. It does pretty well not clogging at this point - I'd like the mouth to be tighter, but that's getting picky for something I'd expect to make in an hour.

I guess my point is, you do just enough to get it to feed well and that's it.

[Wayne Morley]

There is a hastily chopped out area right in front of the iron below the wedge. Instead of being cut evenly and nice like a rabbet plane, it's cut in a cone shape and I opened the mouth a little to make it feed. The wedge is cut to face out. It does pretty well not clogging at this point - I'd like the mouth to be tighter, but that's getting picky for something I'd expect to make in an hour.

I guess my point is, you do just enough to get it to feed well and that's it.

OK Thank you. I guess I didn't know what I was looking at. I can see that, with the side open like this, you don't need to do much to clear the chips.

Just to clarify... this is what you're talking about.

This.jpg

[David Weaver]

That's it. Evidence of extreme laziness - but you can cut it out any way you'd like as long as it works (as in, pretter than just one-handing a straight chisel around it sloppily in a half circle if you want it to look presentable). The shavings come out pretty straight or they bunch up at the mouth a little bit but then manage to get ejected. As long as the end story of the details is that they generally all come out, that's good enough. Creates a funny gap between the abutment and the wedge, but chips never actually go there - they're out before they get that far.

[Dave Anderson NH]

My comment is short and to the point David. A good tool is one that works well, everything else is icing on the cake. Yours works well, hence it is a good tool.

[george wilson]

Speaking of using a chisel for the plane iron,a WWII Japanese tool kit for a soldier/carpenter,used the widest chisel as the plane's iron. It saved weight when packing it around,and metal in the time when steel was needed.

President Roosevelt requested to be buried in a bronze coffin,but even he was denied it as the metal was too scarce. It all went into war needs.

[Mel Fulks]

The planners of Roosevelt's funeral wanted bronze . His own directions were found in a safe after he was buried ,he wanted wood with no vault or embalming.

[David Weaver]

The planners of Roosevelt's funeral wanted bronze . His own directions were found in a safe after he was buried ,he wanted wood with no vault or embalming.

Was he amish?

[Christopher Charles]

Hello David,

This is fantastic as I'm interested in making some similar tools and have less time in the shop than I do for following SMC threads....

Can you give specifics on making the irons--source of stock, process etc.?

Thanks,
C

[David Weaver]

Yeah, i started making two junkers last night. One in 3/8" and one in 1/2". As soon as I make the wedges and irons for them, I'll put up a picture progression.

Just as an aside, my go-to iron stock for any moulding plane type of thing is a bar of 1/8" thick O1 stock from mcmaster carr (it's starrett brand, I only use it because it's familiar and it's always ground flat - I have no machine shop type tools to deal with something that doesn't come right). I also keep 3/32nd and 3/16" for plane irons, but don't use them nearly as much.

I would love to put up a progression of the more elaborate (and much more attractive) side escapement moulding planes, but the simple fact is that I learned to make them by watching an LN video and it would just be sharing larry williams' intellectual capital even though as time goes on, I'm sure I don't quite do the exact same thing. I'm still just borrowing larry williams' knowledge.

These kinds of nasty little planes that are ugly but work well and are quick are probably more practical mid-project for the average woodworker than stopping and making two pairs of H&Rs.

[Mel Fulks]

Amish... But couldn't give up good straight razors!