long horns on plane totes

[bridger berdel]

I made a tote for an ebay plane, a #8. in cutting it out, I overshot the line both directions sawing it out at the horn. my intent was to make a more or less direct copy of the original stanley handle, but I kind of liked the lines of the longer horn, so I left it. I figured I could always cut it down later if it was in the way. it turned out to be if anything added support for lifting that heavy big jointer. at least on that plane I really like having the long horn. so I'm making a short run of them, 20 or so, in walnut scrap from a cabinet job. I figure I'll try them out on different sizes of planes, see how I like them.

so.... anybody here played with horn length on bench planes? any good insights?

[Jim Matthews]

The "higher" the horn, the lower I must be to hold it comfortably.
Horns like this force me to keep my "drive" elbow low to the benchtop.

I prefer to push down on my planes, to engage my massive bulk to my advantage.

I'm gravitating toward planes like the traditional Western "coffin" smoother
that allow me to hold the top of the plane while working.

It might be a matter of simple preference.

[Jim Koepke]

It might be a matter of simple preference.

As is so with many of thee endeavors in our pursuits.

It is almost impossible for me to use a plane without a horn on the tote. Same with a saw.

A lot of the control of a saw depends on the horns. Just being able to hold on to a plane is aided by the horns.

jtk

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I made a tote for an ebay plane, a #8. in cutting it out, I overshot the line both directions sawing it out at the horn. my intent was to make a more or less direct copy of the original stanley handle, but I kind of liked the lines of the longer horn, so I left it. I figured I could always cut it down later if it was in the way. it turned out to be if anything added support for lifting that heavy big jointer. at least on that plane I really like having the long horn. so I'm making a short run of them, 20 or so, in walnut scrap from a cabinet job. I figure I'll try them out on different sizes of planes, see how I like them.

so.... anybody here played with horn length on bench planes? any good insights?

I'm assuming you're talking about a horn that extends further away from the back of the plane, (sort of the difference between a Lie Nielsen plane and the handles on a Veritas plow, disregarding the angle)

I've a couple planes with different length horns, and the only two caveats I have with longer horns; one, that they don't extend out in a fashion that alters the angle of my grip, (like Jim alludes to) the other, is that the longer horn still "wraps" around my hand well and doesn't dig in somewhere on the top of my hand. In the end, there are so many factors to handles, that the horn ends up being one of the smaller impacts, if it meets the basic needs. Things like angle, height, placement of the "hump" on the back, etc., play into things more than the length of the horn for me. And of course, all these things are somewhat subjective at some point, and depend on what *you* find comfortable, which is going to be influenced by how you hold the plane, the height of your bench, the plane in question, etc. That's not to say that there's not some principles to good design, and like many things, blindly designing something that feels comfortable to you at first may actually create something that's less comfortable in the long run.

I will say, I dislike overly short horns - they're more apt to dig into your hand, and I feel like I lose a little control. I've a Clifton plane with a short, poorly rounded over horn on it's tote that I find less comfortable than most. For excellently done horns on Stanley style handles, I'm in love with the tote by Bill Rittner that I have on my MF jointer. (Bill's handles excel in many areas, actually.)

The "higher" the horn, the lower I must be to hold it comfortably.
Horns like this force me to keep my "drive" elbow low to the bench top.

Assuming you aren't just talking about height of the handle, this alludes to something I find a bit - in that a longer horn, you need to be careful about the "arc" it traverses - with a longer horn, you can't always just extend the horn along the same path it travels leaving the handle, it messes with the angle of holding a bit much.

I prefer to push down on my planes, to engage my massive bulk to my advantage.

For me, when I find myself needing to push down, it's a sign I need to sharpen. In general, I don't find the need for a lot of pressure, other than what's needed to start the cut, and keep in engaged in the cut. But Jim, you've got a lot more experience than I - so you must be either doing something different than I (or perhaps it's just a difference in planes - you talk about liking coffin smoothers, so maybe this is driven more by the light weight of wooden planes) or I'm misunderstanding what you're writing here. I could just have terrible technique, as well!

[bridger berdel]

here is the tote on my #8. this tote, in my hand, on this plane, is quite comfortable. I have only used this plane for any length of time a few times, but for those projects it worked fine.tumblr_n8v5q7xT271qhrm32o1_500.jpg

[Pat Barry]

Very nice!