I'm in the end game with these two ebony infills, one of which seeks to address - the No. 4.5 in the foreground - the risk that the thin neck on my planes might break.
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To this point in my plane making I've chosen to push the design envelope no matter the risk, in large part out of curiosity to see how far I could get without disaster. The good news is that you learn a heck of a lot about wood in doing so. The bad news is -- well, not disaster, exactly, but rather two lessons in the school of hard knocks: An early plane came apart because I left it atop the washing machine one morning only to find it on the floor after my sweet wife turned the machine on. The tote on another split because, in driving a drill bit through it, I neglected to back the bit out to remove waste, causing it to clog.
Which is to say that none of my clients has sent a plane back because it came apart in use.
Which is not to say it couldn't happen - or won't.
Lo, a solution, maybe, in the No. 4.5 - a cross-grain spline running north and south from a point an inch or so down from the top of the crown all the way down to and around the big arc and forward to the bed for the iron. It's about 1/4 inch wide and about as deep, and as you may guess, it took some doing to shape it and get it into the plane; among other things, since the grain on the tote runs east and west, more or less, I had to make the spline such that end grain ended up on the surface.
In essence, the result ought to add strength to the structure for the same reason that plywood is strong, don't you think? But would the better idea be to insert the spline from inside the hand hole? This might be easier to do, I suspect. It might also reinforce pretty much the entire upper half of the tote.
Anyway, I invite input from any and all.