A jack plane

[Kees Heiden]

After much procrastination I finally got round to make a beech jack plane. I am still a long way from the perfectness of th eplanes of Steve Voigt, or David Weaver and especially a whole long way of from th ekind of things they make at old street tools, but here is my first home made real plane. A jack, because that is a nice place to start learning. The mouth is now about 4 mm wide, so I am glad I didn't start with a smoother! 16" long, 2 1/8" iron.

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

It looks very good.
What did you do to make the sole dead flat ?

[Kees Heiden]

First I planed it. That got it very close to flat. Perfectly flat enough for a jack plane. But because this is a practice plane I also got a piece of glas shelving and a roll of 120 grit sandpaper to get it more then flat enough.

[Jim Koepke]

Looks good. Did you take any pictures of the work as it progressed?

jtk

[mark kosse]

Looks great, good job!

[Kees Heiden]

Yes there are some pictures on my blog. You'll find it when you search for: Seekelot.

[Dave Anderson NH]

It looks really fine Kees. The most important thing however is how well it performs.

[Kees Heiden]

Oh yes, it works! Nice thick shavings.

[Steve Voigt]

Kees,
Looks great! Congratulations. Welcome to the dark side--we have cookies (sorry JimK.)

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

One of my hobbies is spearfishing. Here we use to say that pneumatic propelled Spears are the dark side.
If any Powertools should be the dark side ;-)

[Jim Koepke]

Kees,
Looks great! Congratulations. Welcome to the dark side--we have cookies (sorry JimK.)

Hey, if I had a nice new plane like that coming off my bench I don't know if I would have time to bake a batch of cookies.

I make a mean batch of chocolate, chocolate chip cookies. My triple chocolate mocha brownies have been known to make my coworkers swoon.

jtk

[george wilson]

A very nice first effort,Kees. But,if you look at Steve's new smoother,you will see that there is a fairly long flat spot between where the wedge goes in and the "eyes" start. This is to make the wood not chip so easily. Your plane is very weak right on that corner,and will likely chip hunks of wood off.

Very nice handle,and I like the unusual treatment you have given to the terminations of the bevels. Is that Dutch?

[Stewie Simpson]

Very nice Kees. I noticed you have offset the centre line position of the tote handle. As far as I am aware that was a common feature within early Dutch plane design. Have you been able to validate any real benefits from having an offset rear tote.

Stewie;

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks guys. And thanks a lot for the tip about the eyes George. Where would we be without you? I did indeed copy the termination of the chamfers from some old Dutch moulding planes. To be honest, I don't know yet if I like it more then the English style, but being dutch it is kind of neat to add such a personal detail to an otherwise English plane.

Stewie, I have several Dutch planes with offset handles. The habit was continued for a very long time in our country. Actually I like it, but can't put it in any kind of objective light. Somehow it feels as if your hand is in a more natural position. But I get along fine with my Stanleys too, so any difference isn't very obvious. But it sure is a typical 18th/early 19th century detail of English planes, so I liked to use it too.

[Stewie Simpson]

Kees. Of interest, I have seen drawings of early 1800s wooden jack planes showing the top surface of plane sloped at around 5* in a cross grain direction towards the user . The rear open tote sloped at the same angle. After watching my father over the years working with bench planes I think I have a reasonable understanding as to why that type of design feature would have been effective. (Difficult to explain in short text form.)

He was traditionally trained as a Carpenter & Joiner in Scotland during the early 1950s; primarily using traditional techniques as well as tooling. During his employment tenure he was never permitted by his boss to use any type of steel bodied planes.

Stewie;