Build: 20'' wooden try plane

[Oskar Sedell]

I decided to call this plane 'Lasse' since it was initiated by Lasse Hilbrandt, who offered a number of unused E A Berg plane irons for a very decent price. His only condition was that the resulting builds, tune-ups and restorations was made available to all forum members. So, here we go.

The basic facts:

Body: Pearwood, ca 20'' long.
Wedge: Pearwood, between 9 and 10 degrees.
Handle: Plum wood
Iron: Erik Anton Berg, laminated, tapered, 46 mm wide.
Bedding angle: 47 degrees.

I have documented the build in pictures and will split this into a number of posts. First step: Trueing the blank and starting the mortise from above:
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After opening the mouth from the sole, very conservatively so not to make it too big, the abutments is sawed with a small pull saw. The wooden block mimics iron + wedge.
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Paring the waste away and making the bed close to final shape.
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After chopping the slot for the cap iron: first insertion of the iron.
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[Oskar Sedell]

Using chalk (the black board version ) to make the final bedding of the iron:
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Shaping the escapement and the cheeks. The cardboard prevents marring the bed when slipping a paring stroke with the chisel.
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Escapement closer to finish, and the wedge blank fitted to width. The mortise is slightly narrower at the mouth than at the top, this should make the wedge fingers springing against the abutment walls.
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Fit before shaping the fingers:
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Paring the fingers to final shape:
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and carving the eyes. The edges will be chamfered, leaving a mm or two between the side of the plane and the chamfer.
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Moving on to the tote!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Looking great! Very nice work.

[Oskar Sedell]

Ripping the plumwood to width. Note to self: get a bigger rip saw. This took quite some time...
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Sketching the shape of the tote. Testing against my hand and eyeballing the profile with the plane.
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After drilling and coping the hole the tote is shaped with rasp and knife
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Final shaping was done with a half-round file and some sandpaper (up to 240 grit).

[Oskar Sedell]

Drilling out the tote mortise.
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after chopping and paring out the sides the bottom was cleaned up:
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Final fit before glueing. The thing starts to look like a plane!
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[Oskar Sedell]

Putting the final chamfer along the edges and rounding the back.
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Cutting the stopped chamfers at the corners, using a "stopping block" to get them all to the same height.
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Smoothing off the pencil marks and some scratches on the top and the sides.
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[Oskar Sedell]

glue up with epoxy.
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trueing the sole: 120 grit paper on a reference granite block.
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Moment of truth: The plane works! Made a pile of nice cherry shavings. Some minimal fettling will be needed to avoid clogging on skew but otherwise very nice. Instead of opening the mouth and/or the wear I honed down the curved part of the cap iron a bit, leaving a ca 50 degree edge at the front, which drops upward to a shallower angle.
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[Oskar Sedell]

After a liberate amount of BLO:
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I'll leave the linseed oil to harden now, and later I'll put on some wax to seal the wood off.

An obvious observation: My plane blank is not very straight grained. I hope it will not move extensively. Next time I'll try to find wood with a better grain profile.

I've learned a lot from this build and from reading/watching your projects. Thanks Lasse for providing the iron! And I'm thankful to all of your who shared your experiences from plane making, you know who you are.

If you have questions or constructive criticism, please share your thoughts.

keep your projects coming!

Best regards,

Oskar

[Kees Heiden]

Nice job!

If I were you I would work a bit more on the top end of the wedge, making larger chamfers. Have a look at old Englisg planes to get an idea. I shape the top more or less to the same shape as the top of the iron.

But that was just something for nitpicking.

[Frederick Skelly]

I like it! Please continue to post more pictures as you continue to build it.
Fred

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for posting the build. It looks great.

jtk

[george wilson]

I WISH I could get some of that plum wood! I had a bit years ago,and it had a beautiful lavender color about it. But,I'm afraid it fades. My piece was not large enough to make anything of much consequence out of it.

Very nice work! I would only caution that epoxy is not needed to glue the handle on,should you do it again. If the handle ever pops loose,you will be re gluing on over old,brittle epoxy. I had that happen a few times back in the 50's,when I tried gluing on a classical guitar bridge with it. Suddenly one day,the whole bridge,with tight strings popped loose and hit me in the back while I was on the phone. And,it happened again months later,when I re glued the bridge back on.

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

Oscar that is a nice build and it is an inspiration for me and Im sure others too.
It makes me happy to see that Iron come to good use instead of laying in a box.

When you get more aquainted with the plane I would like to know how this iron holds its edge.

[Oskar Sedell]

Kees: Thank you for the suggestion. I might agree with you, that the chamfers could follow the shape of the iron better.

George: Thanks! Plumwood is really nice to work with, and rewarding to finish. I'll keep in mind to avoid epoxy the next time. Have to get some hide glue instead.

Lasse: It is very nice if this can inspire more projects. I hope to see a build of yours coming up as well! Time will tell how the edge holds. I guess good, it felt great to hone it up and it took a very keen edge. I'll report if I find anything unusual.

[Reinis Kanders]

Looks great. Handle opening seems to be on a small side, but that is probably hand size specific.