New Dovetail Plane.

[Mark Stutz]

Derek,
In the last line of your article you mention working on a plane to cut the female part of the dovetail. Any progres? That is the part that is most intimidating to me...probably because my sawing ability is still in the "needs improvement" phase.

Mark

[Derek Cohen]

I think you'd have to ask Derek himself.......but from what I've seen of his plane, its slicing to cut with the grain. Happened probably because thats how the origional was made (old rebate plane wasn't it) and it looked right to have shavings escape that way...so guessing he naturally put the fence on the right.......but as a consequence, he's turned it into a left handed plane

Hi Jake

A couple of points for the record: the original plane came with a skew blade and a flat sole. I added the skewed sole. The issues concerning the relationship of the leading edge of the blade and the skew direction of the sole were discussed at length Steve Knight in the months before I built the plane. It is all on page 592 of the manual I released shortly afterwards:"Her lusty boosum heaved ..." oops, wrong manual ... here it is ..

Of note, the sole has been angled such that the leading edge of the blade cut to the outside, while the trailing edge cut into the shoulder of the dovetail.

http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/d.../dovPlane2.asp

There is also a large amount of information in this regard that I tapped into on the Old Tools Archive (my discussions there predate our discussions on Ubeaut):
http://people.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle...art=25#results

The point is that the plane's design was not arrived at by chance. There are a lot of knowledgeable woodworkers out there who have gone before us. This is not meant to take away any of the superbly creative thinking you have put into the skew design for the #45.

I suspect that the reason Zenwood had such a poor performance was that a near total lack of experience in using his dovetail plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jake Darvall]

What happened to your post Mike. Somebody erased it. Sitting here in my outlook express.

..." oops, wrong manual ... here it is ..

yes !!!! you've acknowledged my point. Thank god. So why didn't you include it in your thread ?

You must have noticed the improvement you achieved by skewing the blade in this plane over the experiements you had before. I had remarkable improvements just by skewing the blade slightly in that 55.

Its the same concept for any cross grain cut....panel raising for example ,right ? that cuts profile slopes away, so the planes bed must skew to ensure its blades slices in over the fibres with the grain.

Stick a regular edge profile blade in your 55 and try cutting it cross grain, and you'll get a mess. And its not because its a 55 or because the mouth is open etc. Its because the beds not skewed as it should be.

The point is that the plane's design was not arrived at by chance. There are a lot of knowledgeable woodworkers out there who have gone before us. This is not meant to take away any of the superbly creative thinking you have put into the skew design for the #45.

Thankyou, but I'm never after praise. I only brought it up because its clear that its the most important aspect to be aware of in designing a dovetail plane. Yet people don't even seem to mention it.

I suspect that the reason Zenwood had such a poor performance was that a near total lack of experience in using his dovetail plane.

Well...... I've probably had too much experience with dovetail planes, and when I had a go using the ECE, its results were substandard in my book too. At least compared to planes that slice with the grain.

So ??? But I shouldn't say that since everyones reading!!!......I should something like this instead.

The ECE dovetail plane is one of the best planes I've EVER used. <- and finish it smiling like a wombat.

[Jake Darvall]

Are there any non-traditionalist woodworkers out there who'd like a chin-wag ? Because often I feel like I'm the only one here.

I'm really quite interested in talking about factors that I would have thought are most important to woodwork. Topics that concerning getting the cleanist cuts possible etc, and much less so on Traditional stuff and prettyness. or anything else that'll hamper that.

From much experimentation for instance here...... I've got something to offer (wouldn't bother bringing it up if it was proven improvement) and yet its shrugged off, by those who seem to have not even tried it.

Does anybody know of any blokes out there who like experimenting with hand planes ?

[Michael Pilla]

Careful, don't misinterpret the silence. I don't think you're being shrugged off. In fact I often seek out your posts on several different forums because I want to hear this info. I save the good threads as web archives and file them with my reference materials. I don't get involved in the conversations because I'm often unqualified to add anything pro or con but I certainly appreciate the info.

Michael
(who has no idea what a chin-wag is)

[Mark Stutz]

Absolutely Jake, don't stop. I ereally enjoy reading your approach and seeing your resutls, so don't stop. I've never used a DT plane, yet, and am nowhere close to your level of skill so don't feel like I cancomment, but I enjoy learning.

Mark

[Jim Dunn]

I've got something to offer (wouldn't bother bringing it up if it was proven improvement) and yet its shrugged off, by those who seem to have not even tried it.

Jake I'd comment but I don't have the experience or the knowledge to express an opinion pro or con. I do like to read and adsorb your posts, so please do continue. By the way, if I "chin wag" around the house my wife thinks I'm making faces at her and I gotta duck.

[Jake Darvall]

Careful, don't misinterpret the silence. I don't think you're being shrugged off. In fact I often seek out your posts on several different forums because I want to hear this info. I save the good threads as web archives and file them with my reference materials. I don't get involved in the conversations because I'm often unqualified to add anything pro or con but I certainly appreciate the info.

Michael
(who has no idea what a chin-wag is)

just means having a talk.

my opinions annoy traditionalists. Be a different story if were all into power tools I'd imagine.

Thanks though guys.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

I suspect anyone can annoy anyone else--and as I have said before, it doesn't me and I do enjoy your posts, Jake.

So start a thread and jabber on.

Take care, Mike

[Jake Darvall]

ta Mike.

[Derek Cohen]

Jake

I am also up for a discussion - just don't expect too much at this moment as I have been struggling with flu the past week.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jake Darvall]

Jake

I am also up for a discussion - just don't expect too much at this moment as I have been struggling with flu the past week.

Regards from Perth

Derek

the conversation started back there somewhere Derek.

But I understand. I've got the flu at the moment too. Glands up etc. I tried to brave work this morning but the boss sent me home.

So I'll let you be. My questions maybe too confronting anyway. Hope you feel better soon.