A Great Woodie Build Off

[Zach Dillinger]

You are making you own prize!

Indeed. Shaping up nicely!

[Shaun Mahood]

You know, you guys are making this look way too easy. My first ever wooden plane should be coming in the mail this week so I have a model, and I thought I would post some books (with notes) that I know of for wooden plane making for everyone else who is in over their head with me. If anyone has any other really good resources or comments, please join in! These are all from the perspective of a beginner who has spent almost as much on books as tools, so please correct me if I am wrong about anything.

"Woodworker's Guide to Handplanes" by Scott Wynn
I would buy this book just for the drawings and pictures, even if the information was all wrong. This is a gorgeous book, has tons of information about wooden planes and was first published in 2010. I can't comment on the accuracy of the information, but it is very well written and enjoyable to read, over 300 pages long with about 60 pages on plane setup covering metal, wood, Chinese and Japanese planes and another 60 on making and modifying planes. It has planes dimensioned drawings for a bunch of different sizes and types of wooden planes, totes, wedges, and how to fit a movable sole plate among other things. Covers making traditional western body planes but with a cross pin and bearing plate instead of tapered abutments, Japanese planes, chibi-kanna, hollowing, rounding and spoonbottom planes. Not all the way through reading it but it has been an amazing read so far, very deeply thought out and exceptionally well written.

"Making and Mastering Wood Planes" by David Finck
This seems like a pretty good book for making Krenov style planes (foreword by James Krenov, so no real surprise there). I have the 2nd printing, revised edition 2009 and there is at least one page missing that had information I really wanted and had to find elsewhere (aim for a newer edition if it exists). Only really covers Krenov style planes and is probably a good place to start, but the minute I realized I might be able to make a one piece plane in a traditional style I stopped wanting to make these. This was the first book on plane making I bought, but it would also be the only one of the four that I would consider parting with. This may be more of a reflection on my tastes than the book, though, so take this bit with a grain of salt as I still devoured it on my first reading.

"Wooden Planes and How to Make Them" by David G. Perch and Robert S. Lee
Quick and to the point, covers how to make a traditional smoother in 14 pages and doesn't slow down, has 4 additional methods to make a smoother as well. I count over 20 different types of plane construction covered in 182 pages, including 5 different cooper's planes. Not a whole lot of extras in this one, doesn't really hold your hand or go into a whole lot of extra detail. It seems like a great book to me, but I didn't feel ready to tackle any of the planes in here without some other references.

"Making Traditional Wooden Planes" by John M. Whelan
This seems to go into a lot more detail on the individual planes than the Perch and Lee book, and it seems to me kind of like an amateur follow up of that book. In his intro, he states
"My first plane (as you will learn later) was a disappointment, although I had the fine instructions available in the work by Perch and Lee (1981). It appeared that a description by an amateur, rather than a professional woodworker, might be useful. Although I had made a dozen or so planes before (mostly historical replicas), this book began by making all of the planes described herein, keeping a record of difficulties encountered and how they were overcome. No amount of close study of this text, however, will teach you how to make a working plane. You must make one."
This section is a very good description of the feel of the rest of the book, and it made plane making (even a plow plane) seem much more approachable and understandable to me.


My general impressions:
- If you want to make a Krenov smoother, buy the Finck book and get to work.
- If you really know what you're doing, Perch and Lee will probably have everything you need.
- If Perch and Lee are too smart for you, buy Whelan and go to town. I'm really glad I have the Perch and Lee book too, as they really complement each other.
- Buy the Wynn book, just to have it. It is a beautiful, very deeply thought out, well written book about wooden hand planes that was published less than 2 years ago. This book is a work of art.