I want a 4 (or a 5)7/8 or something!

Here ya go... *LINK*

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>It's a bit pricey but it's 80mm (3.150") wide.


http://www.hidatool.com/woodpage/plane/yokosaka.html

Re: I want a 4 (or a 5)7/8 or something!

Wiley Horne--Glendora CA

>Hi Chris,

I love that LN5-1/2 too! Now for something considerably wider, you can order Japanese planes at 90mm or 105mm, but that will be mondo expensive--also subtract about 12 mm from the nominal widths to account for the clipped edges. Another thing that comes to mind is to order a special blade (from Ron Hock, for example) and have Steve Knight make you a big coffin-shaped body and wedge for it. Steve will work with you on custom orders.

Or you could take the Bill Tindall route, hacksaw and file your own blade from store-bought annealed steel, have it heat-treated, and then make a Krenov-type plane body in your own shop. Big project, but doable.

Wiley

Re: Here ya go...

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Yeah, but you get a paulownia box with it - a major future collector's item, especially if you include the box the box came in, and the box the box's box came in.

Pretty nice, and clearly very labor intensive.

Or,

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I saw a photo one time of a student at an East Coast boatbuilding school that used classic Scandinavian practices, and she was shaving a board with a hatchet, holding it like a chisel. The shaving visible in the photo was seriously close to plane-grade. I don't think her hatchet was sharpened quite the way my little Scout hatchet is.

With a broadaxe, you could get a REALLY wide edge.

This ones for you Bill...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>I'd hate to see the price tag on this. That's a 6" wide blade. Oh Chis, is this one big enough?

Re: This ones for you Bill...

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I have a hard enough time pushing a No. 8 plane - it reminds me of my weak rotator cuff. That one reminds me of my basic wimpness just looking at it.

I shoulda said

Wiley Horne--Glendora CA

>Steve Elliott on hacksawing and making his own plane blades. Steve is also testing and comparing blades of different steels, and it should be an extremely interesting report when done. Sorry for the bandwidth, but the oversight on my part was significant, given the level of work Steve is doing.

Wiley

Re: I want a 4 (or a 5)7/8 or something!

Chris Knight

>Thanks for the suggestions folks. I think that the big Japanese planes are indeed a bit too rich for my blood but the idea of a home-made Krenov certainly appeals. I shall put it on my list of neat things to do when I have the time!

Chris

And this one's of me...

Paul M in San Diego

>Here's a picture of me getting a chance to play with an 8" plane on my trip to Japan last fall. The man helping me keep my whispy shaving intact is Russ Filbeck, a great man and the best woodworking instructer a student could hope to have.

Surprisingly, this plane was somewhat easy to pull through the 5" beam of alaskan yellow cedar. I expected much stronger resistance to pulling. That blade was definately sharper than anything in my shop at home! We were at a temple-builders shop and he set it up for us to pretend we were in the Kezuro-Kai shaving contest. He had several planes for us to try, and this was the biggun.