favorite method for making wooden handplane?

Re: favorite method for making wooden handplane? *LINK*

Russ Allen - Chicago

>Rod,

Ron Hock sells blades for the Krenov type planes. He also sells entire kits. I built two Krenov planes a few years ago at Marc Adams' school (pictures etc here). As for advise, obviously don't do anything until you buy or make a blade. Ron Hock's site has info here if you decide on the latter. Also go slow when you open up the mouth. You want it all but light tight. It's much easier to file the mouth open if it's too tight as opposed to patching the mouth if you've opened it too far.

Russ Allen

Chicago


http://www.hocktools.com/products.htm

Re: favorite method for making wooden handplane? *LINK*

L. Hanson - N. Idaho

>I've made a couple - I have to say I prefer the traditional throat design. I'll put a link at the bottom to my web site that has the blow by blow of a couple that I made. I would suggest getting an iron from an old one where the wood has gotten bad, then making the plane to fit that one.

Clark and Williams planemakers have a couple articles on their web site you might find interesting. Their take is that single irons are superior to doubles - it's debateable, but I can see the merits.

What ever method you choose, it's quite likely you will want to make another, so I would say it's most important just to get going and do one - using what ever method strikes your fancy.

Leif




Norse Woodsmith web site

Re: favorite method for making wooden handplane?

steve knight

>You can use my method without jigs if you use a flush cut saw. You clamp the plane up and use the bed to guide the saw for the fist cuts. Then you make a fake wedge of the angle you want (10 degrees works well) Plus the thickness of the iron. You put it in and use it to make the second cut and then chisel it out.

Re: favorite method for making wooden handplane?

Jonathan Peck - N.Y.

>L,

Where can I buy blanks already aged? I always seem to get lost on your site...big time drool factor.

regards

Jonathan

Buy David Finck's book

bill tindall

>David is an excellent teacher. If you follow the instructions you can't fail. Everyone in the club that has tried has made a successful plane. Making your own is an economical way to acquire the variety of useful planes one needs. While David's book only shows 45 degree bedded planes his technique can be modified to make planes bedded 35 degrees and higher. I have found the small block planes with 1 1/4' irons to be especially handy and they fit the hand nice. I find the planes with 2" irons are too wide for my hand and in fact David seems to prefer a plane with 1 3/4" iron for most work.

Re: Buy David Finck's book

Dick L.

>Good suggestion. Unfortunately, David's book is out of print, although you may be able to find a used one. If you email David, he will place your name on a list he is keeping and he will notify you when the book is reprinted. Maybe getting more names on the list will speed the reprinting. (If you find more than one used copy, let me know - I want one.)

book due soon

bill tindall

>The book has been reshot in color and its at printer.

Re: favorite method for making wooden handplane?

L. Hanson - N. Idaho

>"Where can I buy blanks already aged?"

Blanks - as in wood? - as in beech? I'm not sure. Idaho really isn't the best location for scoring on hardwoods. But if you're talking pine...

I've just been using laminated 4/4 stock that I've let acclimate to my shop. Seems pretty stable so far - but that is one benefit to living in this part of the country, low relative humidity. Of course - there are woods other than beech that could be used, too...

Leif

www.norsewoodsmith.com

Another book worth looking at

Ellis Walentine

>Lee Valley sells a book called "Wooden Planes and How to Make Them," by David G. Perch and Robert S. Lee. It covers a ton of useful -- and some arcane -- aspects of planes and plane irons.

A bargain.

Ellis Walentine

Another excellent book

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>is John M. Whelan's, "Making Traditional Wooden Planes". Published by The Astragal Press, Mendham, NJ, ISBN 1-879335-69-7. Illustrations are clear and extremely well done. Text is clear and unambiguous.

Re: favorite method for making wooden handplane?

Matti Kuikka

>In my experience this is the best system if you use for example Hock blades. IMHO the risk of the pin breaking or bending in krenov-type planes is great and the pin also hinders the flow of chips unnecessarily. You can also make the opening by making it closed in glue-up and then planing the bottom gradually until you reach the desired width. This ensures a straight opening while truing the bottom, which maybe more difficult to control with a file. In addition I have chamfered the bottom's sides up to the opening but the advantages may be mariginal.

As I pull my planes, I set the blade as far back as possible to keep the ride on wood as even as I can.

Matti Kuikka

FYI, Alibris, ABE and Powells's ...

Don in West Miami

>... all list copies of Making and Mastering Wooden Planes for sale.

Easy way

David Miller from Iowa

>I just took an old busted handle jointer that had the original blade and a tight mouth, and cut it down to make it a smoother. Added a low boy razee handle and a knob and it works like a champ.

Great discussion, very helpful

Roy from Cincy

>Thanks, everyone for this great discussion. I've wanted to get into this. This discussion was very helpful to me. Now I have my Christmas wish list. Santa's gonna bring me all these plane making books.

I know a little about this...

Link Van Cleave

>Howdy Rod,

Since my days at C.O.R. (where Dave F. was a classmate ) I have refined and simplified the plane making process. I can make a plane start to finish in under two hours and that includes tuning and sharpening the plane iron. I make a laminated plane with a brass cross pin and no chip breaker. It is a modified Krenov style plane. The mouth is in the middle so you can push or pull the plane. The brass cross pin really simplifies the the alignment as you drill the hole after you glue the sides to the body. A chip breaker is a waste of time with a thick iron (which you should use anyway ). The myth that a chip breaker is breaking a chip is laughable. I love the illustrations that show a shaving being broken by the chip breaker. Shavings are thousands of a inch in thickness and have been broken long before they reach a chip breaker which is set at the closest 1/64" or so from the edge of the iron. It is the front of the mouth and the iron that break the chip. All a chip breaker might do is to preload a thin iron and even about that I have my doubts. I don't worry about that point as I don't use thin irons. I use Granidillo (sp ?) It is more stable than mahogany and extremely hard and dense. No need to add a sole of another wood. Jon Arno and I did a lot of conversing to find what he and I considered the most stable hardest wood. Granidillo it is. I have several long jointer planes 18" to 20+" that stay really flat and true through large swings in humidity in my less than air tight shop.

David Marks did a show about making hand planes. Check it out if you can. I made all the planes and parts and was the adviser for that episode. For those planes we used a chip breaker because they didn't want to get into any controversy. Those planes are my design only with a chip breaker. If you are interested I could send some photos with a step by step.

LVC

Re: I know a little about this...

Matti Kuikka

>Couldn't you post it here as a separate thread. At least I would be very intereste having decided to make new planes as the need arises. As I have one very high quality japanese plane for finishing I get nicely by with self made planes and hopefully have the wisdom to save the japanese for finishing.

Matti Kuikka

You know a lot about this!

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>If you have the time, please post those photos and instructions here!

Thanks,

Don

Re: I know a little about this...

Rod Cole

>Thanks much Link. I also got your direct email and sent a reply.

- Rod Cole

Re: I know a little about this...

Martin from Granbury

>Link,

That was an excellent show! My only regret is that I saw it on the road, and could not record it. Any article you can post here would be greatly appreciated!

Martin

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