Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

Oliver Sparks?

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

It reminds me of the stuff that was in the Fred West accumulation. Interesting, but not really useful.

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

I'm not really familiar with Oliver Sparks work but I have seen some. I had a quick look at his up-to-date work on Instagram. Much of it I like. A lot of his work has a clean and understated look which really appeals. Some is a bit too bling for me.

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

I could swear I replied to this thread..... Ibid.

Reminds me of something Lee Valley would  post on or about April First.

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

Seems to be the only way he could combine the short body length and 20-degree (+/-) bedding.  Top-entry wedge would require longer body or higher bedding.

Wiley

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

For whatever reason I can't see the pic, but I assume it's a slipper plane by Ollie Sparks. Of the many people who have had runs at being professional planemakers in the last 25 or so years, Ollie is in the top two or three in my opinion. Sadly, like many others, he burned brightly for a while, and then got out of the business. I wish it had been otherwise but them's the breaks.

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

I can't see the picture either, but if anyone is interested in further examples of Ollie's work, you can search for images in either Google or DuckDuckGo with the string

"Oliver Sparks" Plane

As a bonus, you get an image of Ollie in his shop.

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

I hadn't realised he had stopped, Steve. That's a shame. Long may you continue your excellent work!

How did he make the wedge?

Hoping Steve and Sir Wm. can see the photo now that Peter has fixed the link….

Looking at this plane the second time, I can’t figure out how he made the wedge.  When I look at the grain and figure, that wedge looks like it is continuous with the plane body—in other words, the wedge looks like the missing piece of body.  But if that is so, how could he have excavated the wedge from the mortise into which it fits?  The wedge doesn’t look veneered—it looks like one solid piece.

Wiley…liking the lignum sole

Re: How did he make the wedge?

I've looked at his work when he was still active. I believe the block that the hammer taps is hollowed out to accept the actual wedge that goes into the body. That allows the grain lines to continue the body's lines all around. Like a snecked blade but in this case it's the wedge.

Re: How did he make the wedge?

Thanks!  Makes sense.    W

Re: How did he make the wedge?

I agree. The visible end of the wedge appears to have been sawn off of the top back corner of the body and had a mortise formed into its front end. The remainder of the wedge had a tenon formed on its rear end that was fit into the mortise.

Another interesting feature is the thin cheeks. They are so thin that the oil has penetrated all the way through and darkened the sides of the plane, showing clearly how much wood was excavated.

A negative space question for Steve: Is there a general name for the cavity in the middle of the plain body that was excavated (in several stages) to make room for the iron, the wedge, the mouth and escape of the shavings? It seems strange that so much exacting work is done in forming it that it should not have been given a name. At least, so far I have not found it labeled.

Re: Now that is a wedge placement I have not seen before

I hadn't realised he had stopped, Steve. That's a shame. Long may you continue your excellent work!

'Til I keel over at the bench, I hope…

Re: How did he make the wedge?

A negative space question for Steve: Is there a general name for the cavity in the middle of the plain body that was excavated (in several stages) to make room for the iron, the wedge, the mouth and escape of the shavings?

Not sure if you meant me or the other Steve, but anyway, it's just called the mortise.

What does not seem to have a satisfactory name, AFAIK, is the rear portion of that mortise, which contains only the iron and wedge. Larry calls it the "wedge gain" but I've never found that satisfactory, and never seen anyone else call it that. Maybe "wedge pocket?" I don't know.