I am considering making a dovetailed infill smoothing plane using this 2” Robert Sorby blade. The blade has cleaned up quite well but its slot was not central so I machined it to make it equidistant from the sides. It is a tapered blade, which is not ideal for this type of plane but I have calculated that the mouth gap would open up by about 1/64” (0.4mm) if one inch is the blade is sharpened away and I think that should be tolerable (I suppose a shim could be fitted under the blade if needed).
I have made this preliminary drawing after studying various sources, including Richard T’s excellent thread: dovetailed-infill-first-fumblings-t46458.html and Jim Kingshot’s book: Making & Modifying Woodworking Tools. Now I feel almost ready to begin but before I cut metal I would be pleased to receive any comments or tips and also a recommendation for the best dovetail angle to use. The metal dovetailing will be a new experience but I believe I have tried the other techniques needed. The body will be parallel sided because I feel that a coffin shape might be a bit ambitious for my first attempt. A few details to be decided are: the number and positions of infill attachment points and the size and attachment details for the “frog block”.
The proposed material is mild steel except brass for a few parts including lever cap and knobs. For the infill wood I am thinking of using some mahogany recovered from an old piece of furniture.
I have made this preliminary drawing after studying various sources, including Richard T’s excellent thread: dovetailed-infill-first-fumblings-t46458.html and Jim Kingshot’s book: Making & Modifying Woodworking Tools. Now I feel almost ready to begin but before I cut metal I would be pleased to receive any comments or tips and also a recommendation for the best dovetail angle to use. The metal dovetailing will be a new experience but I believe I have tried the other techniques needed. The body will be parallel sided because I feel that a coffin shape might be a bit ambitious for my first attempt. A few details to be decided are: the number and positions of infill attachment points and the size and attachment details for the “frog block”.
The proposed material is mild steel except brass for a few parts including lever cap and knobs. For the infill wood I am thinking of using some mahogany recovered from an old piece of furniture.