The Goodmanham Plane

[rxh]

Some readers may remember posts about my reproductions of the Silchester and Sarre ancient planes. I thought it was time to make another one: the Roman plane found at Goodmanham, Yorkshire in 2000 at the site of a Roman-British village dating from 1st to 5th centuries AD.

The following link leads to a description of the plane and its discovery:
http://www.handplane.com/906/the-ancien ... ire-wolds/
This is an extract from that page: “….. the plane measured 330mm long by 60mm wide and is 85mm high (approximately 13-1/4" by 2-3/8" by 3-3/8"). The pitch, or bed angle, of the plane is set at 65 degrees and the cutting iron is 35mm wide (1-5/16").”

At least one previous reproduction has been made. The following link leads to details of it:
http://lumberjocks.com/projects/8025
However, I wanted to make my own example to find out for myself how it performs and what it is like to handle. WIP pictures and descriptions of my progress to follow.

 

[AndyT]

Excellent news!

But reproducing that patina will take some doing... :wink:

 

[rxh]

Thanks Andy. Yes the patina may be rather a challenge

As usual, I began by making a drawing based on the available dimensions and photos of the original.

 

[n0legs]

Excellent. I'm watching

 

[custard]

Blimey, 65 degrees is an extremely high pitch. Is that consistent with other ancient planes?

 

[NazNomad]

Blimey, 65 degrees is an extremely high pitch. Is that consistent with other ancient planes?

''It's not known if the Romans were aware of the benefits of different bedding angles, however, as most Roman planes are set in the vicinity of 50 to around 65 degrees, which is optimal for hardwoods, rather than softer woods such as pine.''


... from the link.


Which would suggest they've found a lot of Roman planes?

 

[AndyT]

Which would suggest they've found a lot of Roman planes?

Only about 20 actual planes. Most would have been of wood and have not survived, though some irons have. There's also evidence from images on coins and in paintings and from surviving woodwork.

It's a fascinating subject and there is quite a lot more to read in this thread - rxh's earlier brilliant reproduction project - sarre-plane-t90865.html

and in this one where we discussed the Silchester Plane - silchester-plane-t81216.html

 

[custard]

rxh, what are you planning to use for the body?

There is a German company (I forget the name) who manufacture an astonishingly convincing fake ivory, I use small scraps for escutcheons and what not, unfortunately it's every bit as astonishingly expensive as it is convincing!

Alternatively I can let you have a suitable 3" x 3" blank of well dried, fine and straight grained, very white Sycamore that would be a good ivory substitute. If you fancied something a bit different I've also got some very good, straight grained 4" thick Apple that's well known as a plane and tool timber, I'd be happy to donate a suitable blank for this project. PM me if you're interested.

This is what they look like, the man made Ivory is the smaller piece,

 

[rxh]

Custard, that is a very kind offer but the plane is already under construction - I am only just getting round to posting details of it and I'm sorry I did not make that clear. However, I would be very glad to have a block of apple for future plane projects. It is good wood for plane making but hard to find in big enough seasoned pieces. My brother gave me some chunks of an apple tree he had cut down but sadly they have all split badly and are only of use for small items. I'm toying with the idea of making copies of some of the planes found on the Mary Rose but I would need to persuade the museum to provide me with measurements and good photos from various viewpoints (the planes are displayed in the museum but under very dim light conditions).

Concerning angles, I suspect that these metal soled planes were intended for good quality work on hardwood. The Silchester plane seems best for finishing cuts rather than as a jack. I think it likely that the Romans had all-wood bodied planes with irons at lower angles.

The original plane was made of ivory, which I would not want to use even if I could get it legally. I did wonder about using Corianum Dupontii , in layers glued together to make a suitable blank. However, Jimi43, who used to post here a lot, kindly gave me a log of holly when he heard about this project. It was big enough for two plane blanks. I cut it in two, made a rough rectangular block of one piece and left the other in the round. I coated the ends with wax and stored the pieces. After a time I made the second piece rectangular too. After further storage both blocks had developed a definite twist but nether had split. By comparing original and current weights I decided that the time had come to set to work.

 

[AndyT]

Yea! A Hollywood spectacular!

 

[Racers]

rxh, what are you planning to use for the body?

There is a German company (I forget the name) who manufacture an astonishingly convincing fake ivory, I use small scraps for escutcheons and what not, unfortunately it's every bit as astonishingly expensive as it is convincing!

Alternatively I can let you have a suitable 3" x 3" blank of well dried, fine and straight grained, very white Sycamore that would be a good ivory substitute. If you fancied something a bit different I've also got some very good, straight grained 4" thick Apple that's well known as a plane and tool timber, I'd be happy to donate a suitable blank for this project. PM me if you're interested.

This is what they look like, the man made Ivory is the smaller piece,

My god custard! just how big is your wood store

Pete

Cracking offer BTW

 

[NazNomad]

My god custard! just how big is your wood store

I suspect it's much bigger first thing in the morning.

 

[rxh]

Well, my mind is on metal this morning . While the wooden body was settling for a while I thought long and hard about how to put the bends in 1/4" thick bright mild steel with the limited facilities I have available. Cold bending would not do for such tight 90 degree turns.

In the end I did the following:
- prepared a strip of mild steel sheet overlength and a little over the intended final width,
- cut a block of aluminium to the same length as intended for the wooden part and rounded two edges to the required radius for the bends,
- heated one end of the steel to red heat using a little "barbeque" urged on with a hot air gun,
- clamped the steel to the block and hit the end with a big hammer to make the bend (it took several re-heatings/hammerings to achieve the 90 degree bend),
- heated and bent the second end in the same way,
- cut off the excess length from the ends and cleaned up.

 

[AndyT]

Well that worked nicely!

Presumably the original Roman maker would have had a forge and an anvil, but I can see that's not something to buy casually for anyone without a lot of spare outbuildings and a considerable amount of cash, or a stable full of horses etc.

 

[Bm101]

Proper stuff rxh. Watching with interest.

 

[rxh]

I found some old coach bolts to make the rivets from. I turned off the "square bits" under the heads, filed off the writing from the heads, cut to a little over length (by ~ 1/8") and cleaned them up a bit.

Despite my best efforts the plane sole had developed a bit of a bow during the end bending process and I straightened it up somewhat using the "three bolts" method.

 

[rxh]

I cut the body a trifle over length and set to work to fit it to the sole. Then I applied whiteboard marker pen to the ends of the sole and offered up the body. Where the ink appeared showed me where to remove wood. This is rather like the "smoking" technique but a bit cleaner.

 

[rxh]

Cutting and filing the mouth. I didn't break the piercing saw blade, which is a record for me. Final filing to be done after rivetting the body to the sole.

 

[G S Haydon]

Excellent!

 

[rxh]

Thanks Graham. Here are photos of rivetting on the sole and filing the edges flush with the body.