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Adam, Jim and Togs, thanks for your kind comments. Adam and Togs, it's nice to see that some others fancy having a go at infill making. Richard and Jims' threads, tips and encouragement have been very helpful to me. Togs, it's not a daft question about the milling. Istarted milling out the waste...

Last weekend, with some trepidation, I took hammers and punches to my carefully filed metal work. I think I had made things difficult for myself by filing the arrises in the pins a bit too deep and I found it hard to drive the steel right into the corners. A rounded punch turned out to be the...

Richard, thanks very much for the tip. I would have fallen into that trap without your warning.

I think you might struggle to cut teeth in the blade using a needle file. A Dremel tool with an abrasive cut-off disc may be worth trying.

The frog block was fitted this weekend, slightly overlapping the slope at the back of the mouth. I opened the ends of the rivet holes with a taper reamer to give the rivets space to expand into (an ordinary countersink has too wide an angle leading to a risk of cracks appearing in the rivets)...

Richard, I decided to do the milling to save some time and give my poor elbow a bit of a rest :) . I used new cutters, took light cuts and stopped frequently to clear swarf, lubricate and see where I was up to. Even so, I was rather afraid of going to far and I stopped short of the intended...

I think it’s a good question, Jelly. No doubt some knowledgeable readers will post replies. A quotation from Jim Kingshott’s book, Making & Modifying Woodworking Tools: “Because all the plane’s body is made from plate material free of the latent stress inherent in a casting, the plane stays...

Thanks for the suggestions Jim and the offer of tips. I think I'll widen the search for infill wood, possibly from suppliers of turning blanks. I made a start on the mouth tonight. I decided to remove most of the waste by milling but I'll need to finish it by filing.

Thanks for your kind comments Jim. That's a very impressive piece of wood you have there - I bet it would be difficult to work. I have some mahogany from an old desk that might do but I haven't cut into it or planed it yet. I think mahogany should be stable as it was commonly used for making...

Thanks again, Richard. More excellent advice :)

Rod: yes it will end up as a dovetail shape both ways. If you look at Richard T's thread: dovetailed-infill-first-fumblings-t46458.html you will see how it is done. Thanks Adam, I'm enjoying the challenge but my elbow is starting to play me up a bit with all the sawing and filing!

I finished cutting the dovetails in the sides this week and set to work on the sole yesterday. I used an angle grinder with a thin disc to cut out the rectangle roughly, then filed to size. To my frustration I couldn't find a suitable piece of angle in my junk boxes so I did the scribing by...

That is a good looking tool. I fancy making my own router plane sometime but forging the cutter rather than buying one. By chance I was looking through some very old copies of The Woodworker magazine last night and I came across this.

Thanks Richard, That is a good tip about the steel angle. I hope to start work on the sole this weekend.

Well, I have made a start. Here are the sides cut out and temporarily rivetted together and I have started to cut out the dovetails.

I made a canterbury, a child's adjustable cello stool (made for my daughter) and this cellist's spike holder. It is important for a young cellist to sit at the correct height - hence the need for an adjustable stool until he or she has grown enough to use a normal size seat.

Thanks again. 1 in 4 corresponds to 76 degrees so I looks like I guessed about right. It is bright mild steel sheet - I took note of your remarks about the labour of cleaning up the black stuff. Yes, I do intend to use a saw. I'll post some pictures - assuming that I don't mess up the job.....

Thanks, Richard. What dovetail angle would you recommend? I was thinking of 1 in 4. My materials arrived today so I hope to cut some metal this weekend if the weather is not too cold. Last weekend the lock on my shed was frozen and I gave up in disgust.

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...

You have made an elegant handle. I like to make my own too and try different shapes and types of wood. In the picture below the woods are, from the top: oak, privet, apple, yew, pear, iroko, ash & ash. Apple is good for mallets too. The one in the second picture has stood up to lots of use.