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HH, you do seem to have caught the tool-making virus! I guess the same problem promotes similar solutions - your back-slitting jig bears a striking resemblance to mine: I have several thicknesses of slitting blades & used to try & make the slot match the blade material as closely as I could...

Yes, that makes perfect sense, workshopted. There are several ways to 'fix' the front of the mouth after piercing a solid sole & filing the bed. Norris & others used an extra piece fixed in with screws or rivets (in his book 'Making & modifying tools, Jim Kingshott covers finishing a chariot...

:) Good tools are a bit like that, aren't they? This was the last-but-one metal plane I've made. Been at it for 20 years on & off, & got quite a few under my belt now (20 plus) but still have quite a way to go to challenge the likes of Bill Carter...... ;) Cheers, Ian

Thanks Any, I've had a quick look at the sites you linked to & will have a good read later. I think I've stumbled on that site before, but wasn't looking for anything specific at the time & certainly didn't se the pages you've lined to. If you find anything more on chariot planes, I'd be...

You're not wrong there, Andy! I have been unable to discover any good information on what chariot planes were actually used for. They were obviously considered a necessary part of a well-stocked toolbox at one stage, then along with infill shoulder planes, just dropped off the radar. Many...

I think that's what you'd call un-faultable logic.... ;) As Chesirechappie said, if the plane will take a very thin even shaving from end to end of a flat board at least a bit longer than the plane, it's flat enough for purpose. I mucked about with a few planes way back, when people started...

I'll add my vote for Rosewood, which was the only wood Stanley used back then anyway. Just look at the beautiful shaping of that rear handle - almost oval in cross section. The tactile nature of the wood & the way it snuggles into your hand are unbeatable, imo. I have an old handle like that...

In that case, perhaps there is a problem with the hardening & tempering of those particular blades. While I can imagine the odd dud blade slipping through QC, it seems like a big coincidence that you would get a couple of different planes at te one time, both bearing faulty blades. (?) Given...

You're getting lots of advice, but not all directly addressing your immediate problem! If the blades you have are A2 steel, as I suspect, then your experience isn't unique. Chipping of new edges with A2 is something that has been complained about on various forums for some time. There is much...

Whatever works for you works, I say. The only flaw I can see with a spear-point is that in order to get right into a corner of say, a dovetail socket, you will need to twist the blade left or right. If the socket is the same width or just slightly wider than the chisel blade, you won't be able...

The majority of rasps have bitey edges, for sure, but there are at least two 'safe-edged' wood rasp/files that I know of. Paul Sellers reviews the Shinto "saw-rasp" here. There is a second style, also made in Japan, which looks like a bit like a soft-metal float and can be had with a safe edge...

Yes, I think you are on the money there, rxh. A plane is just an adze with a nose, essentially, and that seems to be a very ancient tool which morphed from having stone blades to metal blades (and survived with stone blades in cultures without metal-working technology well into "modern" times)...

<What are the configurations of what you'd class as essential saws? > Bill, what's "essential" to me would be quite unlikely to induce the same response from you. :) Saw choices are very much an individual thing, but there are a couple of rules of thumb that I suggest can help you make those...

You're on a fascinating journey there, rxh, and I love your reproductions, as another plane-maker, I can appreciate the work & thought that must have gone into them. Now I'm a complete ignoramus on the subject of ancient planes, (the minuscule amount I have learnt is all thanks to you 😉 ), but...

Any saw might be "essential" to someone for some procedure. We vary in our preference of saw for the same job, depending on who we learnt from or what we've become accustomed to. My favourite dovetailing saw is loved by some, hated by others. If you make a narrow-ish range of things, you can...

Mike, I was thinking of cutting a board where the cut is parallel to the wide face when I was talking about tooth pitch. For example, shoulder cuts for a tenon could be 20mm wide for a drawer runner, or 160mm wide for a table apron. I wouldn't normally use the same backsaw to cut both of...

I always recommend at least three, but if I had to limit my saws to just three, my choice would be different from yours, Cc. Saws are tools that seem to be more prone to individual whim & taste than any other - even planes. I've handed my absolute favourite dovetailing saw to others to try &...

This thread reminded me I'd had the parts for a small chariot plane cut out & sitting on my bench for about 4 months or more. They were well-covered by other junk, which is partly why it had sunk off the screen! :( . So I decided it was high time to finish it off, and the couple lessons I...

Hmm, reading D.W.'s post makes me wonder how many 'kits' are languishing unfinished in sheds around the world. A panel-plane kit I put together had been sitting untouched for close to 30 years before I got hold of it. It also had 'problems', due to the roughly-cut dovetails, but no holes had...

Hmm, I don't think the kit makers thought things through very well! For starters, it's typical to have a wide pin beside the mouth so that the peening will occur over solid metal. You are going to get significant distortion of the front 'pin' there, unless you jam a piece of scrap steel in...