A Mary Rose Plane Reproduction

[rxh]

In the 4th edition of Goodman’s British Plane Makers there are some drawings of planes recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose, the warship that sank in the Solent in 1545 in the reign of King Henry VIII. This is my reproduction of one of them, No. MR 82 A980, which is described as a jack plane although its length is 540 mm. Like the original, it is made of ash. I fitted a Stanley iron temporarily but I have now replaced that with a purpose-made one of O1 steel.

 

[AndyT]

Wow, that's come up lovely! Fascinating to see a longish plane with the grips quite close together.

A brilliant addition to your collection of historic reconstructions.

And at risk of embarassing our talented planemaker, I'd like to point out that a video in which he talked live to a select group of old wood-botherers about his planes is notching up a respectable view count on YouTube:

 

[Droogs]

That really is rather lovely Richard. Is it a single piece or are the totes inset?

 

[rxh]

Thanks Andy and Droogs. The original plane, including its handles, was evidently made of a single piece of wood. As I didn't have a piece of ash thick enough I laminated several planks together and cut the plane from the big lump so formed. Insetting separate handles may be a later idea.

 

[Chisteve]

Looks good well done

 

[Orraloon]

Lovely looking plane and it obviously gets the job done. How does it feel to work with that handle placement?
Regards
John

 

[Nigel Burden]

Another interesting project, and well done.

I've just watched the Bench.101 talk linked to by Andy T, and, as someone who likes history, found the whole thing very interesting. So many more to watch, and a good excuse for being lazy in this rather extreme heat. Thank you.

Nigel.

 

[rxh]

Lovely looking plane and it obviously gets the job done. How does it feel to work with that handle placement?
Regards
John

Thanks John - the handles felt a bit odd at first, as you might imagine. However I quickly got used to them.

 

[rxh]

Another interesting project, and well done.

I've just watched the Bench.101 talk linked to by Andy T, and, as someone who likes history, found the whole thing very interesting. So many more to watch, and a good excuse for being lazy in this rather extreme heat. Thank you.

Nigel.

Thanks Nigel - I'm now working on replicas of a pair of Roman planes that were found in Germany. They have features that I have not seen elsewhere.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Look forward to seeing the end results.

Nigel.

 

[thetyreman]

I'll be interested to see how it performs, looks good.