Thanks Nigel and Droogs. I think it is very instructive to try these Roman planes on a lower bench than we commonly use and experience the feel of their handles. Those planes that have survived, at least in Northern Europe, have significant non-wooden components e.g. iron, bronze, bone, horn and ivory. I think they were mostly expensive tools intended for high quality work on hardwoods, where a high iron angle can be an advantage in dealing with difficult grain. Wood does not last well underground except under unusual circumstances and I think that has skewed what has come down to us, rather as if an archaeologist in the distant future investigating 19th and 20th century remains only found the relics of Spiers, Norris and Bailey style planes, and no wooden ones. I feel that the Romans would have had many wooden planes to do the majority of their woodwork, e.g. I imagine a Roman equivalent of our common 17" wooden jack plane but with a horizontal rear handle carved out of the body rather than a separately fitted handle or tote. I would be very pleased to discover that such a plane existed and make a reproduction.
), you should consider how you might make a "first-ever plane" from scratch using only the sorts of tools that might have been available at the time. That, I think, would interest those archeologists who do take an interest in 'how it was done'. There are a couple of chaps who've become very accomplished flint-knappers, it seems. Not something that appeals to me - O1 is about as 'primitive' a blade material as I'm prepared to use.....
