My latest wooden plane build, WiP

[JohnPW]

I've started making my latest wooden plane. I don't have the pics of the earlier steps with me at the moment so I'll jump in with the escapement opened out:

Length is 55mm, shorter than my little finger. Blade is 11mm wide, wood is figured maple.

Outside of plane ceaned up, chamfers applied, wedge started:

Wedge finished:

 

[Kalimna]

Beautiful little plane, yet again I feel inspired to have a go making one (only made a Krenov style so far). But as always, it's not a real WIP until we see some shavings Out of interest, what will you use it for?

Cheers,
Adam

 

[JohnPW]

Thanks. I've made a similar sized plane before and I've used it for planing small pieces of wood and also for instrument makng, eg, violin bassbar, fingerboard planing, convex curves of the top and back. Could also be used for bow making I think, but will probably need a back bevel to increase the pitch.

For finishing, I will be using tea stain and boiled linseed oil. More pics to follow.

 

[D_W]

Nice little plane. Very tidy work.

 

[Michelle_K]

Amazing. May I asked where you sourced the wood. I'd love to have a go at making a set of thumb planes for guitar top carving!

 

[rxh]

Very neat. A tonewood offcut?

 

[JohnPW]

Thanks all. Yes, its an offcut from a violin back. But it's tricky to work with, I was careless planing it and got some tearouts.

Something like beech or other hard and close grained wood would work well.

I've stained it with tea and put on a few coats of boiled linseed oil, but needs some more to build up the finish.

 

[D_W]

The quartered side of american beech is a bit harder to plane than curly maple, but tearouts or not, the overall look of the plane carries past anything of that sort, anyway - nobody will notice except a beginning woodworker who thinks that a sanded surface is more important than design.

I'm by no means suggesting that you need to do this, but I like to mix oil and wax together on a finish (paste wax with solvent seems to make all of it dry quickly) and then burnish with a shaving, and repeat as necessary. It gives a really nice surface finish without a large build, and it's easy to refresh.

 

[JohnPW]

I would have thought beech and figured maple are difficult to plane in different ways, (Euro) highly figured maple being softer but has bands of reversing grain across all its surfaces. Whereas beech is just a fairly hard wood.

On my previous planes I didn't stain, I only used hard wax oil, which I gather is a oil and varnish mixture, and you only need 2 or 3 coats to build up a finish. Using a stain and BLO is just trying out something different.

Some pics of the earlier steps, marked out:

1mm holes drilled into the mouth:

The escapement being chiselled out:

 

[hoppity55]

I love the plane and applaud your efforts I could never make one. I must relay this anecdote I read about an old plane maker in if I remember rightly Norfolk. The chap relaying the story said he visited his workshop and the floor was several layers deep in discarded plane bodies each in various stages of manufacture before being chucked for some fault or another.
So I am in awe of your finished article and congratulate you.

Don aka hoppity55

 

[bugbear]

I love the plane and applaud your efforts I could never make one. I must relay this anecdote I read about an old plane maker in if I remember rightly Norfolk. The chap relaying the story said he visited his workshop and the floor was several layers deep in discarded plane bodies each in various stages of manufacture before being chucked for some fault or another.
So I am in awe of your finished article and congratulate you.

Don aka hoppity55

It's a story in Salaman, of a pile of redundant mother planes supporting the roof at Griffiths.

BugBear