Purpleheart Experimental Smoother

[D_W]

Experimental only refers to fiddling with the wear. I haven't made a really good smoother of coffin style yet. Part of the reason for that is that I like the stanley 4 so much, and I'm not going to kid myself that any of my smoothers will be as practical as a stanley in the middle of a sweaty dimensioning session. But I did have a chance to put together a purpleheart smoother on the quick (meaning not cosmetically perfect) with a swedish iron and cap iron set that I think was probably destined for a continental type plane with a lower wear. The purpleheart worked a little easier than I expected, but not nearly so easy as something like beech. Since I don't use power tools or sandpaper to make planes, I get a good sense of each billet, and this billet was 12x12x5 and pretty resistant to handsawing.

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(some pics with oil, some not)

The reason for the experimenting is that I know these modern irons with the higher cap iron curves do not do that well with a close following wear as the later English planes have.

So I experimented a little, didn't find what I liked, and then blocked the mouth tight with a block and left the wear a lot closer to 90 (somewhere just above 85 degrees) to allow the wear to follow this type of cap more closely without giving too much room (which can also lead to a clog just as much as too little).

Finally, I've got a smoother that works across all shaving thicknesses nicely, and also has a fairly hard iron with a cap that is not ideally shaped, but that sets very easily and predictably.

No good coffin smoother on hand at this point, so I see aesthetic improvements to make on the next one (most notably, the front should be wider). I like minimal shaping on the back of the smoother since they're more of a two handed from-the-side plane than push from behind.

https://s14.postimg.org/hhoom2yf5/IMG_2 ... 314242.jpg
https://s14.postimg.org/xtyqbtcqp/IMG_2 ... 345389.jpg
https://s14.postimg.org/5id6ersu9/IMG_2 ... 400348.jpg
https://s14.postimg.org/rvkx1kts1/IMG_2 ... 417986.jpg

The wedge is beech just for the simple fact that it's a better material for a wedge than purpleheart by a long shot. A couple more of these in purpleheart, and if I get planes that I like (without the slipped mouth), then I have a nice stick of gabon ebony to make two planes with ward iron and cap iron sets.

I know what angle I'll need to go with from the outset on the next one so as not to have to block the mouth after experimentation. since this plane is for me, it really doesn't matter if the mouth is blocked even though it's massively unsightly!!

 

[Jelly]

You must be a sucker for punishment making that from purple heart... It looks lovely, but I've always found it a bear to work by comparison to the vast majority of timbers.

When you're referring to blocking the mouth, is this referring to inserting a separate block of timber into a rebate in front of the mouth order to close the mouth up to the desired tightness? If so have you considered facing the sole in brass or steel as an alternative? (I have a coffin smoother which has been set up like that most likely as a repair, and it's possibly the best one I've used to date)

 

[D_W]

Yes, I blocked it both to tighten and to experiment with the wear angle. One of the things that I haven't gotten fully down is gauging how steep the wear needs to be (a straight up wear is not aesthetically pleasing, but close to that can be necessary sometimes) when a cap iron isn't ideally shaped like this one. Figured after the first try, if I block it, it'll still work like any other plane, but if I have to try it two or three times, it's better than throwing away several planes. This plane is perfect in function now, no clog no matter the shaving thickness, width, etc. With a wear orientation 10 degrees different, it was horrible with a tight mouth and barely useable one with loosened up quite a bit. Most of the coffin smoothers would probably see a huge improvement in function if they were blocked like this as the double iron negates the need for a tight mouth for tearout, but they do mark the ends of the boards when the mouth is big the plane can rotate. They feed shavings better when the wear is tight to the cap iron and of the correct angle, too.

PH saws like crap - really slow sawing and grabby except with a fine tooth bowsaw. It mortises OK, and it's a bit tough planing the quartered faces to a nice finish (they were planed on the diagonal to finished size and then the plane facets removed with a nicholson shear cut. It wouldn't be my choice for furniture - I'm not of the camp where overly heavy furniture is virtuous thing. I chose it, cocobolo and ebony to try for smoothers because I like their density in small planes. The one bright side of it is that I believe it only costs about $50 to come up with three nice blanks, and it can be had dry in large blanks unlike most woods.

As far as the metal bottom planes, one of the smoothers with an iron sole ahead of the mouth is in my future. I just haven't decided if I'm going to rob hardware off of an old plane where the retaining screw goes through to the top of the plane, or just screw steel to the front of a smoother. Someone I hold in high regard told me that he prefers that type. The benefit of the metal on a double iron plane is that it can create a short distance of wear that is going away from the plane, something difficult to do in a wooden plane and not lose control of the mouth as the plane is trued over time. Truing on this plane should be seldom, though, unless I'm unlucky and it twists or bulges below the bed (some exotics seem to do that for a while before they settle down).