Has anyone made a kerfing plane?

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I'll be resawing some pretty substantial boards. I might have to plump for the 5tpi and grind every other tooth away but it seems a shame to butcher a perfectly good saw.
 
BearTricks":3bph60ez said:
I need to resaw some serious boards with no bandsaw in sight and was wondering if anyone has made a kerfing plane as (apparently) invented by Tom Fidgen?

Yes, I made one and you can find more pics here:
http://www.legnofilia.it/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15180

nastro26.jpg



Best regards from Italy,
Andrea
 
Last weekend I did a resaw of some 24 cm boards with the tablesaw in combination with a normal ripsaw. The tablesaw cut's about 6 cm deep, so I only had to remove only 12 cm by hand, doable with a 4 1/2 tpi ripsaw.

But if course, the tablesaw has a rather thick blade (almost 3 mm), so you waist a lot of material this way. But the rather deep cuts reduce the hand work effort a lot. I wonder, does the kerfing plane make kerfs deep enough to make the entire procedure rather mindless? Or are you still all the time checking that your saw is still tracking straight on both sides of the cut?
 
Kees, the answer to that question with a frame saw is a combination of two things.
1) how straight is the saw tracking, does it have twist or bias in the blade and is it sharp enough to follow that bias
2) given the answer to #1, is the kerf deep enough to alleviate the problem.

I think the answer for boards that are 8-10" wide, which is probably as wide as many will go (speaking of hardwoods), the kerfs need to be 1/2 inch wide or so, but even at that, you should always eyeball the backside of the cut a little bit so as not to ruin a nice board. If the board is 4 feet long, it will take 10-15 minutes to complete the cut, and you'll appreciate stopping to check.

My not-so great framesaw has some bias, I have to watch it a little bit at the beginning of the cut to see which way it's going (I think some of that may be due to the weight - it's hard to make a saw four feet long and not have it have considerable weight). It feels like a resistance exercise just under it's own weight, which means if it starts to make a turn, it will continue following that turn.

If you're using a nice straight-cutting carpenter's saw, no wander issues with 1/2" deep kerfs.
 
Thanks for the info David.

For info, the cuts took me about 10 minutes each with a freshly sharpened saw, 4 1/2 tpi, 12 cm deep cut and 54 cm long.
 
Well I've started building one to my own specs. I chose a piece of ugly unsteamed pear, traced the handle of my favourite woodie because I knew it was comfortable enough. I honestly can't see myself having any unforseen problems because the design is so simple, but we'll see.
 
Andrea, I like your plane very much, I followed the link and I was wondering, are the arms fixed to the fence with only dovetails? All the plough planes I have come across have needed to be adjusted with a mallet, I would be worried about the arms shearing away from the fence - But I imagine yours will move much more easily! Beautiful framesaw also, I may have to follow in your footsteps,

Cheerio,

Carl
 
I've just finished this kerf plane, started months ago, but moving house delayed things - I used the screw fence idea, but wish I'd used the bridle plough method for the fence. It works well in that it made it a lot easier to start the kerf and keep it straight, but I used 6tpi on a 9" plate, which I now realise is woefully inadequate as it cloggs very quickly.

Here's a link to Blackburn tools plans and kit http://www.blackburntools.com/new-tools/new-saws-and-related/rebate-saw-plane/index.html They also have some info about the tool before it's recent 'invention'. They use 4 1/2 points per inch and with a gullet filed between each point to get rid of sawdust - I read about this the after I'd filed mine but thought I ought to try it out first, and yes, they're right!. Later on I'll flatten the teeth on mine and replace every other tooth with a gullet and see what happens.

The thinking behind the body shape was that it could be a woodie plough plane with a saw plate rather than a stair saw with a fence. I shaped the heel more like a handle, although this was partly stymied by the position of the fence arrangement - doh!

Does anyone have any thoughts on what would be an ideal length?

cheerio,

Carl
 

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Mine's 11" long but I'm not happy with it and considering making it shorter and lighter. It is currently half finished and of the fixed fence variety because I was only anticipating using it on one project.

Unfortunately, the thickness of the boards that I'm resawing is such that a fixed fence plane needs to be pretty heavy duty.
 
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