Making one-piece wooden plane

[JohnPW]

Hello all,

I've made a wooden plane, using only hand tools so I thought I'd post in the hand tools section rather than the projects section. I haven't used the cut-and-glue-together method, which seems to the most common way seen on the web

First make the blade and take a piece of scrap ash, at least I think it's ash. Plane all sides flat and square. Length is 60mm, blade is 11mm. Then mark out as apropriate.

Start chopping out with a chisel and mallet. Oops I've split it!

The front bit is bit of dowel left in the wood. Glue it back together and the joint is invisible.

Chopped through.

The bottom has a slight recess cut out before chopping through the top, to prevent splitting.

Make saw cut with a coping saw. Then use chisels (including a very narrow 2mm chisel) and a knife to remove waste.

Chamfer edges. Make a wedge (maple) and try it out.

 

[Racers]

Nicely done.

Pete

 

[condeesteso]

That's tiny!! - are you an instrument maker by any chance? The good old Krenov way was and is to slice sides off, then making the throat is easy - you did it by splitting the block, same purpose Reminds me I have a block of partridgewood set aside for a bigger one of these, just need to decide on cutting iron for it. Quite a bit of work there, well done.

 

[J_SAMa]

How did you get the coping saw cuts' angle spot on :? Or did you pare to fit...

 

[JohnPW]

Yes it's for making instruments but you could use for planing any small piece of wood, and it's also very handy for chamfering.

I'm not sure why I don't like the cut-and-glue together method*, maybe it's because all the ones I seen have the swoopy bendy shapes, I prefer the solid blocky traditional look. Maybe it's easier if you use power tools but with hand tools you would have to make quite few very accurate cuts with a saw and/or clean them up with planes. I think I'd prefer to chop/drill out and chisel out than to saw.

I made it for practice as it's the first plane I've made. Someone asked about the blade: it's made from 1.5mm thick flat ground stock, cut and filed to shape. Then pre-heated to 500c in an electric kiln, next heated with a blow torch and quenched in oil, then tempered in the kiln at 200 c.

How did you get the coping saw cuts' angle spot on :? Or did you pare to fit...

The cuts were quite good just from the saw, just need a bit of cleaning up with a chisel. I did take my time though, I think I got lucky as I'm not all that good with sawing. They're very shallow cuts so you only need to get them started correctly.


*Why is it called the Krenov method/style? He didn't invent it and Finck plane making book says he didn't like his name used for the method.

 

[Mr_P]

Great Job =D> =D> =D>

Why is it called the Krenov method/style? He didn't invent it and Finck plane making book says he didn't like his name used for the method.

Guess sometimes it's the person who made it popular / wrote about it who gets the credit.

A bit like Chris Schwarz and the "Anarchists Tool Chest"

anarchists-tool-chest-t72772.html

I've got one and it's possibly older than he is.

It's Scott of the Antarctic, not many people can name the successful Roald Amundsen.

 

[JohnPW]

I have now made my second plane, it's a round bottomed thumb plane made from figured maple.
Size is 45mm long x 17mm wide, blade width is 11mm.

Marked out, chopping started:

Holes drilled in the bottom:

Holes also drill through the top, no photo.

Chopping continued:

Then I made a temporary wedge from pine, just to see if the plane works, next to AAA battery for scale.

Unfortuantely I messed up sawing the slots for the abutments, the two don't match. As a result the wedge has to be smaller on one edge than the other to fit.

The plane so far:

 

[condeesteso]

I'm sure that making planes on this scale will be challenging, esp. fitting the wedge. Looks excellent and the maple is nice. What do you use for irons?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Nit picking - is the battery you picture for scale AA or AAA?

 

[www.kuhnishkaf.ru]

very nice

 

[JohnPW]

Thanks for all the comments. The blades are all made from ground flat stock, I made a batch of them which will give me enough to make a few more planes.

My third plane, a bit bigger this time:

My next post will show the steps in making it.


Pic for scale:
























Length is 125mm, width is 34mm, blade is 20mm wide.

 

[JohnPW]

Next to a 102 plane for scale:

Marked out and holes drilled in the top:

Started chopping:

I could have drilled holes in the bottom but I decided just to chop:

Chopping continued:

Chopped through:

Chopping continued:

Sawing the abutments with a coping saw:

Saw cuts:

Saw cuts:

 

[JohnPW]

Almost finished chopping and paring:

Mouth:

Next was tidying up, chamfering and making and fitting the wedge.

Tools used were planes, chisels, coping saw, scalpel, knifes, and a bit of sandpaper for rounding the wedge and the rear top edge of the plane.

And a couple of pics of my other plane, the colours are a bit more accurate although it's still a bit too yellow:

 

[AndyT]

These are getter better and better! Bravo!

 

[swagman]

Great effort with the traditional handplane builds. As Andy mentioned your worked has improved over the last 3 builds. Now you just need to up the scale a bit in size.

regards; Stewie.

 

[frankederveen]

Thank you for taking the time to post about these little planes; they look very cute =)

When you say 'flat ground stock', does that mean O1 steel? I don't know much about steel but would like to make my own hollows and rounds some day.

Regards,
Frank

 

[JohnPW]

Yes, afaik, ground flat stock, also called gauge plate, is always 01.

I've made a few more now.

Again the wood is maple, offcuts from instrument making.
Length is 55mm, shorter than my thumb. width is18mm , blade is 11mm.

Marked out and paring started, mallet not used.

Mouth started.

throat finished.

Trying it out.

Boxwood insert, because I made a mistake paring the bed. I went too steep, so the mouth ended up too wide. The angle is now 50 degrees.

With 20p for scale.

Tools used, just simple basic hand tools, Iforgot to include a marking gauge in the photo. I really need a 2mm chisel and a very small key hole saw or a coping saw blade without pins. The pins makes it too big to get it through the mouth, I might just cut or file off the pins.

And the plane is finished from the blade, no sand paper used.

 

[rxh]

A very neat looking little plane - well done!

What you need is a piercing saw.

 

[J_SAMa]

John,
Thanks for digging this one up
Now how did you make the boxwood insert to close the mouth? Chisel and router plane for the recess?
Sam

 

[JohnPW]

What you need is a piercing saw.

Yes, a piercing saw would work.

Now how did you make the boxwood insert to close the mouth? Chisel and router plane for the recess?

I cut out the piece of boxwood, planed the edges straight, then marked around it on the sole. I can't remember but I don't think I used a router plane, even the Stanley/Record small one is going to be too big. I think I used a knife and a chisel, the recess doesn't have to be absolutely flat. What's more important is if there's any gaps around the insert and the sole as that would show up.