Ten new planes were born...

[Pekka Huhta]

I wanted to share some new planes with everyone. I built a wooden plane with an adjustable mouth a few years ago and posted the instructions to our local forum to inspire others to build similar ones as well. About ten have been built over the years. Last weekend I was asked to give a course on planebuilding, and ten new ones were built.

The original instructions were at my blog:

http://www.sihistin.fi/en/tools/oak_plane.html

I did put some photos to my gallery http://www.sihistin.fi/fi/image/tid/51 . And below you can find the "rogues gallery" of the ten new planes that were built over the weekend.







I'm working on the drawings of the plane, so I probably will be able to post the drawings as well during this week. On the other hand I did not want to have the drawings available during the course. I think ten different planes is a much better thing than ten identical ones anyway

Pekka

 

[laird]

I fully agree with you. Build by the heart, not the plan. Magnificent effort - by both yourself and your local forum.
Well done that man =D>

 

[jimi43]

Pekka...lovely story and work indeed!

So many planes in one place! You will need to get an ATC license!!!



Jim

 

[Alf]

Excellent stuff, Pekka. Love "the fleet" all lined up on the bench.

 

[Pete W]

Very well done, Pekka. They all look good, but I love that last one with the shaped hand-hold at the rear. Beautiful!

 

[Pekka Huhta]

I noted that my wording last evening was not that clear. The first model I built was indeed for our forum and more than half of the people at the course were members of the forum. The course itself was arranged by an adult education centre Vanajaveden Opisto, they have had me lecturing on handplanes and now they wanted to have a weekend course about the same subject.

I packed my car full of hand tools and drove a hundred kilometres for the course. They had a nice woodworking shop but a very limited supply of hand tools. So I think that in addition to building ten planes, I also smeared a liberal amount of antique grease to the same amount of individual slopes... :wink:

Pekka

 

[Paul Chapman]

They look great, Pekka 8)

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[GazPal]

Very nice explanation and workmanship.

 

[pedder]

Hi Pekka,

thanks for sharing! Some very cool looking plane you've made, but this is my favorite:

She looks most comfortable!

Cheers
Pedder

 

[Pekka Huhta]

thanks for sharing! Some very cool looking plane you've made, but this is y favorite:

A small correction: I did not build any onf the planes above, but the people on the woodworking course did. I had built the original, which the students copied, each on their own style.

I did start building a plane as well on the course but had no time to finish it during the weekend. I have never built a "real" krenov plane with the original krenovian looks, so I had a fun time yesterday with a few gouges and chisels carving out a look-a-like.

Pekka

 

[AndyT]

I was looking at the matching brass knobs at the front - presumably these are ordinary cupboard knobs - which is a good economical choice!

Are they the top end of an adjustable mouth?

[Edit - just looked at your blog - yes they are!]

 

[GazPal]

Sound workmanship and excellent results under the guidance of a good teacher says a lot about his skill at teaching. Pupils typically reflect the skill of the teacher and while many are capable of displaying such craftsmanship, few are capable of teaching such skills to others.

I'd be more than happy to have an apprentice/pupil display such a solid grasp of what he's been taught, so having ten pupils achieve the such soild results must make you very proud.

 

[Kalimna]

Lovely instruments - and interesting the minor design differences between them. Reminds me of a small computer program written by Richard Dawkins to help explore the effects of evolution - 2D spidery shapes, random small changes and a new 'generation' built from a single choice.
However, perhaps it's me, but I think the brass knob looks a little out of place on the wooden body.

How about some piccies of the shavings they produced?

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Pekka Huhta]

I was looking at the matching brass knobs at the front - presumably these are ordinary cupboard knobs - which is a good economical choice!

Are they the top end of an adjustable mouth?

Yep, there is an adjustable mouth and the knob is just regular harware brass knob. It's surprisingly difficult to find brass knobs these days, most of them are just zinc with some sort of "antique" metalling on top.

I have removed the laquer from the knob of my plane and suggested the same for all of the pupils as well. They look too shiny like they are now, and they look crappy when the laquer starts wearing off


And yes, I am very proud of the planes, and even prouder to see how much people enjoyed building those planes. Many seemed even a bit surprised how easy it was after all.

When I was a kid my dream job was a woodworking teacher. So for me these courses are also a childhood dream coming true. I have always enjoyed building things and it's a great moment to see the enjoyment of the students when they realise that they really can build whatever they like.


Pekka

 

[pedder]

thanks for sharing! Some very cool looking plane you've made, but this is y favorite:

A small correction: I did not build any onf the planes above, but the people on the woodworking course did.

Hi Pekka,

I understood that and meant "you've" in the plural sense. Olen pahoillani.

Cheers
Pedder

 

[Pekka Huhta]

thanks for sharing! Some very cool looking plane you've made, but this is y favorite:

A small correction: I did not build any onf the planes above, but the people on the woodworking course did.

Hi Pekka,

I understood that and meant "you've" in the plural sense. Olen pahoillani.

Probably just as much a reader's mistake as well :wink:

Pekka

 

[Pekka Huhta]

Today I had the time to finish my own plane as well. As I said I haven't built an actual Krenov plane with the right design, only these adjustable-mouthed coffin plane lookalikes.

This was not an exact Krenov copy either. He trusted on chipbreakers and so do I, but I wanted to test how a plane works without one. So the plane has a very tight mouth, you can sneak a 0,15 mm feeler gauge to the mouth but not a 0,2 mm one.

It works surprisingly well. It is very light to push due to the lack of a chipbreaker, and leaves a glass smooth surface.

The picture looks a bit blotchy, as I just applied a few coats of raw linseed oil and some Fiddes wax to it, but it should look OK by tomorrow.

Carving the shape was fun, I really enjoyed it. It left an urge to do some more carving in the near future, I hope I'll find a proper project and time for it.

Pekka

 

[jimi43]

Hi Pekka

Superb looking plane mate and clearly the design works too!

Result!

I too love the back hand hold. I love it so much I have changed the design of my infill design to incorporate that hand hold in the rear infill wood.

Hopefully, once I get the metalwork sorted out I will be able to show you the result.

Thanks for the inspiration

Jim

 

[Pekka Huhta]

Jim, I'm glad you liked it.

The design was quite closely based on a block plane on Krenov's first book. I usually like to follow my own designs with no restrictions, but this time I wanted to be relatively faithful to the original. Just to know what's the secret behind Krenov's planes.

It's a great little plane, but I think that the handrest should be a tad higher anyway. Maybe I am too used to traditional planes. The last picture of the student planes could be a brilliant start fort the infill project, as it is really a bit taller and the figure would fit the timeline of a typical infill plane. A hand carved infill block with the gouge marks showing could be a bit off context (I think).


When I carved that plane and studied Krenov's planes I couldn't help realising that they are very close to traditional Chinese planes, just some original contemporary design added on. If you take any of Krenov's planes and shave off the ergonomics, you end up with a Mujinfang with a short iron. Slim, low profile, low heel sloping up towards the back of the iron, the toe having a distinctive upward curve. Krenov just exaggerated it a bit and perfected the ergonomics to his needs.

How far that is from a Krenov smoother?

The plane on Derek's pages may not be the most typical version, but I still suggest that there are common roots on both of them.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolReview ... other.html

This may have been clear to everyone but me. I think I have noted it before, but not really realised it before now.

Pekka

 

[Pekka Huhta]

It has been a year since the original post, but I thought that it would be nice to update this. I gave another course last weekend, and we got 8 new planes ready during the course. What pleased me the most was that this time we got even more variation on the plane designs, including one razee jointer and a rabbet plane in addition to a variety of different smoothers.

Pekka