I wonder if anyone had prepared the sole of an European style wood plane with the wave pattern characteristic to the sole of the Japanese wooden planes?
Would there be any advantages or disadvantages in doing so?
I wonder if anyone had prepared the sole of an European style wood plane with the wave pattern characteristic to the sole of the Japanese wooden planes?
Would there be any advantages or disadvantages in doing so?
If you're aiming for a 2 point contact on both heel and toe, the pros and cons are the same as for the Japanese planes.
However, in a Japanese smoother, it is possible to aim for a double point contact on the toe, and (in effect) almost no contact on the heel.
This means that the smoother no longer creates a flat surface, but simply follows the existing surface taking a shaving of uniform thickness.
The plane is still stable in use, since Japanese planes, cutting on the pull stroke, have a long "toe". If you make a European plane work this way, the toe is too short to be conveniently usable.
In this video http://sandal-woodsblog.com/2010/12/01/an-amazing-moment-at-woodworking-in-america-2010/, Frank Klausz tells (at about 17 minutes) about a wooden jointer plane which Toshio (Odate, I believe) modified for him in this way. He put several hollows into the toe of the plane, with contact points in between. According to Klausz, that plane works "so much better". Klausz attributes this to reduced friction.
But, as BugBear mentioned, this might only work well because in a jointer the toe makes up a significant portion of the overall length of the plane.
