My first woodie.

[Durdge39]

This began a while ago when I was testing the steel from non-TCT circular saw blades. I had cut a strip and hardened the end. I sharpened it and it held a beautifully keen edge. A few days ago I picked up the strip and thought now would be a good chance to have a quick go at making a wooden plane. What you see in the photo is what became of it.

The body and wedge are made of Tassie oak salvaged from an old bed rail that was destined for the tip, the jarrah dowel was a small offcut from another project and the blade is as mentioned above. Apart from a hole with the drill press, and using the lathe to turn the dowel, it was all done with hand tools. I didn't think I'd try too hard to make a super tight mouth so I cambered the blade with an 8" radius and destined the plane to be a small scub-like worker; taking layers of paint off of suspicious pieces of wood. It's no work of art, but more a proof of concept to myself to know that I could do it. Next time I might get more decorative.

It's almost an awakening making a useful tool for yourself. Suddenly hundreds of years of those before you following the same path all becomes very real. I tip my hat to anyone who had to make a plane by hand. It was certainly a lot harder than I first thought.

Tom.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=196632&stc=1&d=1327831288

[mattocks]

looks pretty good to me Tom, I like the detail at the front.
Some more pics would be nice, especially the mouth.
Only thing i've made so far is a mallet, a plane might be a bit away just yet.
cheers
Frank

[Twisted Tenon]

It's almost an awakening making a useful tool for yourself. Suddenly hundreds of years of those before you following the same path all becomes very real. I tip my hat to anyone who had to make a plane by hand. It was certainly a lot harder than I first thought.



Wow, I like it :2tsup::2tsup:

That's a good observation you made about your predecessors making tools they needed. There must have been some really interesting (non mass produced) designs/concepts by people like your self prepared to think out side of the square.

TT

[kamusur]

That looks pretty nice Durdge, you gotta be happy with that one.

Steve

[planemaker]

For your 1st woodie Tom you have done a great job. Can't wait to see the next one.

[Old gunnie]

... and as we watch him slide down the slippery slope from sanity to plane making we think to ourselves, "there, by the grace of god, might go I" :U

Very nice Tom. All made from scraps and offcuts. I'm mighty impressed.

Cheers
OG

[ac445ab]

Well done!
The choice of making a scrub plane is also very good. A very useful tool in our shops.
How did you manage blade hardening?
Ciao
Giuliano:)

[Jack in Nepean]

Great job - very satisfying isn't when you get that first good shaving sliding out of the mouth with that great smooth sound.

We made some a while ago <http://www.ottawawoodworkers.ca/news/2012/1/18/adventures-in-the-handplane-sig-part-ii.html>. Here are the blades used <http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=46322&cat=1,230,41182,41186>

3 1/2 hours and everyone left with a usable woodie.

Cheers

Jack

[Durdge39]

Cheers for the comments gents!

Mattocks, here is a couple of photos of the mouth area. I was a little reluctant to show the huge mouth that this plane sports (about 3/32" from blade edge to mouth), but it's only removing paint etc so it should be fine :D
The wedge was about the trickiest part of the assembly. I made it overly long to begin with and slowly shot it back in length until it got up to holding tightness in a spot that would allow the shavings to flow out unhindered. I also gently concaved the back of the wedge to add a gentle bias of pressure on the cutting end of the blade to try and reduce chatter. Whether it made much difference is beyond me, but the intention was there nonetheless!

Ac445ab, hardening the blade was done with an ox-acetylene torch to heat the steel to a gentle red, then a simple quench in water. Because I only hardened the end, there was some distortion in the steel, but I picked the ever so slightly concave side to flatten and get a nice flat face at the cutting edge.

Jack, cheers for the links. Those LV blades are good value for money! Might save my old saw blades for making knives and invest in a few of those HSS babies. I'll also read through those plane builds when my mind is a bit fresher tomorrow after work.

Thanks again
Tom.

[IanW]

Tom - very satisfying to make the blade as well as the body. Neither my smithing skills nor equipment are up to doing blades from scratch, so have had to content myself with chunks of HSS from McJing's, which limits the range a bit, and means some heavy-duty grinding (especially on the thick stuff I used last time! :o). However, it is another relatrively inexpensive source of blade steel, especially for narrow planes. The stuff I've used so far has been well up to the job.

I'll be interested to hear from you after a while, on how well the Tassie Oak sole stands up. I would expect the softer wood beteen the growth rings to wear a bit quickly, but I may be worrying unduly - it's probably as hard as European Beech, after all.

Cheers,