Thread: Building a Krenov Smoother

The underside picture of the sheoak plane is awesome.

Cheers,
Paul

Hi Paul

Come along to the LN Tool Event (13th and 14th April at the Perth Wood School) and you can have a closer look, and try it out.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Don't do it, Paul. You know you can't stop at one.

I do like the She-oak model, Derek - verry noice!

I haven't tried She-oak for the body of a 'woodie' (used it for totes & stuffing with very satisfactory results), but expect it should be an extremely durable wood & give many years of service as well as looking good. We should make more fuss about our Casaurinas (or Allocasaurinas as they have become), they do have some excelent qualities for tool-making.
You plane looks quite comfy beside some Rose she-oak : S-oak gauge.jpgDerek s-oak plane.jpg

I was put off Krenov's design when I used it for my first attempt at plane making - it wasn't the design that was faulty, of course, it was my gung-ho attitude & lack of experience that were to blame. Typically for me, instead of keeping it simple & sorting out the basics, I made a jointer & smoother together (I needed both, at the time). I put all my efforts into appearance, using some bits of very nice wood I had for the sides, & laminated the soles with Lignum. Neither plane worked at all well, & had a number of problems caused by my inexperience & lack of understanding of plane basics. I used cheap PVA glue in their construction, and both have delaminated over the years, so what's left of them sit in a box somewhere in the back of the shed. It took me quite a few years to get around to try plane-making again, but when I did, the results were a bit more gratifying, due mainly to a much better understanding of what was involved.

One of the big mistakes I made was not shaping the cross-pin for the wedge the way you've shown, just planed a simple flat on it. I can assure everyone it pays to minimise the size of the pin - the less obstruction there is to shavings, the better. Both my planes were bad 'chokers'. Some years ago I maade a small double-radiused plane using laaminated construction & I used a metal cross-pin which worked well. If I make any more laminated planes, I think I will make some brass abutments in the HNT Gordon style & use a traditional relieved wedge like the one you made for your solid-bodied block plane.

Cheers,