Thread: Looking for small block plane recommendations

Originally Posted by MartinCH

That , sounds like Yosegi, 寄木ズク　正卍模様製作　Making of Yosegi - YouTube

Yes, Yosegi, Tunbridge and Inlay Banding share very similar challenges for the maker. What makes it more challenging for a modern day maker is that it is difficult to find many informed resources about the original makers and their construction techniques.

Thank you, I've seen this video previously. It is perhaps the best and most comprehensive video I've come across on the construction of a Yosegi block.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

...... I'm looking at the small block plane as another tool to add to the "solutions" box.

You could always make yourself one of these mini in hand 1.jpg

Just kidding, but this little thing has turned out to be amazingly useful & handles mixed cross & long grain such as you encounter with banding extremely well.

In my experience, a low-angle blade with a very tight mouth (& I got this one really tight!) handles that situation better than any other configuration. The mouth does need to be tight to get the full effect, which can limit the plane's use a bit when the mouth is fixed as it is on my plane. For comparison, I made a small 45* BD plane complete with chatter-block & chipbreaker, mostly to see how small I could get. I don't have a shot of it in hand, but it's slightly shorter than the mini mitre: 7 first shavings.jpg

It's a great little performer, and with a more generous mouth & the chipbreaker to keep things under control, it's more versatile than the little mitre, but it can't match it in handling a mix of cross & long grain like in banding. I have done very little banding these last 30 years or so but when I did do a bit, I resorted to a very carefully prepared card scraper for levelling (& sanding, which any bander will know can be a disaster with mixed light & dark woods!), I didn't have any plane at the time that I would have trusted to do the job. The low cutting angle (45* for the little 'smoother' vs ~35* for the mini-mitre), lets the mitre just cut so cleanly & effortlessly.

So I can certainly see how useful a very fine-mouthed LA plane could be with banding & similar work. Joel, of 'Joel's Blog' has suggested the mitre plane itself was created expressly for marquetry, which is a good suggestion except for the fact that mitre planes pre-date the era of intense marquetry use in furniture by a good 100 years or even more if what I read is correct. That doesn't exclude the possibility that they were found to be ideal for such work, and it does provide a reason why they faded rather quickly from the scene around the time solid wood resumed its dominance in furniture...
Cheers,

IanW thank you for your feed back.

I'm not actually looking for a block plane to finish the installed banding. I want a small block plane to assist with trimming the "sticks" or more correctly the veneer face applied to the 'sticks" when I construct the banding block from scratch.

As the "sticks" used to construct banding present as "face grain" in the finished banding strip, the sticks themselves and any associated veneer (typically in the 0.6 to 1.2mm thickness range) applied to them are cut "cross cut" from the stock board or veneer. So a small block plane that can handle the "end grain" veneer trimming and cutting cleanly would be ideal, hence the reference to using the small block plane with shooting boards etc.

My small Turner will do this but it gets awkward with the smaller and thinner sticks.

OK MT, apologies, I was jumping to conclusions without reading the script properly. But the same end-grain problems arise in both the making & levelling processes, so what's relevant to one should be more or less relevant to the other, should it not?

It would seem there are few options for a really small block plane with the necessary build quality. I'm sure you could rely on the quality of the BC plane, but I'd be dubious about the cheapie knock-off. It may well be a very good tool or at least something that could be fettled into one, but buying on the strength of an ebay pic might be a gamble...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Bridge City HP8

This is the only small LA block plane I can think of that would meet your needs; the likes of the squirrel-tailed Lie Neilson 100 have rounded sides which don’t go so well on shooting boards. I have one and really like it; I mainly use it for thicknessing strips for Kumiko.

Veritas miniature bench plane

Slightly left field, but this might work for you…

Well I almost convinced myself to purchase a HP8 until, I saw the shipping of US$106. Even at the discounted US$75 for the HP8 it makes it all up AUD$270 plus any CC transaction and currency conversion fees. I think I will pass.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Well I almost convinced myself to purchase a HP8 until, I saw the shipping of US$106. Even at the discounted US$75 for the HP8 it makes it all up AUD$270 plus any CC transaction and currency conversion fees. I think I will pass.

Ow; didn’t realise BC no longer had an Australian distributor for their planes; Carbatec used to stock them.

Sorry to send you down a dead end…

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Ow; didn’t realise BC no longer had an Australian distributor for their planes; Carbatec used to stock them.

Sorry to send you down a dead end…

The Veritas is looking better now.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

The Veritas is looking better now.

I did a bit of searching to find a review of it, but what I found didn't tell me very much. I could see from the pics it appeared to have a fixed mouth, & that gets noted, but I could not find any mention of the size of it. I reckon a very fine mouth would be crucial for your needs, MT, but in the only pic I found of the sole, it looks rather large. However, the plane didn't have the blade in, so I couldn't get a true estimate of the actual gap between the blade edge & front of mouth when it's in a working position...

Cheers,

As more choices adds confusion here's a slightly cheaper way to purchase the bridge city. The adjustable mouth is handy.

As a suggestion if $ is an issue (it always is, unless your very fortunate) try some Kraft tape on the bed of your turner and see if you can close the month without interference to operation. Give you some options with fixed mouth planes - And you will not see the packing tape "shims", in operation.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001420009374.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2ara

Yes, one way that has been touted to 'close the mouth' on a BU plane is to shim the bed. I've often contemplated doing that on the old 110 I've had since I was 12. There are a couple of ways I've considered, but have always ended up deciding it's not really worth the effort.

The 110 has a narrow bed and just a small pillar further back in the body to support the blade. A bed shim would need to be tapered to ensure a reasonable contact area close to the cutting edge, and the pillar might need to be filed to match the new blade angle to give it a stable platform. Getting those right would be challenge enough, then I'd need to find a glue that would stick the shim to the bed firmly (I know there are glues that can do this, but I'm too mean to buy a whole bottle just to stick a few square mm!). It all seems too much like attempting to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, so I very quickly abandon the idea & continue to use the 110 as a convenient one-hander that is good for knocking dirt & saw fuzz or weathering off rough wood to see what's underneath, or any little job needing thick shavings where surface finish isn't critical. The huge mouth is an advantage in these situations.

But out of curiosity, I'd like to hear from anyone who has managed to reduce an over-large mouth on a BU plane successfully....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by MartinCH

As a suggestion if $ is an issue (it always is, unless your very fortunate)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001420009374.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2ara

$$, well we all like to keep as many as we can in our pockets, so we can buy more stuff.

What really irks me is the extortion racket the Yank shipping companies call "shipping." How can China send one for less than AUD$10?? and have an expected delivery date faster than the USA options???

Sent from China to USA then OZ, why not simply cut out the middle man and the extortion racket.

Then we see the other options available on sites like Aliexpress - perhaps it is a lottery with quality on some but it certainly is tempting to try a $20 special.

Hi Mobyturns,

Wasn't sure reading your post but the link isn't to the cheap - it to a china source of Bridge City Plane.
Unfortunately, not even this is economical as what the Americans are currently paying, but a tad better.

If your not in hurry you could wait and see if a better "sale" appears.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

I saw the shipping of US$106]

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

What really irks me is the extortion racket the Yank shipping companies call "shipping." How can China send one for less that AUD$10??

One explanation, is the onerous reporting rules that were put into place after 9/11. Exporters now have to fill out a pile of forms so that a clerk can verify that the shipment is not for a terrorist.

Just imagine what a terrorist could do with a Bridge City Block Plane.

A similar thing may be happening between the UK and EU post brexit. Now shipments are subject to the border control regime and often attract customs duty. Large firms just accepted this, employed another clerk to fill out the forms, adjusted their prices and it is business as usual. Small firms on both sides of the Channel threw their arms up in the air, said it was all too hard, and now quite a few decline orders that involve shipping across the Channel. A French firm will happily ship to Australia but not the UK. A British firm will ship to Australia but not to France. Family in Ireland report virtually no visible changes post brexit, but that many small specialty items have disappeared from the stores.

Coincidentally, the February issue of Fine Woodworking Magazine (arrived yesterday) has a fairly basic article on banding, which may interest some members.