Thread: Timber planes as in made from timber identification

Here are some extra pics of the handle, break and the steel inserts that appeared to be veneer.

Hi Rustynail,
We are on the same page. I picked it up at a garage sale last week and the previous owner, Eric was a master cabinet maker. Another of his planes was a 1910 Stanley #4 low knob corri base.
I suspect he made it as an apprentice or in his early trade. The timber looks very like Grey Iron bark as you suggest p, very dense and heavy. Looking at the handle, what’s left in the mortise looks much as you suggest. It looks like it has had a saw cut placed along its length which makes sense given your thought of the slight tapered mortise side, BUT the veneer / wedges are steel ??
The gentleman who died, Ian was Eric’s son. I also meet his grandson and great grandson which was cool 4 generations.

Sorry, I failed to mention the wedges were made from metal, ground to a knife edge and started into the split in the base of the tenon in the handle. The handle was then started into the mortise in the plane body, the whole thing inverted and the handle struck on the bench until the tenon was fully home in the mortise. The wedge was just thick enough to spread the tenon to fit the beveled sides of the mortise. This was a fiddly process and some chose to glue the handle with a straight sided mortise and tenon rather than the bevelled sides which made for easy removal if the glue was hide. Good luck trying to get the flared and wedged handles out.