A small dovetail plane

**IanW** · 13th October 2008, 10:19 PM

Here is a small job I've been getting around to for a (very) long time. I wanted a dovetail plane to trim long sliding d'tails to a nice fit, after cutting most of the profile with a router. One particular job has languished for a very long time waiting for this!

It took a bit more than two hours to make it (the time someone says it should take to make a plane, in a recent thread) - about 3/4 of a day, in fact. For starters, a lot of time was wasted on stuff-ups. I spent quite a while grinding down an old, VERY worn Record blade that was kicking about, only to find it was dead soft & wouldn't take any sort of decent edge (no wonder it was so worn!). So decided to go for broke & use a HNT Gordon blade I'd bought at a woodshow quite a few years ago. The job I'd had in mind for it at the time has sort of disappeared, anyway. Had to sacrifice a fair bit of blade to grind the desired angle on it, but the number of times this will need to be sharpened should give it plenty of life. And it takes a beautiful edge....

Next, I cut the mouth before I had the wedge hole cut through, & the blade-bed sorted, and by the time I got that flat and perfect, the mouth opening had blown out to something a politician would be proud of! So there was nothing for it but to start over - fortunately I was doing this as an exercise in curiosity, & didn't choose any rare or precious bits of wood for the body. In fact it is just a bit of leftover Merbau from recently-installed veranda railings (rescued from the skip!). But it seems it wasn't my day. On the second try, I positioned the shavings hole a bit low, so that there was very little meat above the front of the mouth on the low side when I cut the necessary angle on the sole. Fortunately, that turned out to be an easy fix; I just glued on a bit of River Oak for an add-on sole - it needed something a bit harder than the merbau, anyway.

So here it is - not the most elegant plane in my shed, but it made very nice cross-grain shavings (I've gone with a 60 degree bed angle), and is quite comfy to use. Setting the blade to get it to cut cleanly right into the corner is a bit of a fiddle, but on the second try I was able to produce a reasonable facsimile of a half dovetail (lookout Derek, I'll be challenging you in about 20 years or so at this rate...

). I think it will serve the purpose it's meant for well enough, & certainly be better than struggling with a paring chisel over 5 or 6 hundred mm of dovetail as I've done in the past. This was meant to be a 'proof of concept' but knowing myself as I do, it will probably take at least another 10 years or more to get around to the "production" model.

Cheers,

**Wood Borer** · 13th October 2008, 10:39 PM

Nice piece of work Ian.

It looks like such a handy tool for adjusting sliding dovetails.

Looking at it, I am wondering if an old wooden rebate plane could be easily modified to do the same job. I have a couple of old ones floating around.

**Pops** · 13th October 2008, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by IanW

It took a bit more than two hours to make it (the time someone says it should take to make a plane, in a recent thread) - about 3/4 of a day, in fact.

Cheers,

Hi Ian,

Very nice job there, and in only two hours. I'm impressed.

The River Oak looks good too. A professional looking end result, albeit with a bit of learning along the way.

It is one of those planes I have also wanted to make but I also have your sense of timing so maybe in a few years.

Cheers
Pops

**Woodwould** · 13th October 2008, 11:19 PM

Very nice indeed Ian. It looks quite the professional job!

**IanW** · 14th October 2008, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by Wood Borer

Nice piece of work Ian.

It looks like such a handy tool for adjusting sliding dovetails.

Looking at it, I am wondering if an old wooden rebate plane could be easily modified to do the same job. I have a couple of old ones floating around.

Ta, WB. Yes, I'm hoping it will do the job nicely. I might get the chance to find out next weekend, depending on what SWMBO, the weather, & the garden have planned for me.

WRT your suggestion of an old rebate plane being pressed into service. Strangely enough, I was looking at one at the markets early Sunday morning, and pondering the same thing. The plane I was looking at had no maker's marks, was of a very pale wood that I didn't recognise - it could have been Hornbeam, but I wasn't sure - it seemed pretty soft. It also had a thin, chattery-looking blade, so I gave it a miss & decided to start from scratch. But I think you could very quickly convert an old rebate for the purpose. Cutting the agle on the sole will do two things - it will skew & open the mouth alarmingly, and cut into the shavings hole, leaving a thin trailing edge. Both problems can be easily remedied by glueing on a new sole plate. I'd choose as hard a piece of wood as you can find, as I suspect that deep corner is going to wear quickly. I'll see how this one goes - I had a bit more of a play with it last night & I need to take away a bit more wood from above the mouth to give more shavings clearance, but otherwise it was performing well up to expectations. It was really meant to be a prototype, but as I said, if it continues to do the job well enough, it may be a long time before I get around to making a fancier replacement. I did the same thing with a small double-radiused plane for smoothing out carved chair seats more than 20 years ago - it's well-worn, but still waiting to be replaced with the 'real thing'.

Cheers,

**Wood Borer** · 14th October 2008, 01:06 PM

Yet another project when I finish the shed, thanks for the information Ian.

**derekcohen** · 14th October 2008, 02:56 PM

Hi Ian

What a sweet looking plane! And clearly it works.

It also looks like you made it from scratch, rather than take my shortcut (shown in my tutorial).

The blade on yours is set square - yes? Did you consider a skewed blade?

These are really useful planes. At the recent BBQ at my home, one of the guests/forum member, not a plane user, had picked up my dovetail plane off the shelf and was looking at it in a mystified way. I proceded to demonstrate there-and-then that one could cut a dovetail in seconds. No fiddly router to set up.

Regards from Perth

Derek

**lightwood** · 14th October 2008, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by IanW

......Both problems can be easily remedied by glueing on a new sole plate. I'd choose as hard a piece of wood as you can find, as I suspect that deep corner is going to wear quickly. I'll see how this one goes .....

Ian,
That's got the look of a plane that will outlast you, and the next generation!
Good work.
In some fillister planes the corner is slotted / sawn into on an angle, about 3 or 4mm wide and 12 or 15mm deep and a piece of boxwood inserted as a rub strip...do you have any old broken boxwood folding rules lying about to use as an insert?
Regards.
Peter

**IanW** · 14th October 2008, 04:33 PM

Hi Lightwood - yes, I actually thought about 'boxing' the exposed edge, but decided it was too demanding for what was meant to be a quick job. Also, as I don't have any boxwood, I was wondering what would make a good substitute (probably most of our hardwoods!). I will think about it & possibly give it a try down the track if edge wear is a problem (which I expect it may be).

Derek - thanks for the compliments - I hope it's a useful little 'user', but so far it seems to be doing what's required of it. The blade is square, I'm afraid, like the 'boxing', I decided agin it for this round. Have only made a couple of full-blade planes & still getting the hang of it - maybe my next will be a skewed blade model. The square blade seems to work better than I expected - is it the thick stubby HNT design or the high angle (necessitated to some extent by HNT's short blade)?

Anyway, I may report further after giving it a real workout, hopefully, this weekend.

Cheers,

**lightwood** · 17th October 2008, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Hi Ian

What a sweet looking plane! And clearly it works.

It also looks like you made it from scratch, rather than take my shortcut (shown in my tutorial).

The blade on yours is set square - yes? Did you consider a skewed blade?

These are really useful planes. At the recent BBQ at my home, one of the guests/forum member, not a plane user, had picked up my dovetail plane off the shelf and was looking at it in a mystified way. I proceded to demonstrate there-and-then that one could cut a dovetail in seconds. No fiddly router to set up.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek,
I was looking in my Mathieson 1899 catalog searching for the name of sash moulding plane and discovered this plane I've not seen in the flesh. Thought you might like a look. I've not seen it with other sash tools from chests, so that might mean it wasn't a useful piece of kit. It was discontinued by the the 1930 catalog. It might have a skewed blade and an escapement the other side perhaps? Brass or iron plate on the side, brass for use on Oak probably. I'm always looking for an excuse to add some brass to a tool.

One like the picture below with a fence and depth stop like yours is on my short list now. Thanks for putting that page up!

Regards,
Peter

**Slow6** · 18th October 2008, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by lightwood

Derek,
I was looking in my Mathieson 1899 catalog

Regards,
Peter

Peter, May I please poach you and that very page your lovely book and ask you to pop over HERE , that's the coincidence of the week

Thread: A small dovetail plane

Thread Tools

Search Thread

A small dovetail plane

Similar Threads

Diameter of small Gifkins dovetail cutter

Evolving a Dovetail Plane

Modifying a record 43 as a dovetail plane

Towards to perfect dovetail/small tenon saw tote

Dovetail Plane

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions