Originally Posted by
IanW
Stewie, the back bevel would have to be parallel with the bed bevel to maintain exactly the same mouth gap, which of course could only work at all with a single-iron plane. But I thought the reason you made it like that must be to minimise the change with wear & re-flattening that you get with a forward bevel to the front. Is there a purpose for it other than this? It looks to me like it adds considerably to the challenge of cutting out a clean throat!
Yes, I've learned a little bit about woods & sole-wear in my limited plane-making experience (I've made about a dozen planes over 35 years, about half of which were not very good). I've discovered the hard way that some woods wear like fury - Black bean has been my worst choice to date. Mind you, it was for a small double-radiused plane, which cops a lot of abrasion right in front of the mouth because of the way it's used, so I might be being a bit unfair. In general, I've tried to go for dense woods that are a bit 'greasy', like Cooktown Ironwood, which has worked pretty well. However, one of my little Cooktown Ironwood planes gets a bit gummy sometimes, & needs a bit of paraffin to keep it gliding smoothly, whereas another one (from a different block of Ironwood) is fine, which just reminds me that you can never take wood for granted! :U
Not yet. Been too busy painting the house, which is taking three times as long as I planned, partly due to my indolence (no rush, now I'm retired!) & partly because I've had to do quite a few running repairs that I didn't expect (for instance, replacing a joist on the veranda, which you wouldn't expect on a 17 year old house! :C). But I'm finally coming to the end of that job, & I will be having a big saw-making splurge soon, so it will be getting a good workout before too much longer.... :U
Cheers,