Wooden Jointer Plane

[Bryce Adams]

I've recently completed my 1st Krenov smoothing plane made from a glued-up blank of Jatoba. I used a 2" Hock iron and I'm very pleased with its performance.

So I glued up a blank of Beech with a Jatoba sole to make a 22" long jointer plane. I'm trying to decide where to place the mouth of the plane. My smoothing plane (9" long), has the mouth at 5/9 of the plane's length measured from the rear of the plane.

Most pictures I've seen of wood jointers appear to have the mouth quite a bit farther forward than that.

I'd like any suggestions for location.

Thanks.

Bryce

[Larry Heflin]

From the back of my 23 3/4 Knight jointer the mouth begins at 13 1/4.

[Bryce Adams]

Thanks for the information on your Knight plane. I'll take that into consideration.

[Pam Niedermayer]

If you check the ece jointer planes (http://www.fine-tools.com/rauh.htm), you'll get some idea of the perspectives. It seems that a lot of heel space is taken by the handles, thus pushing the mouth forward.

OTOH, if you look at Japanese jointers, you'll see that there are no handles (the exception is sometimes a rod, such as used in the HNT Gordon Try plane (http://www.hntgordon.com.au/)), and the mouths start at about 1/3 of the plane length from the heel.

So, there are no rules. All these planes work like a charm.

Pam

[Derek Cohen]

Mine is a little over half way its 30" length ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/My%20planes/Jointer-shopmade1.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bryce Adams]

Derek,

Do you think there's any advantage to having the mouth more toward the front of the plane than near the center on a jointer plane? This plane will be 22 or 23" long.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Bryce

I really don't know whether there is a formula for "correct". I look for a position that looks and feels balanced, and that has sufficient toe and heel for registration. A little more or less here or there within these parameters is likely not going to make a whole lot of difference.

I have seen English jacks and jointers that have the mouth about 25% from the toe, and then there are Japanese planes that have the mouth all the way back (and are pulled).

Regards from Perth

Derek