Shopnotes Plane question...

[Kelly Jons]

Hi fellas -

Shopnotes # 11 has an interesting article about building a small wooden plane. It has a Hock blade held with a cap screw from beneath the plane. I really like the design, which seems a lot simpler than fiddling with a wooden wedge. Anyone build one of these planes? Does the cap screw idea actually work, or is it better to go with the traditional Krenovian-wedge?

Thanks!

Kelly

[Alan Schwabacher]

I haven't seen the shopnotes article, but I have a block plane like that, with a Hock blade held with a cap screw. It works fine. But I find it quicker to remove and replace the blades in a wedge type plane.

[David Keller NC]

With a proper plane-adjusting hammer, you will find that wooden-wedge planes are quite easy to adjust. By "proper plane adjusting hammer", I mean a lightweight hammer with one wooden face (for the wedge and body) and one brass face (for the iron). Lots of outlets sell them (such as Lee Valley), or you can make your own.

Either way, you will find with a bit of practice that a wooden plane that's correctly made can be adjusted considerably more accurately than most any plane with a mechanical adjuster.