A Knightish Smoother

[Derek Cohen]

About two years ago (?), shortly after receiving his CNC machine, Steve Knight offered a few of his prototype kits at a reduced cost. The aim was to get the new kit off the ground. I bought a razee jack.

Steve ran into problems mastering the CNC machine - the two sides of the plane did not line up - and time marched on .. and on .. and on. Eventually I gave up receiving the plane. Steve, however, made good by sending me a beautiful Chinese laminated blade by Galoot Tools. Steve also sent me a Bubinga (I think - help me here) bodied 45 degree bed smoother kit. The only problem here was that the blade was 2" wide and the smoother kit was designed for a 2 1/2" wide blade ... and the sides of the kit did not match well.

I hear that Steve has since solved all these problems, so please do not link this kit with his current product. They are likely to be a world apart. I hear nothing but good things about his finished planes.

I decided to make the kit anyway, put it aside, but finally got around to it recently, finishing it this evening.

I had to recut the body to fit the blade, as well as reshaping the bed to lie in one plane. It really would have been easier to build the plane from scratch, but the wood (Bubinga?) looked wonderful and I had not seen it before in the "raw".

The kit had come with a Purpleheart mouth piece, but I had to replace this (it was the wrong size now), and chose Jarrah (what else!). The wedge is also Jarrah (what else!). I also decided on a fixed mouth (Steve provided for an adjustable mouth) and further added a brass wear plate. The mouth is small.

The kit body was slab-sided (only the top of the heel was rounded). I decided to shape it along the lines of Steve's coffin smoother. So he cannot take the blame for result!

The smoother is small - just 7 1/4" long and 2 5/8" wide at the centre. It is very comfortable to hold and push.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Knightish%20smoother/Knight1.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Knightish%20smoother/Knight2.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Knightish%20smoother/Knight3.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[James Scheffler]

About two years ago (?), shortly after receiving his CNC machine, Steve Knight offered a few of his prototype kits at a reduced cost. The aim was to get the new kit off the ground. I bought a razee jack.

Steve ran into problems mastering the CNC machine - the two sides of the plane did not line up - and time marched on .. and on .. and on. Eventually I gave up receiving the plane. Steve, however, made good by sending me a beautiful Chinese laminated blade by Galoot Tools. Steve also sent me a Bubinga (I think - help me here) bodied 45 degree bed smoother kit. The only problem here was that the blade was 2" wide and the smoother kit was designed for a 2 1/2" wide blade ... and the sides of the kit did not match well.

The kit body was slab-sided (only the top of the heel was rounded). I decided to shape it along the lines of Steve's coffin smoother. So he cannot take the blame for result!

The smoother is small - just 7 1/4" long and 2 5/8" wide at the centre. It is very comfortable to hold and push.

Derek

Do you know which Galoot Tools blade you got? They come in three price levels.

Also, I was curious how tall your plane ended up. I'm building an 8" long coffin smoother around a 1 7/8" Lee Valley blade. I'm wondering how tall to make it. My blank is presently about 2 3/4" tall, but I've seen a few planes on the www that are considerably shorter than that. However, some of those are made with the fairly short Hock blades. The Lee Valley blade is 6". I also have large-ish hands, and I'm thinking it might be better to have a taller plane.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Jim

P.S. Your plane is beautiful!

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Jim

The Galoot Tools blade is the economy version. It is really excellent. This is a handmade, laminated blade, 1/4" thick.

The blade is 5 3/4" long. The plane is 2 1/4" high.

For comparison, the HNT Gordon planes are (from memory) 1 3/4" high.

If you have large hands, you can always make the plane wider rather than higher. My preference is for a lower smoother as I find that they tend to offer more feedback (feel). Others do prefer a taller plane as they find that this helps with orientation in the vertical.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Steve knight]

looks very good. how is the iron working out?
I solved most of the issues or found workarounds. the only real solution is to get a let hand bit and rotate it that way to cot the second side.
I found some of the irons to be too brittle and the edges would crack . but these were 1st run irons.

[James Scheffler]

Hi Jim

The Galoot Tools blade is the economy version. It is really excellent. This is a handmade, laminated blade, 1/4" thick.

The blade is 5 3/4" long. The plane is 2 1/4" high.

For comparison, the HNT Gordon planes are (from memory) 1 3/4" high.

If you have large hands, you can always make the plane wider rather than higher. My preference is for a lower smoother as I find that they tend to offer more feedback (feel). Others do prefer a taller plane as they find that this helps with orientation in the vertical.

Regards from Perth

Derek

At this point, I'm committed to the width I have (I've already resawn the blank). I'll experiment with the height after the thing is done - no reason why I can't cut it down later. Up to this point, I've only used Bailey-type planes, so I don't know what will work for me.

The Galoot blade is intriguing. I saw their site a few months ago but I didn't find much in terms of feedback, so I went with LV instead.

Thanks for the input!
Jim

[Derek Cohen]

looks very good. how is the iron working out?

Thanks Steve. I tried to get close to your design. It is an extremely comfortable shape. You have a good design.

The iron is excellent. I have been able to use it in my HNT Gordon planes as well, so I have a reference for it. It is a really good iron. Being handmade the back needed to be flattened (unlike the production LN and LV blades), but this did not take long. It holds a good edge. No chipping.

Good to read you on the forum again. It's been too long!

Regards from Perth

Derek