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John Edwards
03-24-2003, 4:05 PM
Curious if anyoone has has any experiance with these tools ??

Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont
03-26-2003, 8:46 PM
Hi,

I posted this on BP some time ago, I built one of their kits and wrote a story about it..

http://www.shepherdtool.com/Building%20a%20Shepherd%20Smoother.htm

Take care,
Jim

Howard Ruttan
03-27-2003, 10:31 AM
A friend of mine was sent one of their earliest kits to test out. It took him quite a long time to build but he was very happy with the results. Apparently since then they have made many modifications and the kits are easier and take far less time to build.

The bottom line is that it has become his favorite plane, and he has lots to choose from.

He wrote an article about it here:
http://www.conoverworkshops.com/ww/news/050202.htm

John Edwards
03-27-2003, 7:56 PM
Thanks for the input. Beautfil tools you have made.
Spoke with Ben today. A very pleasent, patient man. Hopefully soon I to will be a Shepard owner.

Paul Barnard
04-15-2003, 6:28 PM
Hey Jim, is your plane still looking that pretty? Mine are getting a little 'used' in their apearance. I actually made a little time for the shop this week and almost have the panel plane finished. The infills are in and I am working on flattening the sole and sides. It's taking a lot longer than the smoother did! This is my 5th plane now from Shepherd. Hand lapping is brgining to get boring. Marks machinery just down the road from me have a 48" King belt sander for $200. It's almost cheap enough to tempt me out of my handtools only existance.

I've ordered a shoulder plane kit. I'm hoping it will be here for my birthday. Did you get to see one of them yet?

Doug Evans
04-22-2003, 8:48 AM
Shortly (a couple of weeks), there will be some small planes to allow folks to test the waters with building infill planes. They will include a wedged chariot, an infill bullnose, and a thumbplane.

Here is a picture of the new mitre plane under construction.

Cheers,

Doug Evans, of The Shepherd Tool Co. Inc. (completely immersed, associated, and affiliated)

Ben Knebel
04-22-2003, 10:05 AM
Sounds like you're not taking care of your planes---they should always be pretty--oh the shame of it---I am bereft.:)

Let us know how the panel performs when you're done.
Regards
Ben

Paul Barnard
04-22-2003, 6:52 PM
Ben,

When I say my planes are getting a little worse for wear you need to remember where they started from. A 1500 grit mirror finish does show the marks a little :D

The panel is together but I'm not sure when I'm going to get the time to 'finish' and tune it. I am seriously tempted to buy a belt sander as hand lapping the panel plane is quite frankly not a lot of fun. At least the shoulder should be easier.

Ben Knebel
04-22-2003, 7:08 PM
You're right Paul--I did the first five panels by hand and lapping on a plate etc and it's a major pain--go on get the belt sander--get rid of the motor and put a treadle on it--then all your work is still neander in character.

Regards
Ben

Paul Barnard
04-22-2003, 7:44 PM
I've not posted any picture here before so here are some of the planes I have made

This is the first one I made. This dates from very early days for Shepherd. This was before machined infills, this one is hand cut from the solid. As I have no machine tools in my shop at all this was quite a challenge. You will see that the rear infill didn't quite fit perfectly. A screw up on the sizes listed for the infil material resulted in me trashing the cocobolo that I had bought. Consequently this one uses a chunk of mapel that I had in my shop which even then had to be laminated to get the right size. This is my 'go to' smoother as it performs incredibly.

Paul Barnard
04-22-2003, 7:49 PM
This is a 47 1/2 degree that I built up for Doug. It looks pretty good despite being built up from 'reject' parts. The coco had a knot hole in the rear infil which you can still make out in the picture. I didn't have much time to play with this one or tune it beyond the initial get it working state.

Paul Barnard
04-22-2003, 7:50 PM
I had a decimal point issue and the files were too big. I'll resize them and post a little later. Sorry

Paul Barnard
04-22-2003, 8:01 PM
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Paul Barnard
04-22-2003, 8:01 PM
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Doug Evans
05-04-2003, 9:30 PM
Ben had an opportunity this afternoon to finish the improved mitre. Tomorrow, we play!

Doug

John Edwards
05-05-2003, 7:05 AM
Beautifil work guys. Looks like the finished product was well worth the effort.
How does it perform ?

Doug Evans
05-06-2003, 8:35 PM
We realized after it was built that the iron is not hardened yet (over the weekend). We will flip a smoother iron sometime this week and put up another photo.

This is actually the second mitre we built. We rushed through a proto back in the fall but it had a throat you could drive a truck through.

Give us the weekend - we should have some results. I am out consulting this week.

Had a great day today though - ran some Remmington gunstocks through a moulding process with good results.

Regards,

Doug

Doug Evans
05-18-2003, 12:22 AM
A few weeks back, I was feeling a bit creative and so I stayed up and came up with three new planes. This chariot os the first of the three. I think as a kit it will be low-cost and a sub-3-hour job.

Good for someone trying to get their feet wet in dovetailed infill planes.

Cheers,

Doug

Doug Evans
05-18-2003, 10:17 PM
Here are some of the new shoulders, the 3/4" size and the 1 1/4" size ... the venerable old 1 1/2" size in in the rear.

Doug

Paul Barnard
05-19-2003, 9:14 AM
Your producing new planes quicker than I can afford then! They look great, I never could resist a 'set'. Do you offer marriage guidance as an option with the kits?

Ben Knebel
05-19-2003, 10:22 AM
Hi Paul;
You just have to make your spouse understand that buying and building planes contributes to your mental and physical well being and thus your happiness becomes her happiness.
As her happiness is paramount and your only " raison de etre"
you simply must buy more and more planes.
In fact your happiness is exponential to the the number of planes you have so her fastest route to personal Nirvana is through your continued purchases of planes.
Did you see the little bullnose shell at the bottom of the picture.
To our knowledge it will be the first fully infilled dovetailed steel bullnose the world has ever seen.
Regards
Ben ( whose personal happiness comes form providing a route to Nirvana for the spouses of woodworkes the world over)

Paul Barnard
05-19-2003, 7:43 PM
I had looked at it quick and assumed it was a shell for a chariot. How many plane types does that make now?

P.S. You haven't met Julia yet. She refuses to understand the differencxe between a screwdriver that is used to open paint cans and a smooth plane. Each counts as a 'one' on the too many tools roster.

Ben Knebel
05-19-2003, 10:23 PM
Well Paul;
Let's see now. By type we have a shoulders, smoothers, jointers , panels, mitre's and the wee bullnose--so 6 types.
If we go by variations, 14 with a couple of more sizes of bullnose planned--a mini -mitre , miniatures of the whole plane line---oh heck--just call it a whole bunch. Come to think of it our product line is getting pretty broad--4 types of drawknives--a set of bench chisels--a set of carving chisels--some awls and scribes.
Working on tenon and dovetail saws for the fall oh and almost forgot about the thumbplane and the rod-makers plane and maybe some cabinetmakers screwdrivers and a bow saw.
Regards
Ben
P.S.--You clearly haven't trained your spouse properly--teach her the Mantra--Hand Tools are the road to Nirvana--Hand Tools are the Road to Nirvana--Must let Paul buy more, more , more

Doug Evans
05-26-2003, 2:01 PM
Hi Paul:

Here is a leetle something Ben did to entice you...

Doug

Doug Evans
05-26-2003, 2:08 PM
You could say to Julia that with one small contribution you could be the guy to end the grain war in torn out Cocobolo. It is your duty to humankind, not withstanding all of the innocent Cocobolians!

Regards,

Doug

Paul Barnard
05-26-2003, 6:51 PM
Can't wait to build mine.

Looks like those irons are sharp, did they give as good tearout results on Ben's finger as they did on the Coco?

Doug Evans
05-27-2003, 12:28 AM
The actual finger injury was sustained in a chisel altercation. I recall having said that I considered my Marples Pattern-makers bevels as Samurai swords however, we did not spend the afternoon "bevel fencing" about the shop. No... this was done when Ben was alone, and left to his own devices in a room full of dangerous chisels and other pointy things.

In order to keep Ben from hurting himself again, we have purchased RH and LH Rawlings Trappers and duct-taped them to Ben's hands. Ben is only allowed in the shop on weekends now and only when Rajiv and I are in attendance.

In all seriousness folks Ben did himself pretty badly with an extremely sharp chisel doing a classic "dont do that" pry operation on a brass nail. Alone, he took out both the vein and the tenon in his left hand forefinger. I got a call on my cellphone from Ben as he was driving himself to the hospital to go in and cleanm the blood off the plains he was finishing or it would become permanent ( a craftsman to the core he is). He underwent microsurgery last week (his tenon had retracted down to his wrist) and will be out for six weeks. He let his actions be known last week on one of the forum's to remind others not to let their gaurd down.

Regards

Doug