Excellent Book

[Jules Martin]

By a happy accident I found a great toolmaking book in a local university library. It's How to Make Carpentry Tools an Illustrated Manual, by Aaron Moore, ISBN 1-85339-173-5. It has a variety of step-by-step plans for building a variety of tools like marking gauges, bow saws, planes, clamps, and so on. It's written to help third-world craftspeople who can't afford what many of us can. The clear instructions are in metric.

I made a mirror pair of rebate planes from the book. I used a chunk of ash I had lying around and bought a cheap chisel for the blade. The instructions were easy to follow and the planes work very well. I've made a few Krenov-style planes already, so I did know what I was shooting for. They were made with hand tools except for thicknessing. The hardest part was making the wedges. I could have made the planes in a day, if I had a whole one.

They're no Clark and Williams, and no LV Skews, but they only cost me 12 dollars for the chisel and 5 or so for the ash. I'm very pleased with the planes, and hope to use the book to make a plough plane next.

[Jim Koepke]

Sounds like a neat book. Have to keep an eye out for it.

jim

[David Gendron]

Thank you for the info, I will try to put my hands on a copy!

[Larry Frank]

Those are very neat planes. Could you post a couple of more pictures and some dimensions? I would like to try to make them.

The book is available on Amazon and probably other places.

[george wilson]

Nothing new here. Some Elizabethan planes were open sided like that. In WWII,the Japanese military carpenter's kit doubled use of a wide chisel as a plane iron to save weight,and probably material

[Jules Martin]

Well sure there's nothing new about the planes. For me the most important part was finding clear instructions, and an approach that celebrated a certain minimalism of materials and methods.

The planes are about 10" long, 2" thick, and, say, 3" high. I could try to put more pictures up but I don't think they'll help much, as the layout of the throat and wedge was the most helpful part of the instructions.

[Rob Young]

The book is listed as available through Amazon.com and Abebooks.com.

Get 'em while they are hot!

[Josh Bowman]

The book is listed as available through Amazon.com and Abebooks.com.

Get 'em while they are hot!
Thanks, I went to Amazon and got one used for 17 bucks, tax, tip and shipping! Looks like fun, I like making tools more than making stuff. Somethings not right about that......my wife says.