Shop-made 7/8 rebate plane

[Matt Evans]

Thought I would try my hand at doing a rebate plane that was not laminated. It is no Clark and Williams, but should serve me pretty well.

The Beech I had was spalted, but still solid, though time will tell if this makes much of a difference.

Chopping the Mortise for the mouth was a challenge, though not as bad as I had thought it might be. I can see that some floats are going to need to be made soon though.

The part that gave me fits was the chip escapement. Getting inside there I could have used a good set of rifflers! I nicked the mouth a few times, so I ended up with a wider mouth opening than I had planned on, but it still takes a fine shaving.

I put one coat of Tung oil on it, and am thinking about three coats of BLO followed by a paste wax.

It works better than the laminated small shoulder plane I made, so that may become a toolbox tool again.

Any thoughts on what to do differently next time? Eventually I should have a full set made, 1/4" up to 1" or so, so I will be on the hunt for ideas.

[Trevor Walsh]

Hey Matt,
I'm liking it, The Village Carpenter blog has some moulding planes in spalted beech and they look really nice. I also have some bookmatched spalted beech I'm saving for a little case project. Anyways, I think you'll find the floats to be an amazing tool. I haven't cut a wedge mortise without one, but I can tell you it's fairly easy with them. I still need to make a side float. And I want to make a set that is 5/16ths wide.

[Jim Koepke]

Looks nice.


Any thoughts on what to do differently next time?

Have you thought about making a pair with skewed blades in opposite angles?

Then they could be use for panel raising.

jtk

[Matt Evans]

Thanks.

Jim,

I have thought about a pair of skews. I definitely want to make a few more planes before attempting the skew angle though. I could likely pull the skews off pretty easily with a laminated body though, so that is a thought.

Looking at my meager supply of Beech, I have on more block that is about the right size for a coffin smoother, so I may do that first, and hunt around for some more Beech to continue the set.

Trevor,

Did you make the float yourself, or buy it? I can only think of one source for floats at the moment, and they are a bit out of my price range.

[David Weaver]

If you have a good working plane, there are no real suggestions to make there. A good working plane is a good working plane.

Style wise, I'd terminate the chamfer higher up the front of the plane, about halfway, move the mouth back to about 3 1/2 inches or so from the front for more bearing surface and copy someone else's wedge design and finial for style.

But again, if you have a good working plane, and you don't care about that stuff, it doesn't make any difference in the world to what you build.

before I would embark on making any skew angle planes, I would make a skew edge float to make the work around the wedge neat. I've had teh same thoughts, but I've been less original with moulding planes, pretty much following Larry Williams' video verbatim, and while I've made edge floats (which are the easiest to make instead of buying and save a few bucks), I haven't made any skew edge floats.

I think Larry's advice about skews is appropriate on his page - the situations where they are better overall than a straight bladed plane aren't many. Low angle planes also do extremely well across the grain, and maybe it's worth building a plane with a lower bed angle, except square, rather than trying to build a couple of big skews, and then getting stuck sharpening skews all the time, which isn't as convenient as a square iron.

[george wilson]

I am glad to see that someone else is putting up pictures!!!! It gets awful dull around here with some of the threads that seem to go on forever.

Keep posting those pictures1!:)

[Trevor Walsh]

Will do George, I always like seeing the pictures in your posts.

Matt, Yes I made the float. it's from a piece of 1/8" thick 1095 plate I have from another project and as plane iron stock, I'm not sure what you used for the iron (made or bought). I'll take some more detailed photos and post them when I get home from work. It's really simple. Certainly something most planemakers would want to make themselves, I think it's a good intro to metalwork, before tackling the irons.

I favor 1095 or W1, they work easier in my experience and are less temperamental to forging temperature than I've found O1 to be. I sometimes forge with the stuff, and like to have one kind of tool metal around, keeps heat treating schedules easy. You can get a 3/8"x1/8" by 36 inch bar of W1 from McMaster.com for $8 or try flat-stock.com.

[Trevor Walsh]

So as promised earlier today, I've got some photos of the edge float I made for mortise wedges in a set of H&Rs I'm making...

The steel used is 1/8th inch thick 1095, a simple high carbon steel. It's still in the unhardened state, I want to see how it wears before investing the (albeit small) amount of time to harden and temper it.

The first picture is overall dimensions, the blade is 6" long and tapers slightly from a little under 1/2", the last 2 1/4" tapers more steeply to fit into the hole drilled for the wedge mortise. This one is filed for cutting on the push stroke. they can cut on push or pull, be at right angles, or oblique in the case of skewed blades.

In the second photo, you get to see the teeth, filed at about 7-9 TPI. I say 7-9 because they are roughly filed and the pitch varies by a bit. This is actually a good thing, it reduces the vibrations that can be caused be an even tooth pitch. The shape of the teeth themselves is very much like that of a rip saw. 0 degree rake, 0 fleam, and cut with a saw file. Ink the cutting surface first and nick with the file to set your spacing.