Krenovian Grooving Plane (FWW May/June 2011)

[Jon Toebbe]

In the latest Lie-Nielsen newsletter, I found a link to a very interesting Fine Woodworking article (http://www.lie-nielsen.com/pdf/FWWGroovingPlanes.pdf). A Krenov-style joinery plane! I seem to recall that Rob Cosman markets a wooden plow plane that has a non-adjustable fence specifically for drawer bottoms. It seemed like a clever idea, but a bit spendy for such a specialized tool. The Fine Woodworking plan looks simple enough that even I might be able to make a working groover.

Has anyone built one of these yet? Used a "fixed width" plow? This might be one tool-making project that makes it into my queue.

[Jim Koepke]

After receiving my copy of the newsletter, the article was downloaded. That may be my first plane building project when another one of them round tuits comes my way.

This is one of those newsletters that anyone waiting for a show in their area should sign up to receive. It has a lot of the planned future shows listed including two in Canada.

jtk

[Jim Belair]

Might be able to use a Narex mortise chisel for a blade? Grind and snap off the handle/tang and you've got a hardened blade for $12. Or would the very slight taper present a bedding problem?

[Jon Toebbe]

You know, I was just having the same thought as I scrolled past the thread on the 1/8in Narex... add that to the list of uses for a 1/8in mortise chisel! :)

[Paul Saffold]

I was thinking the same about the Narex 1/8" mortice (now at LV for $10), but at McMaster Carr a 1/8" x 1/8" x 18" O1 is only $17 + t & s. http://www.mcmaster.com/#steel/=c0jwxo
Of course it will need to be beveled, hardened and tempered, but that sounds like another fun thing to try.
There certainly has been enough good info about that here on the Creek.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

The narex chisels I have, besides being bevelled slightly along the sides (a trapezoidal shape in cross section, like a pigsticker) are bevelled so they get thicker as they go towards the handle, away from the cutting edge; backwards from what a usual molding plane blade is. I don't have a lot of experience with making wooden planes, but wouldn't that make blade adjustment and holding difficult, having the wedging action backwards? I suppose you could grind a new bevel on the other end if the blade is properly heat treated throughout?

[Jim Belair]

Joshua, you're right, they are tapered in two directions. The taper along the length is very gradual so I think as long as the wedge taper was greater, the force of planing would still tighten up the whole assembly. It would take a bit different dance with the adjustment hammer perhaps. To grind and harden a bevel at the handle end is too much work, you might as well start from barstock. If going that route, I'd use something much thicker than 1/8" to keep it as stiff as possible. And 1/8 seems pretty light for a drawer bottom unless its a very small drawer.

[Don Dorn]

What would be the advantage over using a plough such as a 044? They are very quick and easy to adjust. Just not sure I'm getting the concept of value of the tool. Perhaps I'm missing something.

[Mark Baldwin III]

What would be the advantage over using a plough such as a 044? They are very quick and easy to adjust. Just not sure I'm getting the concept of value of the tool. Perhaps I'm missing something.

I s'pose it's a good one if you don't have a plow, or you want a dedicated plane. I have a LV plow, so no real need for such a plane...but it is giving me an idea for making match plane set.

[Derek Cohen]

A couple of observations.

I am curious about the 1/8" wide blade. I tend to make my grooves 1/4" wide. The base boards tend to be tapered to fit. A 1/8" end taper seems a bit fragile to me.

Secondly, if you are going to make a laminated plane which uses a wedge, it seems to be backwards to cut the wedge to fit the throat. Rather, cut the wedge first, add it to the blade, then mark the outer dimension of the throat and cut it - perfect fit without trial-and-error fitting.

Lastly, if I was to design a plane specifically for planing drawer grooves, then I would make it lower. A tall plane that is also thin is going to ge ungainly (unless the fence is deep and can be held against the side). Now if you lower the height of the plane, then you can use a shorter blade as well. I would design this blade to be 1/8" wide over the lower third and 1/2" wide for the upper two thirds. This would add more stability.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Alan Schwabacher]

These are special purpose planes without adjustable fences that Kenney designed only for cutting grooves for very small drawers, so the setup time is zero. You can make them whatever size you want, but if you already have a plow, and cut various sizes of grooves at various distances from the edge, that is probably a better solution for you.

Lie-Nielsen carries blades for these, and has a link on their site to a pdf of the article. FWW has a video as well.

[David Keller NC]

One of the reasons you might want a drawer-grooving plane is that, as several have mentioned, they're less fussy to set up than a plow plane. That goes for both the fence setting, since drawer grrove planes have a fixed fence and thus the groove is the same distance from the edge every time, but also the depth, which is fixed. A drawer groove plane is typically considerably smaller than a typical molding plane - they're often about 6" long. Finally, when compared to a wooden plow which were their contemporaries, they were far cheaper and did not require a bench with a tail vise, since the fence on a drawer groove plane is short enough so that the drawer side can be held flat on the bench rather than hanging off of the side.

[Robert Dean]

Greetings all, this is my first post, and I thought I would introduce myself with a couple of images of the set of grooving planes I made soon after Matt Kenney posted about them on the FWW site last year. I decided to make mine to cut 1/4 X 1/4 grooves 1/4 inch from the drawer bottom. So I just scaled up Kenney's examples, and used the LN molding plane iron blanks. Hardening the irons was pretty simple too, as soon as I figured out that I needed two MAPP torches to get the blanks hot enough before quenching. I also added cocobolo strike buttons, just for fun. Everything is quick to go together, and they work like a charm--it is much faster to cut grooves in a few sets of of drawer sides with these tools than to set up a router to do the same job. It is also quieter, and much less dusty. All in all time well spent--although I have a record plough plane, this set is always sitting on the shelf ready to go with no adjustment of fences, depth of cut, etc. I encourage anyone tempted to go ahead and build a pair.
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