Yet another wooden plane materials question

[Bryan Ericson]

I want to make a few wooden planes sometime in the next few months, so I'm looking into buying wood now so it can rest in my basement until I'm ready for it. I haven't decided on the method I'll use yet. I have a pretty good local woodworking store, but even so I'm having trouble finding wood of the right size and grain orientation. The many very nice woodies with laminated soles on this forum got me to wondering: what about using softwood for the body and a hardwood for the sole? That is, what potential problems would I run into if I made the body from, say, a douglas fir or yellow pine 4x4 from a home improvement store and then laminated some purpleheart or something to the sole?

That softwoods are generally more stable than hardwoods might be an advantage, but I wonder about the abutments or cross-pin holes - would the wedge/blade-holding structures deform too easily in a softwood? What about the ramp - would a soft wood cause the blade to compress the wood and thus cause the blade to seat unevenly? Doug fir and SYP are not all that much softer than cherry, which people seem to use with success. Are there any other factors I might not be considering?

Thanks!

[Ryan Baker]

One school of thought is that laminations are bad because the glue joints block movement of moisture throughout the blank and can lead to uneven movement. In practice, many people have made many planes from laminated blanks and get by just fine. A single, hard sole lamination onto a softer blank is common. (Though different woods in the lamination brings up the question of different expansion rates.)

I wouldn't use doug fir for a plane. I haven't done it, but I doubt it will hold up well. (It would work better in a bench plane with a wide blade/wedge than in a plane with a narrow tang/wedge.) SYP is probably hard enough, but I'm not a fan of that either. Poplar should work. Birch works well if you can get it. Cherry or maple are even better.

What kind of planes are you talking about? Bench planes? Side-escapement planes? Other? Depending on the size of blanks you need, there are different options for blanks and construction methods. Make sure your blanks are dry throughout. It takes a long time to dry a 4" block. I would take a dry, laminated blank any day over a single piece that is still partially green.

[Bryan Ericson]

I'm going to start with bench planes - probably a smoother and a jointer, though I think it would be cool to eventually make a dado plane with nickers and depth stop and the works. The local Lowes sells kiln-dried doug fir 4x4s, some of which are very straight-grained and knot-free (I guess nobody in the area has made a doug fir workbench lately). I think they're pretty dry, though I would need a moisture meter to confirm it. I think I might be able to find some SYP 4x4s at another store, but I haven't looked closely yet. I'm still in the early planning stages for this project - I have some home renovations to finish up before I can start on the important stuff. :D

I've read the arguments about the lamination layers forming a moisture barrier, but as far as I can tell, the main propagators of that argument seem to be makers of traditional planes. Besides, Krenov considered the plane body to be nothing more than a holder for the blade that could be easily replaced, and the Japanese regard their dai the same way, so there seem to be arguments in the other direction as well. I haven't read any complaints about laminated planes moving too much. That said, at the moment I think I may go the Krenov route to start with, because a solid-body plane would test the outer limits of my chiseling ability, and I also don't own the specialty floats.

I have some doug fir 2x offcuts lying around from the renovation - I may slap together a quick Krenov-style plane without any special treatment for the sole in the next week or so and just beat on it to see how it handles abuse. If nothing else, I might learn what not to do when I use good lumber for something more permanent.

[Jack Curtis]

...Besides, Krenov considered the plane body to be nothing more than a holder for the blade that could be easily replaced, and the Japanese regard their dai the same way, so there seem to be arguments in the other direction as well....

It's true that Japanese dai can easily be replaced if you know what you're doing; but there's nothing casual about their manufacture, nor is there any glue incorporated.

[Terry Beadle]

I built a cherry bodied jack plane with a 3/8ths thick lignum v sole. Works great and has for several years. Cherry is easy to shape. The lignum v required machining and very careful chisel paring.

Over all, I'm quite pleased and use this plane frequently as it's shaped to my grasp.

Given a choice of materials, I would make rock maple bodies with lignum v soles. The rock maple is very stable, at least the maple I've been using. I don't have a good source for beech or burch or apple etc. So chosing cherry was one of convieance. The rock maple is in short supply in my shop but next time I build, I'll use it over cherry.

Enjoy the process.

[Frank Drew]

I built a cherry bodied jack plane with a 3/8ths thick lignum v sole.

I have an older Ulmia smoother with a cherry body and lignum vitae sole; sweet plane.

What were all the older American and European wood planes made of? In more modern woodies, I've only seen hardwood used for the plane bodies -- oak, birch or beech, fruitwoods, etc.

[Sean Richards]

19th century European and English wood planes were usually made from diffuse-porous hardwoods. In England most of the standard quality planes produced by manufacturers like Moseley, Mathieson, etc were beech. The Europeans used beech and also birch and fruitwoods.

[Ryan Baker]

Bryan -- go ahead and do it. As you said, the worst that can happen is that you will learn something to NOT do next time. If it warps, you can easily fix it or replace it with something else. Try, learn, play, and get some use out of it. You can always make more out of other woods later. You can make a Krenov design out of just about anything.

I have worked with those Doug Fir 4X4s, of which you speak. They were really splintery and brash. Not very nice to work with. You can get a decent, flat surface out of it with some care. Just be careful with drilling/heavy chiseling, because it can tend to split (no screw-feed augers).

[Bryan Ericson]

I have worked with those Doug Fir 4X4s, of which you speak. They were really splintery and brash. Not very nice to work with. You can get a decent, flat surface out of it with some care. Just be careful with drilling/heavy chiseling, because it can tend to split (no screw-feed augers).

That's useful informaiton. Thanks!

[David Weaver]

I am sure you can make a plane that will work from anything. Make a test one if you'd like, out of home center wood. See what it does.

But when you want to make a plane that will perform well and that will last a long time, you'll need to go up the ladder and either use hard maple or a fruitwood. You can laminate a sole on a plane, but if you start with a good plane wood you won't have to do that. Fast wear on maple or beech only comes from abuse, upkeep is simple and tuning involves very little (never something like repairing a delaminating sole).

You definitely *will* have difficulty finding good wood for a plane. If you find yourself at a lumber store at some point and see hard maple or beech (very unlikely for beech, but not so unlikely for hard maple) in a dried 4" table leg blank, though it's not cheap, it may be worth it to pony up. Take a look along the length and select one where the grain is the same distance from a corner at both ends of the wood. If you get a blank that looks quartered or rift on both ends, but shows a lot of end grain terminating on the face it still may twist with changes in the weather.

Mike digity still sells and ships QS beech for moulding planes and smaller stuff (and fairly cheap, esp. compared to places like hearne where you might find QS wood), it's a booger to dry it in thick pieces, though, so 16/4 will be hard to come by. I just got a call from him the other day, so I know he's got stuff.

If anyone thinks they might want to make moulding planes at some point, calling mike and getting 15 bf or so isn't a bad idea, when he stops cutting it, I don't know who will supply it and ship it for $7 + shipping a board foot or whatever he charges.