Companion to the Winter Smoother, A Winter Panel of course

[Ron Brese]

Winter Panel Plane, 11.125 sole length, 2.25" wide iron pitched at 50 degrees. Macassar Ebony with oiled patina on the brass bits.

Thanks for looking,

Ron
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[george wilson]

Nice lines,Ron.

[Nicholas Lingg]

NICE! I was wondering how a Knob would look compared to a Bun

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Love the oiled patina on the brass - I'll have to look into that.

[Gary Herrmann]

Now that's sexy.

[george wilson]

Ron,you seem to be going in the direction of nearly eliminating the infill. Is that just style,or do you have another reason? Is the body dovetailed or all 1 piece? Steel or cast iron?

Your handle is similar to the smooth plane I posted recently. You draw nice curves.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Simple, elegant, but with a strong graceful statement. probably one of the nicest planes I've seen and maybe the only that makes me wonder the price.....

on a side note, can it really be considered an infill? or just infill construction ?

[Chris Griggs]

That is REALLY cool!

[Tony Shea]

Ron,you seem to be going in the direction of nearly eliminating the infill. Is that just style,or do you have another reason? Is the body dovetailed or all 1 piece? Steel or cast iron?

Your handle is similar to the smooth plane I posted recently. You draw nice curves.

It does seem as though it is put together using pins (or screws, don't remember what method he uses). I can faintly see traces of the pins showing through on the side of the plain.

I do really like the curves of the sides and especially the curves of the handle. Looks extremely comfortable and a bit more friendly to use than a typical panel plane.

[george wilson]

Now that you mention it,Tony,I see them. This morning I was bleary eyed,and in a hurry to take another cat to the vet. My 14+ year old cat. I thought she was acting senile,but she is sick with some infection,they found after bloodwork. Just dropped nearly $500.00 on another cat,and I'll bet this one will match it too! Got to take care of them,though.

[Ron Brese]

Thanks for all the nice compliments about this tool. I've been trying to figure out how to answer all the questions about the configuration of this plane. So here goes.

When it comes to bedding a plane iron, wood is a variable and metal is much less variable to a point that one could say there is no variability as compared. This is not to say that an infill cannot be made to be very reliable. The trick is to keep the amount of wood that can cause variability to a minimum. The distance from the wooden bedding surface to the closest cross pin that secures the infill into the plane is the area where the bedding could be affected by wood movement. Well seasoned material and careful selection of the wood could well result in a very reliable plane especially if the location of the tool did not change drastically in environmental conditions.

When comparing an infill plane to a very precision made metal bodied plane like the Winter Panel plane you will get very different feedback thru the tool. If the iron in both tools is bedded solidly, the pitch is the same, the mouth size is the same and the sharpness of the iron is equal, both planes will yield a similar result but the feel in use will be quite different.

The Winter Panel plane is an attempt to create a plane to a very high accuracy standard that possesses the nice ergonomics benefits of the hand shaped closed rear tote of an infill plane, the flowing body lines recognizable of a quality infill plane, yet eliminate the variable of the wood bedding. It really makes no sense to create plane body parts to an extreme level of accuracy, which in turn comes together in a very accurate assemblage of these parts and then leave the variability of a wooden bedding surface as a component of that particular design.

Don’t misunderstand, infill planes are great and I use then everyday in my shop, however if the goal is to create a plane of ultimate accuracy then the wooden component in regards to bedding has to be replaced.

As the infill unifies the mass of a plane much better than a frog that is bolted to the sole, the bedding plate in this metal bodied plane is integral of the plane sides which, as the infill, also unifies the mass of the plane which makes for a very accurate and rigid plane body. Furthermore the assembly of the plane body is accomplished thru the use of threaded pins interspaced with taper pins. This method requires very little peening which does not introduce stress into the components of the plane body. At initial assembly one could not detect any rocking of the sole of this plane when placed on a tool room surface plate and tested. At final tuning only 2 ½ thousandths had to be surface ground from the sole to effect a consistent grind and a very flat sole condition with the final two passes removing 3/10s and 2/10s of one thousandth respectively to achieve this result.

The result is an assembly of uncommon accuracy for a tool of this type. The ultimate goal being a plane in which the only thing that moves is the tool down the board and the shaving thru the mouth. Combine all these components with a very sharp plane iron and one can achieve this result.

I apologize if this has become a treatise on the theory of plane making but it’s the only way I know of explaining what I’m attempting to create in the design of this plane.

Ron

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[Sean Richards]

Hi Ron,

I really like these two planes - the winter smoother and panel. Probably some of the nicest looking planes being made today in my opinion - great curves, and all the design elements just fit together really well.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Ron - care to share any info on your patina-tion process? I understand if it's your own "secret sauce" you want to keep to yourself, but I like what you've done more than a lot of the looks I've seen, and my searches must be using the wrong terms, as I'm not finding much good info online; any info would be greatly appreciated.

[Ron Brese]

No problem Josh.

The surface of the brass is refined to 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and then rubbed to a satin sheen with gray Scotchbrite. I then clean it thoroughly with alcohol. I liberally apply a cold bluing solution until the brass is consistently colored and darker than the final color I'm looking to achieve. I work the surface with a gray Scotchbrite pad until I obtain the antique look. I then apply a coat of True Oil to the brass and place the pieces in my finishing kiln to cure the finish and I apply an additional coat of the True Oil the following day once again placing it in my finishing kiln to cure for 24 hours minimum.

Ron