The Ugliest Plane I Have Ever Made

[David Weaver]

In the middle of a few things, not the least of which is buying and selling things I don't need, dodging the daytime sleep schedules of two very young kids (and a wife who enforces those like a sheriff running for re-election).

One of the things I'm doing is going to require drawers. I have a plow plane, like everone else. Actually three. And match planes that would cut a drawer groove, but I couldn't resist trying to make a plane as fast as I could possibly make it in the design of the bouvet plow that Warren discussed. Open sided, I could've spent twice the time and made a neat and tidy plane out of nice wood, but that wasn't the point.

Scrap cherry, scrap beech (that was about the right thickness for a wedge) and no power tools in any of the process. An hour and a half, including making the iron.

Total cost? I guess, probably about two dollars.

And it works fabulously - better than any metal skated plow I've used, cleaner grooves and faster. About 15 seconds of time for each drawer length groove.

Thanks for the idea, Warren! I'll be making two more of them now.

[Sean Hughto]

Very cool! Id love to see a step by step photo log. If you're making two more .... :-)

[David Weaver]

Will do. You can see the broken out skate and the blow out in front of the wedge, and the bench chisel cut solution for feeding above the iron. I put off making drawer bottom planes because I didn't want to spend 20 hours making three of them. I also didn't know how well an open sided plane would hold the iron, but it holds it extremely tightly - you can't tap it out by hammering it laterally.

[Judson Green]

That's pretty cool David! Could I burden you for a few more photos of the plane?

[Ron D Davis]

Looks very good to me and looks like it works fine, price is right also. I would enjoy a photo log of the next one also.

[David Weaver]

Yeah, what do you want to see? It's not so much about this plane, it's more about the principle of some of the types of planes that you can make like this almost for free and without spending much time or being burdened with being overly neat.

The other two planes in the picture are just normal in-process hollows and rounds. They are made almost exactly the way larry williams says to, and they take me about 10 hours a pair (I don't use power tools on them, either, except for a cordless drill to get the mortise started), not even to prepare the rough beech or thickness it.

After making the type larry advocates (which work fabulously, better than you can imagine, and look good when you're done, too), I'd have had all kinds of questions about the open sided type that warren vouched for, like:
* how well is the iron held
* is there a chance that the wedge could literally just drive off the front or back of the plane and break it out?
* what if I do it fast, and don't do a great job of it (the other planes will have the iron properly bedded and the profiles very carefully made), will it chatter or just be a poor fit?
* what if I don't taper the iron?

I just noticed I didn't even get the direction right - the grain is running uphill from front to back on the plane. Ideally, it would go the other way.

All of those turned out to be not worth worrying about. It works great despite the intentionally quick work. The abutment is just saw cut with a backsaw and the other stuff is just plow planed and chiseled. The wedge was just cut out of quarter inch thick stock and sawn and planed (via holding the plane in one hand and running the wedge across it with the other - never checking anything for square or doing anything other than eyeballing.

I did measure the iron when I made it. It turned out 5 thousandths narrow, I can live with that.

There are probably some things that some folks won't have on hand, like O1 stock, a good hack saw blade that can actually cut it well, a metal scribe, etc.

Come to think of it, an enterprising individual could just take a cheap long 1/4" firmer chisel and use that for an iron if wanting to avoid making the iron, but having the few basic things needed to cut, file, harden and temper an iron are worth having around just in case you ever need to make anything.

[george wilson]

Your plane looks very much like one of those found in the Mary Rose excavation.

[David Weaver]

Your plane looks very much like one of those found in the Mary Rose excavation.

those had to rot a couple of hundred years to look as bad!

[Judson Green]

Guess I'm wanting to confirm what I think is the profile. Something like this?

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Please pardon the sketchy sketch.

[Steve Voigt]

Looks good to me. The groove is pretty; that's the most important thing.

[David Weaver]

Yes, that's the profile. There is nothing on the outside of the runner to act as a depth stop because its not needed.

[John Coloccia]

You need to try harder. I've made far uglier tools than that. Don't fret. You'll get there.

edit:
What's the wood? Looks like some lightly quilted cherry, maybe?

[Kees Heiden]

Good job! Worthy of replicating. Oh wait, I allready have several drawer grooving planes...

[Chris Griggs]

Super Neat!!!! I love it!

When Warren mentioned that I found myself thinking I'd like to make one too. Glad you did. Seems like it would do the job of a plow 90% of the time, with better result since the fibers are supported in front of the full width of the cutting edge.

What is this one? 1/4" blade, 1/4" from edge,1/8" deep? What will the other two be and for what/why?

I take it those two other planes are the pair of 8s you've been working on? Coming along nicely too. Looks like they are nearing completion

[David Weaver]

You need to try harder. I've made far uglier tools than that. Don't fret. You'll get there.

edit:
What's the wood? Looks like some lightly quilted cherry, maybe?

It's an offcut of cherry that's pretty close to quartered. I didn't want to waste a nice quartered beech blank.

[george wilson]

I saw an exhibition of Henry VIII's ship,the Mary Rose years ago in Portsmouth,Va. The tools were still just like new except any iron parts were long gone. The contents of the hull were buried in silt for those hundreds of years and no rotting had taken place due to lack of oxygen. The beechwood was still pink.

The molding planes had open sided wedges,and IIRC,the wedges themselves were just like yours. The jack planes had handles flush with the side of the body,inlet with just 1 big dovetail.

Toolmaking in England seemed to be in a very primitive era in England back then. I don't think tool making there got going in quality until close to the 18th. C..

England was a far Eastern outpost of European civilization. Everything seemed to get there last. They were the last to make harpsichords,which started in Italy in the 1500's. Henry VIII had to import armor makers from Flanders,and set them up in Greenwich. He did this after Maximilian of Austria sent him a very fancy suit of armor just to rub Henry's nose in the fact that Austria was far ahead of England. This was at the end of the age of wearing suits of armor anyway. Guns were making armor obsolete. The making of GOOD guns was finally brought into England by French Huguenots fleeing from France. Guns made before them in England worked,but were primitive looking compared to continental guns.

The English were fierce fighters and excellent sailers. They built their ships heavier and loaded them with cannon. They drilled the men constantly to learn to shoot faster. Their long bows accounted for a lot of advantage in battle. Men were required to spend many years learning archery from boyhood. Those bows drew about 130#,and it took years of building strength to learn to draw them ,develop the muscles and shoot accurately. That's how they held their own.

[Wayne Morley]

Looks like a nice easy to build plane, and the results speak for them selves. My question is: how are the shavings cleared from the groove? The design doesn't seem to leave any place for them to go. :confused:

[Richard Line]

Yes, the world (or at least me) want to know how the shaving exit.

[David Weaver]

There is a hastily chopped out area right in front of the iron below the wedge. Instead of being cut evenly and nice like a rabbet plane, it's cut in a cone shape and I opened the mouth a little to make it feed. The wedge is cut to face out. It does pretty well not clogging at this point - I'd like the mouth to be tighter, but that's getting picky for something I'd expect to make in an hour.

I guess my point is, you do just enough to get it to feed well and that's it.

[Wayne Morley]

There is a hastily chopped out area right in front of the iron below the wedge. Instead of being cut evenly and nice like a rabbet plane, it's cut in a cone shape and I opened the mouth a little to make it feed. The wedge is cut to face out. It does pretty well not clogging at this point - I'd like the mouth to be tighter, but that's getting picky for something I'd expect to make in an hour.

I guess my point is, you do just enough to get it to feed well and that's it.

OK Thank you. I guess I didn't know what I was looking at. I can see that, with the side open like this, you don't need to do much to clear the chips.

Just to clarify... this is what you're talking about.

282777

[David Weaver]

That's it. Evidence of extreme laziness - but you can cut it out any way you'd like as long as it works (as in, pretter than just one-handing a straight chisel around it sloppily in a half circle if you want it to look presentable). The shavings come out pretty straight or they bunch up at the mouth a little bit but then manage to get ejected. As long as the end story of the details is that they generally all come out, that's good enough. Creates a funny gap between the abutment and the wedge, but chips never actually go there - they're out before they get that far.

[Dave Anderson NH]

My comment is short and to the point David. A good tool is one that works well, everything else is icing on the cake. Yours works well, hence it is a good tool.

[george wilson]

Speaking of using a chisel for the plane iron,a WWII Japanese tool kit for a soldier/carpenter,used the widest chisel as the plane's iron. It saved weight when packing it around,and metal in the time when steel was needed.

President Roosevelt requested to be buried in a bronze coffin,but even he was denied it as the metal was too scarce. It all went into war needs.

[Mel Fulks]

The planners of Roosevelt's funeral wanted bronze . His own directions were found in a safe after he was buried ,he wanted wood with no vault or embalming.

[David Weaver]

The planners of Roosevelt's funeral wanted bronze . His own directions were found in a safe after he was buried ,he wanted wood with no vault or embalming.

Was he amish?

[Christopher Charles]

Hello David,

This is fantastic as I'm interested in making some similar tools and have less time in the shop than I do for following SMC threads....

Can you give specifics on making the irons--source of stock, process etc.?

Thanks,
C

[David Weaver]

Yeah, i started making two junkers last night. One in 3/8" and one in 1/2". As soon as I make the wedges and irons for them, I'll put up a picture progression.

Just as an aside, my go-to iron stock for any moulding plane type of thing is a bar of 1/8" thick O1 stock from mcmaster carr (it's starrett brand, I only use it because it's familiar and it's always ground flat - I have no machine shop type tools to deal with something that doesn't come right). I also keep 3/32nd and 3/16" for plane irons, but don't use them nearly as much.

I would love to put up a progression of the more elaborate (and much more attractive) side escapement moulding planes, but the simple fact is that I learned to make them by watching an LN video and it would just be sharing larry williams' intellectual capital even though as time goes on, I'm sure I don't quite do the exact same thing. I'm still just borrowing larry williams' knowledge.

These kinds of nasty little planes that are ugly but work well and are quick are probably more practical mid-project for the average woodworker than stopping and making two pairs of H&Rs.

[Mel Fulks]

Amish... But couldn't give up good straight razors!