My first hand planes

[Mark Almeidus]

Hi to all woodworkers. Im new in this forumand im also a newbie in woodworking with only 4 months experience. It all began when i wanted to buy a chessboard for my granddad but i couldnt aford it so i started to make once. With painting on wood and were looking realy ugly. Finaly with some help of a woodworker i managed to make decent chessboard from walnut and pine (i know, could have found better wood for the whites :D) But the point is from that point my life turned on 360 (well maybe 350). I forgot about everything else and got adicted with woodworking, and started to learn mostly from the internet. Because i couldnt aford electric tools (atable saw, band saw etc.) and also if i could i wouldnt or cant use them cz they are loud and im panicing while near them.So i was workign with the hand tools i had.. All i had from start were one handplane from my grand grand grand dad who knows how old it is, and a mortise chisel :D. I managed to fix the plane but it was to small with 3 cm blade and 22 cm long So i wanted a bigger plane but couldnt aford, Because in my country u cant find hand planes and you cant order from internet,we dont have paypal and i wanted a handplane so badly, so started planing to make one. I was watching youtube videos about krenov style planes and watched david flinck dvd. Went to a woodworker and he gave me 4 pieces of acacia black locust or mulberry, said glue them up and come ill cut them for u. But he said its better to do it with carving if u can. I glue 2 pieces together, but that day i couldnt wait a second, i took some pieces of oak that my granddad is using for burning, i took my axe and started cutting the sides of one of them wich was 26 cm long, about right for a smoothing plane size:D. So to get the story short ill post some images of how i made my handplanes. For the first plane i didnt made pics of the proces, wasnt shure what ill come up with.
The process of mortising or diging in the plane was simple, i marked the angles, 45 for the bad of the blade and 50 of the front bad and just started chiseling (never used chisels before for this kind of work)
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I saw this technigue from japanese woodworker who was making kana plane, but on my first plane didnt knew about this so all the interior was made with chisels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUurfvdk9Iw&list=PL09DB487D66855B9A&index=6

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Here i drew i line and cut to the line with hand saw to make the design of the plane, also a technigue from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m67JNG3rASg&index=7&list=PL09DB487D66855B9A
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And used screw to remove material

[Mark Almeidus]

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Here is the jack plane in action
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This are all the tools used to make the planes. For the second plane i used hand drill and dig few wholes newar the marked lines, so the chiseling goes easier
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This is the method i used for the first plane. On the picture is oak wich i plan to make another jack 33 cm long.
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[Mark Almeidus]

This is going to be my next project.
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Smoother, jack and a jointer. The smoother is i think a mapple wood wich i cut the sides with a hand saw and it has a natural look for handplane. It took me almost a day to cut it, for a moment i thought the wood is cutting my hand saw xd. The other one is oak 33cm long and walnut for jointer plane, the lenght will be about 45 cm (Im not sure if the quality of this walnut is good).
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When i was at the woodworker he had a woodturning and he let me try to work on it on a beech wood. I took that piece home and i noticed i can cut one piece of it and make it as handle. I dig a whole with hand drill on the fron of the plane, and with a chisel adjusted the handle so it fits in the whole, and is used for hitting to remove the wedge and blade.
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Of those 2 planes the smoother works better, but i think thats becaue the blade is of better quality, its ticker and is with chipbreaker. But the jack plane its easier and it fits nicely in hand. But they do the job im looking for.
The hardest parts were the mouth openig or throat, for the second one i wasnt patient and when i got to the bottom it crack up a bit, so i had to spend some time planing it . Also flatening the back where the blade rests was hard or i should say time consuming with the rasps and files. The wedge was also har to do, because couldnt fint out how to measure the angle , and i couldnt find i good position to hand saw it :D, and for the moment they are not permament.
The spokeshave did an exelent job for the design (its awesome what this tool can do).
I would like to get some criticism and some tips, what tools are better for this kind of job etc. And i couldnt find any tutorial about this kind of plane making on the internet, any info wold be great.
So the bottom line is with a great will u can achive almost anything, i couldnt wait till next day for a woodworker to do the job for me, the inside of me was erupting like a volcano, and went on a ride where even a failure will result with a smile on my face. And it was a beautifull experience.

[Steve Voigt]

For someone with so little experience, that is absolutely outstanding work. Congratulations and thanks for posting.
What part of the planet do you call home?

My only suggestion is that you have a good look at the websites of Old Street tools, Philly Planes, Caleb James, and Matt Bickford. I think your designs could benefit from their influence. But you are off to an incredible start. Keep going!

[David Weaver]

Yeah, great start. Love the enthusiasm building planes with mortises.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Way to Go, you are fearless and practical, both can take you far.

[Mark Almeidus]

Thank you all, i come from Macedonia.
And thanks for the sugestion Steve.

[Jim Koepke]

Mark,

Welcome to the Creek.

Outstanding work for someone who has such a short time working wood.

Patience is one of the hardest woodworking skills to develop. Once you get a handle on that you will be unstoppable.

jtk

[Moses Yoder]

Absolutely outstanding work. Keep at it, you are naturally gifted.

[Judson Green]

Wow! Very Impressive!

[Shawn Pixley]

Way to dive in!

[Juan Hovey]

A very impressive start, and I applaud your willingness to put your work on display.

[Mark Almeidus]

Thanks to all, it means a lot and gives motivation.
A little update for the smoothing plane. I had to make the mouth smaller, because it was unberably big about half cm :).
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I used a piece of pollywood. Before glueing i opened the mouth a little, and after glueing i widened it with files and chisels.
I know its not right choice to use plywood but had no other options atm. Iv done that before with even i thinner polywood and it worked well. And for removing it used 10 or 15 strokes with the plane.
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After all was done the planed performed way better, tinner shaving and less force was required.
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And here aer the wood pieces that i hope one day wil be transofrmed into planes :D
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[Mark Almeidus]

Can anyone confirm what type of wood this is?
My granddad uses oak for burning and there were few pieces of this that came with the oak last year. I think its maple but im not 100% sure.
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Also this mortise chisel is realy old and ni bad condition, is there a chance to get it functional? Or just keep it as it is as suvenier. The handle is falling in pieces and one hit with a mallet should do the job.
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[Jim Koepke]

I do not know about the wood. Usually I can not sink a fingernail into maple.

The mortise chisel looks like all it really needs is a new handle. The unknown wood might be able to help there.

If there isn't a bolster already on the chisel you could make one from a thick washer.

jtk

[Kees Heiden]

Great Mark. Nice to see your enthousiasm and great results. I would study a bit on traditional plane shapes, but don't let it hinder your own style too much. How about a look at Roubo? http://toolemera.com/bkpdf/roubomichaudBK.pdf. Or the 18th century Dutch planes? http://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/ontdek-het-museum/collectie-voorwerpen/houtschaven/. Maybe you have a tradition in your own country (Where do you come from?).

Regarding tips. Well, making planes doesn't seem to have much secrets anymore. There is a good excerpt overhere from an old planemaker: http://www.handplane.com/32/practical-plane-making-1/

Other tips. Make a workbench. And quit smoking, it's really bad for you......

[Mark Almeidus]

Thanks Kees. The links you posted are wonderfull, especialy the carved planes gallery. And ofcourse it wont hinder my style and as a beginner, any info is highly apreciated and will be added to my imagination, and i hope some day ill find my own unigue style.
Tha practical plane making will come handy to.
And for the workbench ofcourse i will need it later, but for now the japanese way suits me well.
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:)

About the wood carving tradition in Macedonia (which Im not to much familiar with), there are some beautifull wood carvings in some of the churches(many were destroyed by the Otoman Empire). Some of them date form 1000 ad, like this one
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St.Spas church in Skopje from 16 century
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How it probably looked at that period
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I found a link of macedonian wood carver, maybe someone will find it interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYLrBoX3qLA
Maybe its better to be posted it in woodcarving section.

[Kees Heiden]

Nice stuff overthere Mark! A couple of weeks ago I visited Northern Greece, just across the border from you and have seen plenty of brilliant churches and monateries too. i love that. That kind of stuf is truely inspiring.

[Mark Almeidus]

Nice stuff overthere Mark! A couple of weeks ago I visited Northern Greece, just across the border from you and have seen plenty of brilliant churches and monateries too. i love that. That kind of stuf is truely inspiring.
Im glad you like it Kees.

[Mark Almeidus]

Here is a little update for the planes.

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Iv chanegd the mouth of the jack plane with the same piece of wood. It was realy wide.
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The sole wasnt flat enought, so when i was sanding it i lost a tinny bit of the mouth. So it came like it has to be for a jack plane i think. On the smoother i added sole from beech, but first i sanded the bottom to be dead flat so i dont make the same mistake.
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With such a tinny mouth and flat sole everything got so sensitive. Hitting with the hammer has to be more gentle. Also i was getting something like scratches. At first i thought maybe the bottom isnt flat, but when i looked closer at the blade in 2 places was like bumpy, barely visible to eye. But before i wasnt getting any lines or scratches from it. So tday i had to spent hour or so to fix it. Starting from 80, 180, 360, 800, 1500 and 2000. At 2000 i added a little microbevel. Idont know if this is the right procedure, but what can i do? Cant leave if i dont experiment a little.
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Walnut
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Pine
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My dog mixed my wooden mallet (wich looks more like a baseball bath http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon11.png) with a bone http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon8.png .
If u want to see my planes in action iv added some videos on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyobjAg-I5k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MisvEyfAMZg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYycX6QWg24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6zi7BNGjp4
The blade of the jackplane its not sharpened for 3 or four days and its been constantly used, so its a bit dull.
If u have anythin to ask me or give me some tips to improve something, feel free.