My second hand plane

[Jim Hinze]

This one's a bit longer and combines 2 woods, purpleheart and african mahagony... It's tuned, has about a 3/16" mouth opening and takes .002 shavings. leaves an incredibly smooth surface...

http://www.peekaboocrafts.com/wood/second_plane1.jpg

http://www.peekaboocrafts.com/wood/second_plane2.jpg

http://www.peekaboocrafts.com/wood/second_plane3.jpg[/img]

[Tom Jones III]

Beautiful work. Did you choose the purpleheart for the look or is there another reason to use it?

Do you have any tips for a first time builder, I need a #7 plane but money is tight right now so I had considered making my first plane. I have plenty of mahogany and walnut around so I would probably use that.

[Steve Clardy]

Nice work!!!

[Jim Hinze]

Beautiful work. Did you choose the purpleheart for the look or is there another reason to use it?

Do you have any tips for a first time builder, I need a #7 plane but money is tight right now so I had considered making my first plane. I have plenty of mahogany and walnut around so I would probably use that.

I chose purpleheart for it's hardness, durability and I like the look. Any hard wood will make a decent plane, the japaneese use lots of oak, mahagony would be reasonable.

For a first time builder, the only tip I have is to just do it. It's not that hard and is very rewarding. Japanwoodworker.com has the hock irons as does David Finck (http://www.davidfinck.com) . I've used both for Krenov style planes and both work very well.

The only problem is the largest size you can get is 2", I think a #7 takes a 2 3/8" iron.

David Marks did an episode on making a Krenov style plane, that's what inspired my first one.