Jim Koepke
08-09-2015, 6:31 PM
In the thread, "Tools not made - yet" I made a comment about how my opinion at one time was the chamfer plane might be a superfluous tool. After all, most of us can make a chamfer with a block plane.
Recently while working on a bunch of molding planes two chamfer planes were found and sharpened. It seems the consistent chamfer made has somewhat changed my thoughts on the usefulness of a chamfer plane.
This may have all started for me many years ago when I saw this in a local hardware store:
319266
My recollection is it was about $10 at the time. It is a good tool for smoothing corners most of the time. It does need to go with the grain and did require a bit of adjustment before being useful. On squirrelly grain it can have a lot of chip out. The sole is actually a piece of 90º brass angle iron. There are two blades so it can usually make a good corner round over with one pass.
Here are the two chamfer planes that have been sitting on a shelf waiting to be discovered:
319263
It appears that at least one set of owners stamps is by the same person. These must have been passed around a lot since there are a lot of different names. The makers names seem to be lost to time. There are parts of the makers names, but it isn't something that matters greatly to me.
Here are the results of the planes work. First the two chamfer planes:
319264
One is a bit wider than the other.
The Radi-Plane:
319265
The corner at the top left is the one cut by the Radi-Plane.
Since acquiring a bunch of hollow and round planes they have been getting used for corner smoothing:
319267
The corner on the left is from a #5 and the one on the right is a #2. The hollow & round planes can make a larger corner than the Radi-Plane.
Recently while working on a bunch of molding planes two chamfer planes were found and sharpened. It seems the consistent chamfer made has somewhat changed my thoughts on the usefulness of a chamfer plane.
This may have all started for me many years ago when I saw this in a local hardware store:
319266
My recollection is it was about $10 at the time. It is a good tool for smoothing corners most of the time. It does need to go with the grain and did require a bit of adjustment before being useful. On squirrelly grain it can have a lot of chip out. The sole is actually a piece of 90º brass angle iron. There are two blades so it can usually make a good corner round over with one pass.
Here are the two chamfer planes that have been sitting on a shelf waiting to be discovered:
319263
It appears that at least one set of owners stamps is by the same person. These must have been passed around a lot since there are a lot of different names. The makers names seem to be lost to time. There are parts of the makers names, but it isn't something that matters greatly to me.
Here are the results of the planes work. First the two chamfer planes:
319264
One is a bit wider than the other.
The Radi-Plane:
319265
The corner at the top left is the one cut by the Radi-Plane.
Since acquiring a bunch of hollow and round planes they have been getting used for corner smoothing:
319267
The corner on the left is from a #5 and the one on the right is a #2. The hollow & round planes can make a larger corner than the Radi-Plane.