A No. 4 infill in the ornereriest wood ever to make a good plan gang aft agley

[Juan Hovey]

Good morning, folks - and Merry Christmas to you and yours.

It was all blood, sweat and tears making the bun and tote for this plane out of a cant of snakewood, not to mention the stress that came from knowing that if the wood exploded on me, I had no Plan B. As I noted in an earlier post, exactly that had happened in my first go-round with this ornery wood, and I didn't want to ask the client who commissioned the plane to send me more of the snakewood out of which he had asked me to make it.

But I got it done without hitch by keeping the wood for this No. 4 infill away from the machines in my shop and instead shaping the tote and bun mostly by hand - and by sitting down to breathe in, breathe out whenever my stress level rose above the level of my ears.

The pitch is 45 degrees. The iron is A-2 tool steel, two inches wide and a quarter inch thick. The base is 0-1 tool steel, the sides mild steel; they are dovetailed and pinned.

There's a steel frog half an inch high inside the plane, set back far enough from the mouth to permit me to continue the frog's bevel through the base, too, such that the bed for the iron goes all the way from there up to the point where the cyma curve in front of the tote ends.

No way is this iron gonna chatter.

I did all of that work on my mill, of course, and I also used the mill with Forstner bits to establish the big arc of the cyma curve on the tote, the top and bottom arcs of the hand hole, and the arc at the top of the tote around which to wrap thumb and forefinger. I roughed out the basic lines of the tote on my hand saw, but after that it was all hand work. What joy it is to go looking for beauty in wood with hand tools!

327836

[Jim Koepke]

Nice looking plane.

I am afraid I would get lost in the wood instead of my work.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

Good morning, folks - and Merry Christmas to you and yours.

It was all blood, sweat and tears making the bun and tote for this plane out of a cant of snakewood, not to mention the stress that came from knowing that if the wood exploded on me, I had no Plan B. As I noted in an earlier post, exactly that had happened in my first go-round with this ornery wood, and I didn't want to ask the client who commissioned the plane to send me more of the snakewood out of which he had asked me to make it.

But I got it done without hitch by keeping the wood for this No. 4 infill away from the machines in my shop and instead shaping the tote and bun mostly by hand - and by sitting down to breathe in, breathe out whenever my stress level rose above the level of my ears.

The pitch is 45 degrees. The iron is A-2 tool steel, two inches wide and a quarter inch thick. The base is 0-1 tool steel, the sides mild steel; they are dovetailed and pinned.

There's a steel frog half an inch high inside the plane, set back far enough from the mouth to permit me to continue the frog's bevel through the base, too, such that the bed for the iron goes all the way from there up to the point where the cyma curve in front of the tote ends.

No way is this iron gonna chatter.

I did all of that work on my mill, of course, and I also used the mill with Forstner bits to establish the big arc of the cyma curve on the tote, the top and bottom arcs of the hand hole, and the arc at the top of the tote around which to wrap thumb and forefinger. I roughed out the basic lines of the tote on my hand saw, but after that it was all hand work. What joy it is to go looking for beauty in wood with hand tools!

327836

Nice plane!

Out of curiosity why O-1 for the base, and in what state? (fully annealed or hardened+tempered?). It seems to me as though using tool steel for this sort of application would just make it more difficult to lap, though I doubt that would ever be needed for this plane.

[Juan Hovey]

Nice plane!

Out of curiosity why O-1 for the base, and in what state? (fully annealed or hardened+tempered?). It seems to me as though using tool steel for this sort of application would just make it more difficult to lap, though I doubt that would ever be needed for this plane.

Patrick - I use precision ground 0-1 tool steel unannealed and to be sure unhardened on grounds that it is slightly harder than 1018 mild steel and thus more suitable for the base of a plane. This may constitute over-engineering; I've tried both 0-1 and 1018 for plane soles and confess I can't tell much difference in the end product, although tool steel is harder both to peen the dovetails and lap the sole.

[Patrick Chase]

Patrick - I use precision ground 0-1 tool steel unannealed and to be sure unhardened on grounds that it is slightly harder than 1018 mild steel and thus more suitable for the base of a plane. This may constitute over-engineering; I've tried both 0-1 and 1018 for plane soles and confess I can't tell much difference in the end product, although tool steel is harder both to peen the dovetails and lap the sole.

My residual intuition from when I was an active mechanical engineer (as opposed to a lapsed one) leads me to suspect that *any* steel is overengineering for a plane sole, but that's just me :-)

Fully annealed O-1 is pretty easy stuff to work, though, provided you don't accidentally work-harden it or anything like that.

[Frederick Skelly]

Beautiful Juan!

[Frank Drew]

Juan,

Maybe I'm being dense tonight, but what's a "plan gang aft agley".

[Leigh Betsch]

Juan, I haven't been around much latley so likely I've missed a few of your recent creations, but I like this plane a lot. You've come a million miles in the last couple years. I hope you're still enjoying and as enthusiastic as when you started. Again a great looking plane.
Now you need add the adjuster...

[Patrick Chase]

Juan,

Maybe I'm being dense tonight, but what's a "plan gang aft agley".

Maybe he's just getting ready for "talk like a pirate day"?

[Juan Hovey]

Juan,

Maybe I'm being dense tonight, but what's a "plan gang aft agley".

Frank - The reference is to the poem "To a Mouse' by the 19th century Scottish poet Robert Burns, which reads in part:



The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men




Gang aft agley,


An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,


For promis'd joy!

[Juan Hovey]

Juan, I haven't been around much latley so likely I've missed a few of your recent creations, but I like this plane a lot. You've come a million miles in the last couple years. I hope you're still enjoying and as enthusiastic as when you started. Again a great looking plane.
Now you need add the adjuster...

Leigh - Many thanks. Not sure about adjusters, though.

[Juan Hovey]

Maybe he's just getting ready for "talk like a pirate day"?

Patrick - I know some good jokes about parrots but had never heard of parrot day - and I'm gonna check it out!

[Gary Herrmann]

Wow. Points for even trying. Mega points for succeeding.

Gary, who can't even turn snakewood without it blowing up on him.

[george wilson]

Juan,I know I should get busy and send you some drawings. But,this plane is terribly delicate in the long spur at the top of the handle,the terribly thin "neck",and the very thin bun with its radical curve. I can guarantee you that if you sell planes like this,they will soon be coming back broken. You will be spending all your time repairing your planes. Please consider this warning for your own good.

[Patrick Chase]

Juan,I know I should get busy and send you some drawings. But,this plane is terribly delicate in the long spur at the top of the handle,the terribly thin "neck",and the very thin bun with its radical curve. I can guarantee you that if you sell planes like this,they will soon be coming back broken. You will be spending all your time repairing your planes. Please consider this warning for your own good.

I had the same thought but held back because I assumed Juan had arrived at some sort of understanding with your customer.

Given the fragility of the wood and the geometry I agree with George that that plane would be risky as a daily user. If you arrived at an understanding with your customer (you mentioned that they supplied the snakewood, so I'm guessing you had a chat about just how nasty that stuff is) then that's one thing, but like George I would be leery of selling something like that without caveats.

[Juan Hovey]

I had the same thought but held back because I assumed Juan had arrived at some sort of understanding with your customer.

Given the fragility of the wood and the geometry I agree with George that that plane would be risky as a daily user. If you arrived at an understanding with your customer (you mentioned that they supplied the snakewood, so I'm guessing you had a chat about just how nasty that stuff is) then that's one thing, but like George I would be leery of selling something like that without caveats.

Patrick - Thanks for the cautionary note. I believe my client understands the risks, as do I. I've been pushing the design envelope since I made my first plane four years ago next month. I may well have pushed it too far this time; to be sure, there were moments when I thought the game was over with the snakewood. So far, however, no one has sent a plane back for repairs. Should that happen, I will happily repair it if I can, replace it if I must.

[Bill McNiel]

Juan - That is ART!!! Beyond beautiful. I, too, worry about the ultra thin areas on the tote but, Boy Howdy, that plane is gorgeous.