Coffin smoother design

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I have a hunk of 16/4 cherry, reasonably straight grained, and I am going to start a traditional coffin smoother out of it. I have read enough to think I would prefer quarter sawn air dried beech, but that is probably not going to be available for a few years. Cherry is what I have, and I am confident my own limitations are much more significant than the limitations of the material at this point.

I don't own a traditional coffin smoother I could study for design details. Can anyone point me to an article or thread with a good design, key angles not to screw up, etc.?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Jim Koepke]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?240671-New-Steve-Voigt-Smoothing-Plane

[Allan Speers]

Is Cherry tough enough to make a plane?

[george wilson]

It isn't particularly hard,nor as wear resistant as some other woods. Never the less,many years ago,I made a quick and dirty plane made of glued up cherry,with simple Roman cross bar. Nearly a Krenov type in construction. It has a curved bottom for scooping out cello size tops and backs. It has held up pretty well for that purpose,though this special plane hasn't gotten the wear and tear of a regular smooth plane.

Do you have anything harder to make the sole out of?

[Kees Heiden]

At the moment I a building a coffin smoother too, from beech. Do you want a single iron or a double iron plane? For single iron you can find a drawing here:

http://kapeldesigns.blogspot.nl/search/label/Plans

Search around on his blog, there is more information. When you a re looking for a double iron design, then there are some things different.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Do you have anything harder to make the sole out of?

I have never made a plane before, so I am not really counting on it being enough of a success that I use it until it wears out. I am more expecting to use it, realize I made some mistakes, and then build another. If it succeeds beyond my expectations, I do have some maple I could laminate to the sole. I have seen your comments about maple for planes but I don't have anything over 4/4.

I have a couple of avenues I am pursuing for beech, but that will basically involve having it specially sawn for blanks, and then let it dry for a couple of years, because I can't find it anywhere commercially. I asked at the yard I usually go to, and the fellow told me in two years he cannot remember selling any.

[Mark Maleski]

I have never made a plane before, so I am not really counting on it being enough of a success that I use it until it wears out.

Do or do not, there is no try. :D

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I am going to put Lasse's irons to work. They are tapered double irons.

[Steve Voigt]

Nick,
I think the cherry is a great idea. People vastly overestimate the need for wear resistance. About the only place cherry wouldn't work is something with a quirk or sharp corner, like a beading or rabbet or snipes bill plane. On a bench plane or a hollow/ round, it should be just fine.
As for sources of info, the plans Kees posted are great. There are also a couple old threads on here, I think two by Dave Weaver and one by me, on making a smoother. Then there is Dave's mammoth video series on making a try plane. The hard part is making the mortise, not the coffin shape, so the videos should be helpful. Last, I'm not trying to drive traffic, but you might find some useful stuff on my blog and Instagram feed. Good luck!

[Allan Speers]

Nick,
I think the cherry is a great idea. People vastly overestimate the need for wear resistance. About the only place cherry wouldn't work is something with a quirk or sharp corner, like a beading or rabbet or snipes bill plane. On a bench plane or a hollow/ round, it should be just fine.

Steve, you obviously know a few things about making planes, to put it mildly. (I love your work) - but I don't think you're right here. Out of maybe 100 or so vintage woodies that have past through my hands, I think there were maybe five that didn't have mild-to-severe wear at the mouth. - And those worn ones were mostly Beech, or white Oak.

I've had a few lignum soles come by in perfect condition, though.

Cherry? I dunno ....

I always wanted to try Mesquite: Super durable, and extremely low movement. It's tough to find good blanks, sadly.

[Steve Voigt]

Alan, it's true that a lot of old planes are very worn. I'm not sure that's a very useful yardstick. Most of those planes are 100-150 years old, and you have no idea how hard they've been used, abused, and left to rot in barns over the decades.

More to the point, I meant my comments in the context of Nick's first plane. As he wisely said, his first plane is unlikely to be so awesome that he wears it out. In general, I think novice planemakers obsess way too much about the wood. What makes a plane great is first, a good iron, and second, good construction. Wood choice is important, but less so, unless you are making planes for sale.

What I see a lot of on forums is that people want to make traditional planes, but are often paralyzed with trepidation by the idea of digging a golf ball's worth of waste out of a chunk of wood. Starting with the perfect block of wood only compounds the problem. My advice: get some wood, make a plane. Start with a piece that you won't cry over if you scrap it. Once you've made half a dozen or so, then worry about getting some perfectly QS 16/4 beech. It sounds to me like this is Nick's approach, and I think he's got the right idea.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Do or do not, there is no try. :D

Oh, I will do, no question about that. The only question is whether the doing comes out well!

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Steve: This is exactly where I am coming from. I have a few years of experimenting to do before my beech is quarter sawn and properly air dried!

[Jim Koepke]

I always wanted to try Mesquite: Super durable, and extremely low movement. It's tough to find good blanks, sadly.

You can probably blame that on all the people who turn it into BBQ briquettes.

I know of some large trees, but they are safely protected by Park Rangers.

jtk

[Kees Heiden]

Did you allready spent 20 hours to watch David Weaver's youtube serie? Keep a notebook nearby to write down important details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjHMwL-dj4

Quite a while back Leif from Norsewoodsmith wrote down some stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjHMwL-dj4

And I scibbled some stuff on my blog, I try to add some usefull tips from time to time. You can find it when googling for seekelot.blogspot.

The difficult part is not creating the mortise. It is not making the flat bed. For me the difficult part is the detail work in the areas down below at the end of the abutments an the wear. Not much space, and stuff tends to run out of hand quickly.

I would advice to start with a jackplane. Things are a lot less critical down there for a jackplane. My first two planes ended up with a mouth about 5mm wide, extreme for a smoother, but not really any problem at all in a jack. I agree with Steve about the choice of wood for the first few planes.

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

I read somewhere that mesquite is the most expensive lumber in the USA. Why is it so expensive. ?

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Did you allready spent 20 hours to watch David Weaver's youtube serie? Keep a notebook nearby to write down important details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjHMwL-dj4

Quite a while back Leif from Norsewoodsmith wrote down some stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qjHMwL-dj4

And I scibbled some stuff on my blog, I try to add some usefull tips from time to time. You can find it when googling for seekelot.blogspot.

The difficult part is not creating the mortise. It is not making the flat bed. For me the difficult part is the detail work in the areas down below at the end of the abutments an the wear. Not much space, and stuff tends to run out of hand quickly.

I would advice to start with a jackplane. Things are a lot less critical down there for a jackplane. My first two planes ended up with a mouth about 5mm wide, extreme for a smoother, but not really any problem at all in a jack. I agree with Steve about the choice of wood for the first few planes.

Thanks for the help (and Steve too). I did not know about David Weaver's YouTube stuff on planes. It will take me a week to get through that. I found some of the threads Steve was talking about on here, including his and one by David Weaver, that are pretty detailed.

I am going to have to put some thought into opening the mouth and forming the wear. I do not have a drill press, so I can see that will definitely be a moment I will want to make sure I am not in a hurry. You are using about 90 degrees for the wear with your double irons?

[Pat Barry]

Did you allready spent 20 hours to watch David Weaver's youtube serie?
20 hours? Yikes. Might be good at night when I'm having trouble sleeping

[Kees Heiden]

My coffin now has a 80 degree wear and a 0.4 mm mouth. It chokes immediately at the first shaving! I can smooth the wear a little better but I think I will open the mouth too. The iron and cap have been used in another plane with a 1 mm mouth and that one never chocked.

But not today. I have an off day.

[Kees Heiden]

Pat, I think it'll be perfect to fall asleep again. David has that kind of voice, very relaxing 😀