Build: 20'' wooden try plane

[Oskar Sedell]

I decided to call this plane 'Lasse' since it was initiated by Lasse Hilbrandt, who offered a number of unused E A Berg plane irons for a very decent price. His only condition was that the resulting builds, tune-ups and restorations was made available to all forum members. So, here we go.

The basic facts:

Body: Pearwood, ca 20'' long.
Wedge: Pearwood, between 9 and 10 degrees.
Handle: Plum wood
Iron: Erik Anton Berg, laminated, tapered, 46 mm wide.
Bedding angle: 47 degrees.

I have documented the build in pictures and will split this into a number of posts. First step: Trueing the blank and starting the mortise from above:
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After opening the mouth from the sole, very conservatively so not to make it too big, the abutments is sawed with a small pull saw. The wooden block mimics iron + wedge.
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Paring the waste away and making the bed close to final shape.
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After chopping the slot for the cap iron: first insertion of the iron.
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[Oskar Sedell]

Using chalk (the black board version :) ) to make the final bedding of the iron:
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Shaping the escapement and the cheeks. The cardboard prevents marring the bed when slipping a paring stroke with the chisel.
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Escapement closer to finish, and the wedge blank fitted to width. The mortise is slightly narrower at the mouth than at the top, this should make the wedge fingers springing against the abutment walls.
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Fit before shaping the fingers:
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Paring the fingers to final shape:
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and carving the eyes. The edges will be chamfered, leaving a mm or two between the side of the plane and the chamfer.
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Moving on to the tote!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Looking great! Very nice work.

[Oskar Sedell]

Ripping the plumwood to width. Note to self: get a bigger rip saw. This took quite some time...
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Sketching the shape of the tote. Testing against my hand and eyeballing the profile with the plane.
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After drilling and coping the hole the tote is shaped with rasp and knife
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Final shaping was done with a half-round file and some sandpaper (up to 240 grit).

[Oskar Sedell]

Drilling out the tote mortise.
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after chopping and paring out the sides the bottom was cleaned up:
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Final fit before glueing. The thing starts to look like a plane!
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[Oskar Sedell]

Putting the final chamfer along the edges and rounding the back.
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Cutting the stopped chamfers at the corners, using a "stopping block" to get them all to the same height.
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Smoothing off the pencil marks and some scratches on the top and the sides.
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[Oskar Sedell]

glue up with epoxy.
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trueing the sole: 120 grit paper on a reference granite block.
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Moment of truth: The plane works! Made a pile of nice cherry shavings. Some minimal fettling will be needed to avoid clogging on skew but otherwise very nice. Instead of opening the mouth and/or the wear I honed down the curved part of the cap iron a bit, leaving a ca 50 degree edge at the front, which drops upward to a shallower angle.
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[Oskar Sedell]

After a liberate amount of BLO:
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I'll leave the linseed oil to harden now, and later I'll put on some wax to seal the wood off.

An obvious observation: My plane blank is not very straight grained. I hope it will not move extensively. Next time I'll try to find wood with a better grain profile.

I've learned a lot from this build and from reading/watching your projects. Thanks Lasse for providing the iron! And I'm thankful to all of your who shared your experiences from plane making, you know who you are.

If you have questions or constructive criticism, please share your thoughts.

keep your projects coming!

Best regards,

Oskar

[Kees Heiden]

Nice job!

If I were you I would work a bit more on the top end of the wedge, making larger chamfers. Have a look at old Englisg planes to get an idea. I shape the top more or less to the same shape as the top of the iron.

But that was just something for nitpicking.

[Frederick Skelly]

I like it! Please continue to post more pictures as you continue to build it.
Fred

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for posting the build. It looks great.

jtk

[george wilson]

I WISH I could get some of that plum wood! I had a bit years ago,and it had a beautiful lavender color about it. But,I'm afraid it fades. My piece was not large enough to make anything of much consequence out of it.

Very nice work! I would only caution that epoxy is not needed to glue the handle on,should you do it again. If the handle ever pops loose,you will be re gluing on over old,brittle epoxy. I had that happen a few times back in the 50's,when I tried gluing on a classical guitar bridge with it. Suddenly one day,the whole bridge,with tight strings popped loose and hit me in the back while I was on the phone. And,it happened again months later,when I re glued the bridge back on.

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

Oscar that is a nice build and it is an inspiration for me and Im sure others too.
It makes me happy to see that Iron come to good use instead of laying in a box.

When you get more aquainted with the plane I would like to know how this iron holds its edge.

[Oskar Sedell]

Kees: Thank you for the suggestion. I might agree with you, that the chamfers could follow the shape of the iron better.

George: Thanks! Plumwood is really nice to work with, and rewarding to finish. I'll keep in mind to avoid epoxy the next time. Have to get some hide glue instead.

Lasse: It is very nice if this can inspire more projects. I hope to see a build of yours coming up as well! Time will tell how the edge holds. I guess good, it felt great to hone it up and it took a very keen edge. I'll report if I find anything unusual.

[Reinis Kanders]

Looks great. Handle opening seems to be on a small side, but that is probably hand size specific.

[Steve Voigt]

Looks great! Is this your first traditional mortised plane? Either way, very nice job. The combination of plumb and pear is lovely; delicious, one might say! ;)

Two small comments. One, to echo George, hide glue would be a much better choice for the handle. Liquid hide glue is great for this purpose.

Also, the handle looks a bit too vertical to me, but that is perhaps a matter of choice.

Enjoy your new plane!

[Pat Barry]

Very nice work. I hope this plane works very nicely for you.

[Dave Beauchesne]

Oskar:

Very nice indeed - well executed.

Dave B

[Oskar Sedell]

thanks for the nice comments!

Reinis: Yes, you're right, the tote is constructed around my hand, and there is no problem getting three fingers in.

Steve: This is my third mortised plane, and the first 'full size' and traditional with handle. (the previous two figure in the build pics). You might be right about the angle, time will tell (and the height of the bench). For now it feels good but of course I haven't spend hours/days planing with it yet. How do you lay out your handles? Does it depend on the distance/angle to the mouth. Read somewhere that a first guesstimate would be to have the handle at a right angle to the line from the mouth to the middle of the handle. My handle ended up more vertical than this.

[Kees Heiden]

Not Steve, but here is my take on it: When laying out a handle I look very hard at old English planes. For my tryplane and jointer I used an image from the book about planemaker John Green. I am not sure I can compose a handle that is as elegant but still as functional and comfortable as they could make them. For the distance from the handle to the mortise: As close to the blade as possible but with enough room to swing a hammer for adjusting the blade, even when it has been shortened over the years. That's a matter of holding up the handle to the plane and then looking what looks right.

[Oskar Sedell]

Kees, thanks for chiming in. Just ordered a copy of that book. I don't have any reference plane, but from pictures I drew the same conclusion - close to the iron, but leaving room for the hammer.

[Paul Saffold]

Nice plane and thanks for the detailed writeup.
Paul

[Steve Voigt]

How do you lay out your handles? Does it depend on the distance/angle to the mouth. Read somewhere that a first guesstimate would be to have the handle at a right angle to the line from the mouth to the middle of the handle. My handle ended up more vertical than this.

Oskar,
I've never heard this formula before, but it looks approximately right. However, I would prefer a more direct measurement off of horizontal (the sole, the deck, the base of the handle, whatever). Normally, the "main" angle of the handle, analogous to the hang angle of a saw, is about 55°-60°. The handle is nearly vertical for the first inch or so at the bottom, then it transitions to the main angle.

I agree with what Kees said about the location of the handle: as close as you can get to the blade and still have room to maneuver an adjusting mallet.

I also agree with him about studying examples from old planes. It can be very helpful to find an old plane with good bones, even if it's not in great shape, even if it's barely usable, just to study the details. Planes like this can be picked up for $20 or so, and it's worth it if you plan to make some more planes.

[Mike Allen1010]

Very nice Oskar! The full width,, uniform thickness shavings you got tell a tale of excellent execution, building to tight tolerances . Very inspirational - thanks for posting! I've never had the confidence to try a through morticed plane., I'm more comfortable with laminated construction, but you've inspired me to consider trying (really just want to buy one from Steve Voigt I know will work).

I look forward to seeing more of your posts.

Best, Mike

[Oskar Sedell]

Steve: when I measured the main angle yesterday I got it around 65 degrees. I'll try to get it down a bit for my next build (unless the handle I made works and feels great in the long run of course). Might get some of the pushing pressure down in the palm instead of up between the thumb and the index finger. I should also shop for an old plane with nice proportions and a cleanly made mortise.

Mike: Thank you! Give it a shot. In worst case its an excellent mortising/paring exercise. Its not that hard to get a fine working plane in the end. Hope to see some posts about it in the future!

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

Oskar: Has the plane become a user, or does it sit on the shelf ? Did you use it enough to get a feeling on how good/bad the iron holds its edge ? I have had a report from one user, that the edge is too brittle and chips easily.

[Oskar Sedell]

This plane, together with the Applewood jack I posted in Brians hand tool work thread are my main users (I don´t have any other Jack or Try planes). The iron is fantastic, and on larger boards or less sensitive projects I don´t even need a smoother plane. The plane body don´t move much at all, I have flattened the sole once since the build.

Since this is one of my first planes, I wasn´t aware of the role of the wear in double iron planes. It is low in this plane, which makes it quite tight between the "triangles" and I had some problems with clogging. Mostly solved by filing a lower profile on the cap iron, and tweaking the shape of the wear and the ends of the fingers.

[ernest dubois]

A

An obvious observation: My plane blank is not very straight grained. I hope it will not move extensively. Next time I'll try to find wood with a better grain profile.

I've learned a lot from this build and from reading/watching your projects. Thanks Lasse for providing the iron! And I'm thankful to all of your who shared your experiences from plane making, you know who you are.

If you have questions or constructive criticism, please share your thoughts.

keep your projects coming!

Best regards,

Oskar
Pear wood is used for making drawing instruments like straight edges, triangles and squares and so on and so on because it's reliable but steamed pear gets used. I have a pear wood try plane similar sized to yours, not steamed and over the years it has not behaved so different from other wood planes, always requiring regular maintenance. I do find it a bit light in weight. The handle you made sure takes to oiling nicely.

[Oskar Sedell]

Thanks Ernest, I didn´t know that. Agreed, plum wood looks great oiled!