What wood is this plane?

[Mark Gibney]

What wood is this old Buck Bros woodie?

I got it ready for a new sole and am curious as to what wood it's made from. I thought beech, but now I don't know.

I wiped the plane down with alcohol before each photo.

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If you need more of a close-up photo I can take one, it might be difficult to see the necessary detail to make a call looking at these photos.

[Gerald Schram]

it does look like beech to me jerry

[Mark Gibney]

Jerry you may well be right. I googled images of American beech and it can have sparkly ray fleck like my plane has.
My other woodies are all beech but are plain in comparison.

[Patrick Chase]

Jerry you may well be right. I googled images of American beech and it can have sparkly ray fleck like my plane has.
My other woodies are all beech but are plain in comparison.

The angle at which the radial faces are cut greatly influences the appearance of the rays in Beech. In my experience fractions of a degree can make the difference between a plain appearance and flecks that really "pop" as here. It would be interesting to see a shot of the end grain on the toe, because the flecks seem to reverse in the middle of the side face, as might happen with slightly irregular grain. This is particularly apparent in the heel of the plane, where the flecks form "comma" shapes.

[Jim Koepke]

[edit]
It would be interesting to see a shot of the end grain on the toe, because the flecks seem to reverse in the middle of the side face, as might happen with slightly irregular grain. This is particularly apparent in the heel of the plane, where the flecks form "comma" shapes.

Could this effect be caused by the heel of the plane being slightly curved?

jtk

[Mark Gibney]

I didn't know that about beech, Patrick.

The end grain on the toe shows the board was flat sawn. The plane is not where I am, or I'd take a photo for you.

[Pat Barry]

it does look like beech to me jerry

I don't know much about beech, but am very curious to learn more about the tool as I find the shape interesting.

[Patrick Chase]

Could this effect be caused by the heel of the plane being slightly curved?

jtk

Err, duh. Yeah, that would do it.

[steven c newman]

Called a Razee style...

[Jeff Heath]

Sure looks like American beech to me.

[Jim Koepke]

Sure looks like American beech to me.

Some of my H&R molding planes have the same look to them.

jtk

[Mark Gibney]

Pat, I can't tell you much about the plane, but I also found the shape interesting. We've both learned from Steven that it is a Razee style plane.

I saw it walking through a swap meet, pretty beat up, and joked to a friend - look, all this needs is a little TLC!
The seller asked me straight how much I'm willing to offer for it, I said $1.
He said okay, sold. So then I was obligated to take it in a give it a good home. I'm a ways off, but some day it'll make shavings.

Here's a couple of photos of it when I first got it. At least the iron wasn't destroyed with deep pitting.

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[Jeff Heath]

For $1, you can hardly go wrong. The iron is worth more than that, even if you had to scrap the plane body. Something to consider is to flatten that sole completely, down to fresh wood, and glue a new sole on it. You could then close the mouth up, and turn it into a fine user with a good repair. If this is your first go-round, you'll learn a lot in the process, too.

Edit: Well, I just re-read your original post and realized that is what you're intending to do all along, so just ignore ^^^^^. :)