Hock smoothing plane kit

[Ted Phillips]

I purchased a Krenov plane kit from Ron Hock (http://www.hocktools.com/products/kits.html) a few weeks back - and just got around to finishing it and tuning it up. Wow! What a great experience. The quality of the kit is outstanding, and Ron's blades are the best in the business. Assembly was relatively straight forward and Ron's instructions (and video) helped get past the few critical operations (like the spacing of the mouth before glue-up).

After glue-up and flattening the sole, I carved the body using a turning saw, rasps, and sandpaper. I like the classic Krenov shape, but I was actually guided by the shape of the 1950 Ferrari 166 MM racing car. I finished the plane body with a single application of amber shellac, followed by Renaissance wax to the body and sole.

The plane performs fabulously. After tweaking, I am able to get a consistent shaving in the 0.005" range, and the plane also takes a very smooth thick shaving when needed. Great stuff! I encourage everyone to give this a try!

TedP

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[eric burns]

Looks great! I built a block plane kit for my father-in-law a while back as a Christmas present and I've got a shoulder plane kit that I have to finish up still.

[ken hatch]

Ted,

Nice work.

Something to think about. After making several planes shaped like a Krenov plane I decided to make one more like a Japanese plane so it could be used with either hand and either pushing or pulling. It has worked very well, I use a couple of 'em all the time and about a year ago I gave one to Ralph over at "The Accidental Woodworker". In most photos of his work bench it will be somewhere on the bench so I expect he finds it as usable as I have. Anyway here is a photo of a couple of 'em.

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ken

[William Fretwell]

It does look like it can go fast! Two questions: the blade does not protrude beyond the wedge so is it hard to adjust. Where do you hit the back to adjust the blade? On the trunk of the Ferrari or the bumper?