Making wooden hand planes

[Blake M Williams]

I've been searching and I'm having trouble finding what I'm looking for.

Jointer and jack plane info I can find it's the shoulder, rabbet, dado, plow ect.... that I'm not finding much on. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places? Would Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes" with Larry Williams cover the basics of these even though it's about molding planes?

Does the molding plane category cover these as well as hollows and rounds?

I would like to make dado plane. But I would like to start with a wooden jack plane. I have an old cracked up one with a good double iron.

[Jim Koepke]

Shoulder, rabbet, dado and plow planes are often grouped in with other molding planes.

Wooden rabbet and dado planes usually have skewed blades.

Dodo planes have nickers ahead of the blade. The also often have a depth stop.

jtk

[Ben Ellenberger]

“Making Traditional Wooden Planes” by John Whelan talks about plow planes and several types of side escapement planes Including dado and hollows and rounds, as well as several ways to make bench planes.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

David Weaver used to have a long series on youtube where he made a wooden plane. I think it was a jack. May have been a jointer. Both are made pretty much the same.

[Blake M Williams]

Have any of you watched the dvd with Larry William's? Is it worth getting and or does it explain areas such as the nickers?

[Derek Cohen]

I've been searching and I'm having trouble finding what I'm looking for.

Jointer and jack plane info I can find it's the shoulder, rabbet, dado, plow ect.... that I'm not finding much on. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places? Would Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes" with Larry Williams cover the basics of these even though it's about molding planes?

Does the molding plane category cover these as well as hollows and rounds?

I would like to make dado plane. But I would like to start with a wooden jack plane. I have an old cracked up one with a good double iron.

Blake, there are essentially two ways to build a bench plane. One is to chop out the bed ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingaStrikeBlockPlane.html

This is a strike block plane, but can be refigured for any other type ...

https://i.postimg.cc/wjLZNL3j/BuildingaStrikeBlockPlane_html_71a1e942.jpg

The other method is to laminate. There are two versions if this ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingaJackPlane.html

That is a jack plane ...

https://i.postimg.cc/nr8t3ZKD/Newtote4.jpg

The other way is the typical Krenov style ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingaKrenovSmoother.html

If you go to this page ....

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/index.html

... you will find builds of plough planes, router planes, and a bunch more.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Blake M Williams]

Wow Derek, I just looked at the plough plane. Beautiful work.

[Mark Rainey]

Blake, I have Making Traditional Wooden Planes by John M. Whelan. I can send it to if you wish, PM me.

[Ben Ellenberger]

I made a little coopering plane generally following one of the techniques in the Whelan book. Instead of a three-part lamination or the traditional approach of chopping everything from a solid piece, I sawed the blank in two then cut the bed, mouth, and abutments, then glued the two halves together. That’s the only plane I’ve ever made, but that approach seemed to work pretty well.

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[chris carter]

A 26” jointer and a jack. Both use the lamination method with the cross pin. I just watched a whole bunch of youtube videos of people making bench planes and cobbled together what I liked from each one. These are my favorite bench planes to use. I didn’t use tapered irons and it wasn’t necessary as the holding power is ridiculous. In fact, I have to be careful not to tap the wedge too hard or I have to bash the heck out of the plane to loosen the iron (see the damaged striking posts for evidence of that!).
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This grooving plane is also made using the lamination method and it is quite possibly my most fun plane to use. I started with the instructions from this page: https://www.finewoodworking.com/2011/04/07/make-a-pair-of-grooving-planes But modified it a little. Using only lamination means you don’t even have to cut any rabbets. Also, I made the interior side of the skate higher than the depth stop side which allows me to resurface the skate and depth stop side when they wear down and still have accuracy. Note that the wedge needs to be trimmed to eject the shavings out of the side. Fitting the wedge before you put on the outermost lamination allows for very easy fettling because you can see exactly how it is fitting. I just used a cheap chisel for the iron in this one. It works fine despite the reverse wedge – just scuff up the iron with 60 grit and it holds fine or you could also give the iron a swipe of rosin and it will grip for days.
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Note, these are not modeled after historical examples. I was more interested in user tools than recreating an historical piece.

The actual making of wooden planes is not hard and doesn't really require great skill. The hard part is figuring out your design and order of operations in construction.

[Blake M Williams]

Those look nice. I measured all the angles of the old plane I have and I've searched the web a lot. I'm pretty excited to try this. I hope my first one is at least functional lol.

[Jim Matthews]

As an alternative, buy a kit from Ron Hock and modify it with a handle or "saddle".

The basics will be illustrated and you'll learn plenty.

The geometry of traditional wedged planes is finnicky.
Minor errors (particularly at the "wear" in the mouth) can render a plane unusable or coarse.

In addition - look to setting up a Japanese plane.
The approach of having three points of contact, on a single plane has made my wood body planes sing.

(I use a Sandvik scraper for adjustment.)

[Blake M Williams]

I havent looked up Japanese planes, thanks for the idea.

I'm out of town and there is a decent lumber supplier here. I plan to get at least some wood while I'm here. I also dont want to get the best of the best knowing I probably wont do well with my first plane though.

Can I pretty much use any hardwood? I know quartersawn is the way to go but help me out here I'm still learning. Is rift sawn ok too?

[Chris Fournier]

I've made several wooden hand planes over the years, the earlier ones were done as an exercise in reproducing side escapement planes the later ones as a means to an end. For smoothers I laminate them up as it's quick and dirty, job done they are scrap, gifted or dust collectors signifying a past project. A properly made woodie is a thing of beauty. I went to the trouble of making my own plane making floats and that was as much fun as anything...

[steven c newman]

A couple things I have noticed....the metal "skates" always need to be a bit thinner than the iron, otherwise it will bind. Old most of the old planes with the metal skates....edge of the skate supporting the cutter is NOT flat, it is usually ground to a knife (dull one) edge. The cutter also has a v groove ground into it...to match the skate. This keeps the cutters centered on the skate, and even stops any chattering.

The end of the wedge where it meets the cutting edge of the cutter/iron....needs to be shaped to direct the shavings out to the side of the plane, as there usually isn't any room for a shaving to curl up out the top...wedge tends to be in the way. If you look at the original wedges...the end is more of a skew, to direct the shaving out the right side of the plane's mouth.....
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G. Roseboom, Cincinnati,OH, 1864

[Jim Koepke]

Here is an old post of mine on molding planes > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?242156

It is mostly about rehabilitation of previously owned molding planes. It does have a post about wedges and what to do about something like this:

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There is also some information on blade sharpening along with useful links provided by others.

jtk

[Blake M Williams]

Thanks Jim. Just read through the thread. Gives me a good place to start when I finally get my hands on some to get measurements off of. Got a secondhand dealer sending me some not so pretty ones cheap.

[Blake M Williams]

I'm looking at tools I might need and I talked to Bill Carter at

http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanemaker.co.uk/

And he advised me to check him video page on the Blunt chisel technique. He said he doesn't use floats.

I figured I would try it but I'm assuming out of all the floats that there must be one or two that might be highly recommended?

[Jim Matthews]

I figured I would try it but I'm assuming out of all the floats that there must be one or two that might be highly recommended?

If you're going to make multiple planes, the Lie Nielsen products are solid. They have broad handles for easier manipulation, for longer periods.

If you're only making one or two, the Iwasaki "wood carving" file comes in three sizes, but the handle is very narrow (which I find tiring) - but they cut like stink.

http://www.iwasaki-y.com/english/carve.html

[Blake M Williams]

I'm pretty excited. I got my edge float and side float in the mail today and a couple days ago I got a flat rate box full of rabbet and dado planes. Last year I took a roy underhill class, while there I met Ed upstairs. I called him asking if he had any cracked up planes I could copy/cannibalize. He stuffed a box full with extra irons too. 2 of the rabbet planes are just fine too. No cracks or warped sides. Couple of the dado planes are great too, unfortunately missing irons. Rest are unusable but have irons or depth stops I can take. I also watched that dvd and read "making traditional wooden planes" from a member here.