Chairmaker's Plane

[Mike Henderson]

I'm in the process of building a rocker with a sculpted seat and arms. A while back, I purchased a chairmaker's plane from St. James Bay Tools, which is essentially a larger version of the Stanley 100 1/2 plane. It really is an excellent plane for doing this kind of work - it acts something like a scrub plane, but with a curved sole which allows me to cut concave curves.

It's not a perfect solution - I'd prefer a bit larger plane just to better fit my hand, but I haven't found any other chairmaker's planes out there. I'm going to try modifying a wooden coffin plane into a chairmaker's plane to see how that works. If anyone knows of a company who makes a larger chairmaker's plane, please let me know.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass this along because I was so pleased with how quickly I was able to sculpt the seat and arms using this plane.

Mike

[Mark Singer]

Michael,
Is that the large seat plane or the smaller one?

[Mike Henderson]

Mark, If you're referring to the plane in the picture, it's what St. James Bay calls the large chairmaker's plane (if you look on their website). The plane is actually fairly small - not including the squirrel tail, the plane is about 4 3/4 inches long by 1 1/2 inches wide - or about the size of a small block plane. The other plane that St James Bay offers is a copy of the Stanley 100 1/2, which is REALLY small - more like an instrument makers plane than a furniture plane.

The sole is curved from front to back and from side to side.

I might also comment that it took a LONG time to get the plane from St James Bay - more than a month, maybe multiple months, I don't remember now. I happened to be traveling to Phoenix and stopped at the store. St James Bay is a very small operation - it looked to me like a one man operation - and he didn't have any of the planes in stock. So my order had to wait 'till he made the next batch. It's definitely not a Lee-Nielsen operation.

But, in any case, the plane works well. A bit bigger plane would fit better in the hand

Mike

[Bob Smalser]

You don't really need some spendy plane at all, if you don't want to make one.

An adze (or chainsaw) followed by inshaves work just fine for softwood.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594266/123020199.jpg

Snell Atherton. Originally made for cobblers to covecut shoe heels but their adjustable mouths make them the cat's meow for wood. Around 20 bucks.

[Alice Frampton]

Mike, Steve Knight (http://www.knight-toolworks.com/speciality.htm#spoon) makes one.

Bob, you don't really need a spendy adze either. I'm just saddling a seat in beech using a gouge for the rough work. Might be a little slower, but I've more time than money at the moment...

Cheers, Alf

[Matthew Dworman]

Crown Plane out of Portland, Maine makes some nice goodies too:
http://www.crownplane.com/images/catalog/compass.jpg
http://www.crownplane.com/images/catalog/travisher.jpg
Their website is:
www.crownplane.com (http://www.crownplane.com)
These are the tools that Mike Dunbar recomends for his classes....

Matthew

[Mark Singer]

Yep Steve Knight has one as Alice stated...

http://www.knight-toolworks.com/graphics/spoon.jpg

[Mike Henderson]

Alice, Mathew, Thanks for the pointers.

Stu, the chair is made out of walnut. It's going to be a rocker - I just haven't gotten to the pont of attaching the rockers. That's the last construction thing I'll do.

I designed it as a craftsman inspired rocker so there'll be slats along each side in the craftsman fashion. However, the side slats are curved and merge into the curved underside of the arms (if I can pull this off).

But back to the plane - like Alice, I have more time than money right now. I bought an old coffin plane on EBay and am going to try to modify it into a chairmaker's plane by curving the sole front-to-back and side-to-side and grinding the iron to a significant curve. Since a chairmaker's plane works like a scrub plane, the mouth opening can be quite large. As long as the iron is well supported, I think it'll work okay.

This is my first sculpted seat chair and I've really enjoyed building it. Sculpting the seat was not that difficult. I just sat on the rough seat and traced out my butt, and then started cutting away. I work by eye and by feeling (sitting in the seat and also running my hand over it). I also showed the in-progress seat to some more experienced woodworkers and got some advice from them. Main advice: (1) make the transition between the top of the seat and the sculpted part sharp - don't sand it to a curve, and (2) cut the leg part of the sculpted seat wider than your leg. In other words, have the sculpted part get wider as you come towards the front of the seat.

When I finish it, I'll post a picture - unless I just screw up something :-)

Mike

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I have a similar plane I bought from Highland Hardware and tried to use it on longleaf pine. It chipped out on the backside of the mouth, probably on a knot. I went to lowes and bought a GMC angle grinder for $29.95 and used it to rough out the seats. Quick, but really messy. I'll give the inshave, compass plane a try on some milder wood.

[Mike Henderson]

Dennis, When you say you have a similar plane, are you referring to the St James Bay plane at the start of this thread, or the coffin plane I mention in the previous message? When you say it chipped out at the backside of the mouth, I sort of assume you mean a wood plane. It doesn't seem that a metal plane would suffer damage to the mouth that easily.

Mike

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Michael, it looks like the first plane in Matthew's post without the contrasting wood.

[Bob Smalser]

Mike, Steve Knight (http://www.knight-toolworks.com/speciality.htm#spoon) makes one.

Bob, you don't really need a spendy adze either. I'm just saddling a seat in beech using a gouge for the rough work. Might be a little slower, but I've more time than money at the moment...

Cheers, Alf

Almost everybody here has access to a chain saw, however.

The small arborist models are surprisingly good woodworking tools.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594265/30531628.jpg

This lawn furniture goes together from green cedar sawmill waste at the rate of 6 chairs a day with hammer, nails, construction adhesive...sculpted in place using the chainsaw.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Mathew is right about the tools from Crown Plane. I have had 2 of their compass planes for about 8 years along with a travisher. They work wonderfully and are not very expensive. The small compass plane is a great tool and is quick at removing the waste from a seat blank. I think that trying to remove the waste with a squirrel tailed plane will just frustrate you considering the time it will take. I would also think that the narrow radius of the sole would give you a lot of narrow furrows. Smoothe, but still furrows.

[Mike Henderson]

Here's a picture of the rocker sitting on the rockers - not attached yet but it will better show what the rocker will look like.

Also, I'm including a picture of how I'm doing the side slats. The arm will be trimmed so that the curve of the side slats are continued in the curve of the arm.

Mike