Finished believe it or not plane

[Ron Brese]

I finished the believe it or not plane today. I hope you enjoy the pics. The body is 1/4" thick bearing brass, the lever cap is 3/8' thick brass with stainless steel cap screw. The infill is mahogany. I made the iron from 1/4" thick 0-1 tool steel and it does not utilize a cap iron, the 1/4" thick iron does not need a cap iron. I used brass infill pins that once peened and leveled disappear. This keeps the body cleaner and makes for less visual distraction. The miter plane type body helps the mass of this smoother. It weighs just under 4 pounds, needless to say it is quite solid and feels quite good in the hand and in the using.

Ron

[Jameel Abraham]

Gorgeous! Incredible work. Do you sell these?

[Ryan Cathey]

How did you engrave the lever cap?

-Ryan C.

[Howie French]

wow Ron ! that looks spectacular, what are the dimensions ?
Howie

[Ron Brese]

Ryan,

I have a very trustworthy local jewerly engraver that works quite closely with me to get this done exactly as I want it. It is done on a cnc engraver. In fact she engraved this piece today and wasn't quite sure about something and called and had me come to the shop to make sure it was done as I wished. That's either great customer service or someone who does not want to be responsible for something with that much value. I happen to think that it's both.

Ron

[Ron Brese]

Howie, This is what I will call my model 650-50. This denotes that the body is 6.500 inches long and the iron is bedded at 50 degrees. The iron is 1.500 inches wide. I allow .062 for lateral adjustment plus the thickness of the sides which makes the width 2.062.

Ron

[Joel Ficke]

Stunning! It look almos too good to use :-)

[Louis Bois]

Ron, I'm assuming that thumbscrew in the blade is to help with fiddly adjustments?

[Ron Brese]

Louis,

I was wondering when someone was going to ask about that little thumbscrew in the iron. It is not for adjustment, it is in fact a safetly device. This plane doesn't use a cap iron. If the lever cap screw is backed off the iron could fall right thru the mouth possibly causing personal injury, or ruining a freshly honed edge. This little knurled head screw keeps that from happening. I can tell you from personal experience one should never under any circumstances try to catch a plane iron. Planes are simple machines and I prefer to keep them that way. This little plane can be easily adjusted with a small plane hammer just by tinking the iron. One can become quite proficient at this in a very little while. This keeps the infill bed uninterrupted and gives this plane such a solid feel that any piece of wood that it is applied to has no choice but to shear and curl up. Once adjusted to preference most infills are left alone so a mechanical adjuster sort of belies justification and on a plane this size, it just gets in the way.

[Jim Becker]

Beautiful work, Ron. A piece of art that is also a wonderful tool! Bravo!

[Ryan Cathey]

Sounds like a nice deal. Does anyone know or have experience with walmarts engraving service? I know it wouldn't be as good as this one but just curious.

-Ryan C.

[Ken Werner]

Hi Ron,
Both design and execution win my admiration. Lots of it.
Ken