Wooden plane for shooting board

[Mike Henderson]

Has anyone made a wooden plane for use with a shooting board? If so, what special features did you put into it? I'm specifically interested in any handholds you may have designed for it. Seems that you'd want to be able to press in and down as well as push.

The two ideas I had were to use a tote at an angle, close to 45*, or perhaps some kind of hot dog shape on the top edge (similar to what's used on iron planes). Any experience with those on a wooden plane? Good, bad,...?

Also, did anyone try a skewed blade? If so, do you think it was worth it compared to a square blade?

Thanks in advance for any comments and suggestions.

Mike

[John Schreiber]

I've thought about that some myself. I tend to think that the typical form of a plane isn't the right way to go. Two reasons:

When shooting an end or a miter, you are facing the bench making short strokes instead of standing to the side of your work moving along it.

And since you want to be able to use it on either side, a set of knobs front and back would seem to make sense to me. That way you could use it on either side.

A skewed blade makes sense to me for shooting, but I don't recall ever seeing a skewed blade on a woodie. I'd think it would be hard to adjust and keep adjusted, but I could be wrong.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Not being a traditionalist for tradition's sake, I do enjoy the heck out of this traditional woodie miter plane:

http://wenzloffandsons.com/temp/phil/mw1.jpg

http://wenzloffandsons.com/temp/phil/mw2.jpg

No handles. Can be used on either side of a shooting board that way. As well, without a side-oriented handle, I use it with both a miter jack and donkey's ear.

Skewed shoot board planes--I've had one--and should be bought/made in pairs if using both sides of a shoot board is part of how you work. I never found a left-skewed vintage one, sold it off, bought the LN miter plane. The LN is an incredible plane. Sold it as well.

Some will not like using the LN or the one above. due to the hand holding. However, if the plane is sharp, I don't ram it into the stock to clean up. I actually come up against it and slowly push through it. Works well.

The bedding is 38 degrees, bevel down. The basic design could be altered to include a handle, or "bump-out" to catch the web of the shooting hand I suppose. For me, it would limit the plane's usefulness.

Take care, Mike

[Joel Goodman]

Derek Cohen shows shooting with a Gordon wooden plane on his website with the detachable handle (sort of a dowel through the body of the plane) sticking up to hold onto.

[Wilbur Pan]

Just to follow up on Mike's squarish plane, Japanese planes are often used for shooting by simply screwing a 2x2 to the side of the planing workbench at an appropriate height and using the plane on its side. No handles or grips needed.

[Jim Tolpin]

I have a 30 year-old Record plane (called a "Technical Jack Plane") that includes a handle that can be screwed into either shoulder (which are oversized). Perfect for shooting--though its a standard, rather than low angle, so it requires a bit more pressure across end grain. I'll try to get a photo posted if anyone is interested. Don't know if they still make it...

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Hi Jim--nope, they don't.

But one can simply drill and tap for handle on any plane. Jacks are dirt cheap. I have a Bedrock 605 I might just drill...

Take care, Mike

[Pam Niedermayer]

I use a HNT Gordon try plane for shooting, it has a handle that can be used; and a Mosaku shooting plane of Hon red oak, beautiful worker. Neither has skewed blades. If I needed skew, I'd skew the work.

Pam

[jay benco]

I lacked a suitable plane as my #5 and other Bailey pattern planes seem too unstable on their sides and I wasn't confident that they would stay level and produce a repeatable 90degrees.

I have been making some Krenov style planes, and thought I would give one a go on the shooting board. Lacking suitable timber I laminated it from offcuts and had to stabilize some cracks with CA. The blade was an offcut from a trailer spring that I flattened, hardened and then tempered in the oven.

While I'm not sure how durable the timber plane will prove to be, one of the advantages of this style of plane is that its is very easy to use a stationary belt or disk sander to adjust the side/ sole to an accurate 90 degrees.

The bed angle is 30 degrees and the blade is bevel down. I was not able to discover the bed angle of the Stanley 51, but the 30 degrees seems to work ok.

Rather than add a tote to the plane, I have cut down and rounded the corner of the plane where you would naturally place your hand. It provides a low comfortable grip and surprisingly gives quite a bit of control to help keep the plane stable.

The shooting board itself is nothing fancy and had a former life as a desk at work, I'm sure it is much happier now.http://www.woodworkforums.com/images/smilies/mf_wink.gif

The last picture shows a test board held up to the light with a square for reference. I am happy with the result so far.

I shaped the heel of the plane to fit my hand and allow pressure to be applied in 2 directions as Mike mentions.

This is a plane I made a while ago, I'm very happy with it, but as noted above I would like to try a skew blade version and am in the process of constructing one.

regards,

JB

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Mike

Here is a shooting board with a skewed blade. I needed to do a complete restoration on it - top-to-toe, including rebuilding the frog and mouth, and re-jappaned everything.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Restoration/Stanley%2051-52/Re-Japanning/51finished2.jpg

You can see the skewed blade here:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Restoration/Stanley%2051-52/Re-Japanning/51-rightside.jpg

It works quite well :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Henderson]

Jay - thanks for posting those pictures and your experience with the shape. When I go to build a plane to use on a shooting board, I'll use some of your ideas.

Derek - Thanks for the picture. Maybe I'll try making a plane with a skewed blade.

Pam - thanks for the info. I don't think skewing the work will provide any shearing advantage, unless I'm missing something in your comment.