Made a plane yesterday

[Bill Moser]

It's a krenov-style block plane, about 7 1/2" long, made from some scraps I had laying around. I included a pic not to show off my newbie planemaking skills, but rather the wood itself. The sides are from a 15' tall "stump" I cut down when clearing the roadway my camp in northern VT. I think its maple. The end of the log looked interesting, so I flitch cut it, and found it to be even better on the inside. Not spalted exactly, but definitely changed from when it was a living tree. Its beautiful, easy to work, and silky when planed.

In the process of making the plane, I ended up with a couple of questions that I hope others more experienced than myself can help me out with:

1) Pins vs cheeks: In a recent post here (forget the thread) someone referred to this site: http://linuxplane.awardspace.com/index.html. Unlike the Krenov method for securing the wedge and iron assembly, the method here is to emulate the 18 century style, with glued up cheeks supporting securing the wedge. With the two krenov planes I've made, the pin takes up lots of space, and seems contribute to shavings clogging up the plane. Also, having no power tools, it takes quite a while to make the pin, and marking its locaton takes more work than I'd like. Does anyone have experience with the "linux plane" technique? I'm thinking of trying it next, since it looks easier to do, and it also looks like it will result in shavings clearing easier.

2) Adjustable mouths: I ended up with the opening on my plane a little too big. It does ok, but can't take super fine shavings easily. I was thinking of doing the usual technique of cutting out a small region in front of the blade and gluing in an insert. Then I thought, why not screw it in with two small screws instead of gluing, and slot the insert so I can adjust the mouth. Its a little ugly, but it seems like it should work. Anyone have any thought on this?

TIA for whatever advice anyone can offer...

[Mike Henderson]

Your plane looks very nice.

I made a plane with the cheeks he mentions. I didn't do it his way, however. I glued the cheeks onto the sides after I had assembled the plane. I located them by putting the blade and wedge in and then gluing the cheek pieces against those. I trimmed the cheek pieces with a chisel to shape them and did the final shaping with sandpaper.

He makes a big thing out of the location accuracy of the cheeks but you can have some slop in their location. You adjust for the slop by adjusting your wedge to fit the cheeks. If you're really off, one side of the wedge will be at a different angle than the other. But it's pretty easy to get the cheeks located so they're pretty much the same.

Also, by using cheeks, you don't have that pin showing on the side of the plane (I don't like the looks of that).

Mike

[Steve knight]

I like cheeks better they look nice and make a cleaner path for shavings.
but here is the simple way to do it. gluing them in is best. they are hard to cut out otherwise. I would not know since I only made about 3500 that way (G) but anyway the way to get them right is to cut your wedge angle and put it in the plane along with the iron. then make the cheek blocks press them tight against the wedge and clamp in place. then check and make sure they did not move. that should get them right on or pretty close.

[Bill Moser]

Mike & Steve -
Thanks for the advice. The methods you propose sound pretty similar,, and less fussy than a pin. I also don't like the look of pins -- next time its cheeks for me!

[Ron Petley]

What thickness if plane iron do you have, I am intrested in the thickness needed without a chipbreaker.
Cheers Ron.

[Steve knight]

1/8" would be about as small as I would go.

[Bill Moser]

Ron, This plane has a 3/16" thick Hock blade, + the chip breaker. Probably overkill -- for my next (cheeky) plane I've ordered a chip breaker-less blade from lee valley -- also 3/16" thick. Steve K, offers some Japanese-inspired blades that are made for western-style planes, but I'm too cheap to but one yet, at least, until I produce a plane I'm happy with (which may be a while... Incidentally, Steve, how thick are those blades?). One thing that a chip breaker does add, regardless of the arguments over whether it actually breaks chips or not, is mass, which can be important in a small wood plane. I have an idea in my next one to drill a 3/4" hole in the back of the plane, and a 1/2" one on the top (usual hammer-tapping places) and insert brass rods both to add mass, and to act as strike blocks. We'll see how that turns out....
-bill