How to approach cutting throat in sole for wooden hand plane - super hard verawood

[Fitzhugh Freeman]

How would you cut the throat in a verawood sole for a Krenov-style jointer? I'm new and could easily be overlooking the obvious.

After resawing and planing I have two planed pieces of verawood, 3/16 and 5/16 thick. I'm thinking the thinner as it will be easier to work. I have a few more lengths to resaw for other planes, none clear for the whole 23" this one calls for.

I didn't realize in time that many just glue the sole on before ripping the cheeks and cutting the center block into two pieces, front and back.
I could add an insert of verawood, but the red oak I have for the body seems a poor choice for a high wear surface.
I could slice the sole into two pieces along the throat, giving easy access, but I don't like the idea - I don't mind it taking time and effort. This plane is already taking a long time as I started with a chunk of red oak and a board of verawood, each way oversized, and crosscut, ripped and resawed them down to size with just a cheap ryoba, a stanley jack plane and a wooden plane I made from scrap. I needed to show myself I could instead of having it milled. Some of those cuts took an hour - a frame saw is next.

This wood is so hard! It also leaves a hard crust on saw teeth and plane irons... not sticky sap, much more like thick surface rust. Builds up very fast and keeps tools from cutting. I stop and scrape it off every few passes. It's also giving me lots of practice sharpening. Add to that, it chips rather easily and I'm quite allergic to the dust. Oh well, I've got enough of that and the oak to make two or three additional planes.

I've had little luck with chisels. For my first trial attempt I drilled a hole for a coping saw, sawed out the length of the throat, and then tried a variety of things. Well-tuned card scraper was best, hand paring with chisels was hardest. I don't have a thin enough file (and no floats) to fit until it is nearly done anyhow - it will fit for final tuning.

The bed angle is 45 and I cut the front angle at 60, so I'm considering shaping a card scraper so one corner is 75 degrees or less (the 90 won't fit), then using the triangle block I cut out of the center as a guide. The fit here is so critical.

Thanks

[Dave Beauchesne]

Fitzhugh:

I made a high angle Krenov smoother a couple years ago, completely from Verawood. The Krenov 4 piece approach, front back and two sides.

We used an Oberg cut file to fit the mouth, being sure to tape the teeth on the sides of the file so it didn't dig into the cheeks - all I can say if you stay strictly Neander is take it easy and slow.

As for the glue up, make sure you do an acetone wipe on the Vera immediately before gluing; this increases the chances of the wood having something to soak into immensely.

Good Luck !

Dave Beauchesne

[Fitzhugh Freeman]

Thanks Dave,
That must be one solid feeling plane!
Did you use the file just to tune the throat or to actually create it? I'm just not sure how to best cut the prism-shaped wedge out of the flat sole in the first place. If I can find a proper file that is thin enough it would probably work great. I'll look online, I don't know how to shop for files. I hadn't heard of Oberg cut, for example. I was going to ask but looked it up instead... realized I have one. It's a file for flattening fretboards, working on rosewood without splintering. Only it came glued to a block of wood and won't fit. I didn't realize it was not just a fine fine diagonal cut file until I saw a diagram of different types.

[Dave Beauchesne]

Fitzhugh:

The way the plane was constructed, it was to fine tune the mouth.

Why not use a fret saw to carefully cut the mouth and then refine it?

Sorry I can't be of more help -

Dave B