To be honest I can't remember the project that required this plane, well truthfully I didn't require this plane as I could have used a router and a template but at the time I wanted to make a plane and this was the first one I made.
IMG_00000603.jpgIMG_00000604.jpgIMG_00000606.jpg
The body is hard maple, the wedge is cherry and the blade and knicker are O1 tool steel. The dovetail angle is 10 degrees and the cutter is bedded to take a skewed cut to reduce planing effort. I recall that chopping out the bed was a bear as I only had bench chisels at the time (Sandviks, quite frankly the best chisels that I have ever owned as far as steel goes). I made my own float to true things up. The tool steel is supplied in 36" lengths and annealed. I cut it out with a hacksaw and cleaned this up with a file and then hardened and tempered it. The knicker is in a dovetailed way and dimpled to expedite removal with a punch or what have you. I now use a bandsaw, phew. My first attempts to use the plane proved that the shavings were not clearing but clogging so I opened up the area behind the mouth and tapered it to get the shaving to eject properly and sure enough it almost worked like a spile plane.
Chris Griggs: I made this plane for a task, a task that I was being paid for but this was an adventure and learning experience that I was eager to undertake. I have never used this plane since. I consider this to be a "professional" woodworker's plane, functional, effective and driven by a project. It was not meant to be the definitve example of its kind. I have never used it since.
Derek Cohen: I don't recall how big or small the project was that I used this plane for but I did design and build the project for a client. I think you could say that this plane is neither big nor small but sort of medium in size. The images don't show any knurling because there is none. I did dimple the knicker as I mentioned and this did truly improve functionality.
David Weaver: I did not invent the dovetail plane nor radically alter its construction. I designed this plane from articles that I read in the woodworking books that I owned and borrowed from the library.
I hope that you three will allow me the guilty pleasure of these last 6 lines of text. They are not meant to be malicious but mischievous! I don't think that you guys asked for my projects because you were terribly interested in my work but rather were looking for blood I am okay with that. I thought about your call out to me and realised that I do comment often on other's posts but barely ever bring a thread to the party. While your intentions were less than pleasant you have caused me to realise that I could be a better forum member. I will not be notifying you three that I am posting work but I hope that you do look for my posts and feel free to comment on my efforts. You will see my posts in General Woodorking, Neander, Musical Instruments and Finishing.
Happy New Year!