Traditional Plane Stock?

[David Turner]

Anyone have a source for quarter sawn stock for making traditional planes? Beech, Cherry, Maple, yellow birch. I have taken the classes, I have the DVD's, I have the tools and the jigs and fixtures. I need some wood.

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[Zach Dillinger]

You might give a call to Johnsons Workbench in Charlotte, MI. They will have what you want.

[george wilson]

Cherry is too soft. The New England early makers used birch. I have never liked working birch myself. Too splintery. Beech or maple would be best. I am certain Northern hard (sugar) maple would be the most durable wood. I think the old tools were made from it because it was plentiful.

[Paul Sidener]

I'm not sure where you are in Michigan, hopefully in the southwest corner. I use two places around me in Illinois, Owl Hardwood and Hardwood Connection. I kind of live half way in between the two. Both have a good selection and would worth the trip, if it's not too far. Owl Hardwood would be the closer one to you


https://www.owlhardwood.com

http://www.thehardwoodconnection.com

[Frank Drew]

I have a cherry smoothing plane from the German maker Ulmia, but the sole is a fairly thick piece of Lignum Vitae.

[David Weaver]

I have made planes out of cherry. Not bench planes. The trouble with cherry is two fold - the wood is not hard enough and gets all dented up quickly.

The second problem is a bigger issue, and that is that the density is not right for a bench plane. I got fantastic 16/4 beech from Horizon, but their ordering process is not something I'd go through for a stick or two (it's old school and not quick, but rather very service oriented and you get what you pay for).

re: ulmia's smoother, the mass is not quite as critical there and the lignum sole solves any softness problems.

Maple would be a good option if any of the suppliers who made 3" table leg blanks made 4" table leg blanks instead, though it is stocked 16/4 flatsawn some places and is a better drying wood.

[Tony Shea]

Cherry is too soft. The New England early makers used birch. I have never liked working birch myself. Too splintery. Beech or maple would be best. I am certain Northern hard (sugar) maple would be the most durable wood. I think the old tools were made from it because it was plentiful.

I don't completely agree with George about cherry as I have made a couple successful hollow and round planes with cherry without issue. This happened to be a very hard variety of cherry though and was perfectly quartersawn. But he is certainly giving you some great advise as cherry will always be softer than all the other choices. But I am a hobbyist woodworker therefore can get away with making a couple specialty planes from it and not worry too much about significant wear. If I had it to do over again I would've just waited till I found some beech to make the planes but certainly learned a ton from the experience in making them. Now I have some perfect beech for enough planes to fill my needs and completely understand what the rave is all about with this wood.

Sugar maple would no doubt make for an amazing plane but would be a pain to work with. Although I've seen some of these guys on here use rosewoods and other exotic super hard woods with no issue, although they have to be spending a lot of time on the sharpening stones with their chisels.

Anyways, I highly recommend you find some quatersawn beech and go from there, you will not be disappointed.

Try contacting Horizon Hardwoods, preferably by telephone as they don't always stay on top of their emails.

[george wilson]

I have seen pearwood German planes with hornbeam or lignum vitae soles.

The large jointer I have posted here was made from a very old 4x4" maple bed post that had never been finished. It had turned a medium brown color it was so old. Good and hard,too.

[Jim Matthews]

The large jointer I have posted here was made from a very old 4x4" maple bed post that had never been finished.

With the other three, you could make a bassoon.

[David Turner]

Zach:

L.L.Johnson has flat sawn beech but no quarter sawn beech and they only stock 8/4 flat sawn.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the other two suggested sources but I'm finding that most of the plane makers are entering into contracts with sawers/wood dryers for their quarter sawn beech. And of course they are talking 1000's of board feet. I'm not sure what a plane maker that wants 3 or 4 planes is to do?

I do have some persimmon and might experiment with gluing it to the bottom of a softer wood to make center escapement planes.

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.