lie-nielsen butt mortise plane

[Bill Sams]

Hi, if anyone out there has even considered purchasing Lie Nielsen's butt mortise plane, do so....it is an incredible beautiful tool to use.
After making 22 interior doors, I proceeded to mortise for 3 4x4 baldwin brass butt hinges for each door and jamb, as well as install old style mortise locks on 15 of these doors.
The butt mortise plane performed flawlessly throughout, creating beautiful flat bottom mortises for the hinges, locks and strikeplates. A real pleasure!
I couldn't help but to exclaim ......excuse my enthusiam.

[Tom Scott]

Bill,
I was sure wishing I had one last night as I was morticing out for some small box hinges (always one of those chores I dread). Do you think this plane would work equally as well for small hinges, or is it over-kill?

Tom

[Lars Thomas]

Bill, I trust you plan to share door pics with us. You can't leave us 'hanging' like that. Lars

[Bill Sams]

Tom, the butt mortise plane is perfect for small boxes. I used it recently for a small dovetailed candle box I made for my lady. Definitely not overkill. You still use a chisel to outline the ends, then use to plane to take out the middle down to a perfect depth. Lie-Nielson's web site gives a demonstration if you're interested.

Lars, I'll try attaching a photo of the mahogany doors. there were 4 of those. The others were poplar, all to be painted. All doors were to match the existing doors in a 1780's house-all 4 panel, 10" wide rails, beveled panels on one side, flat panels on opposite side with an applied moulding. I need to return to the job to take better photos.

[Lars Thomas]

Bill, That's a lot of work. They look great. . . Thanks for posting.