Just finished up this horned smoother. This is my fourth attempt at making a plane and the second successful, after a jack plane I made a few months ago.
The primary materials are Honey Mesquite for the body and Texas Ebony for the sole and handles. The inlay is TE, maple, and Osage Orange. The iron is a vintage 1 3/4" double iron by Sheffield Steel Products/Peepul. Sole length is 8 1/2" (9 1/2" overall including the rear grip) and the iron is bedded at 50°.
The wedge is a temporary one of stained walnut in case I decide to upgrade the iron to modern steel in the future. Texas Ebony is hard to source and hard to work so no sense wasting it on what might be a temporary wedge.
The story behind the inlaid eyes is that the mesquite had a borer hole where the left eye is located. Borer holes are common in the sapwood of mesquite, though this one was a bit unusual in extending a bit into the heartwood. I planned from the beginning to put some kind of inlay there to cover the hole, but didn't have a plan beyond that. When I was making the horn I noticed that the profile of a horned plane somewhat resembles that of an Ancient Greek trireme. Triremes commonly had eyes painted on the bow in the area that corresponds to where the borer hole was, so I decided to run with that for the inlay. I took it a little further by shaping the rear grip to resemble a trireme's stern too.
Overall I'm pretty happy with both its appearance and performance, which I'd say is at least on par with my current "smoother", the L-N #62 you can see the the background. Adjusting a wooden smoother is a bit more fiddly than my wooden jack plane, but I expect I'll get the hang of it.
IMG_20200125_214133.jpg IMG_20200125_214203.jpg IMG_20200125_214346.jpg IMG_20200125_214402.jpg IMG_20190816_212120.jpg Left Profile Rear Quarter Front Quarter Right Profile just to prove she doesn't just have one good side! Jack plane for comparison
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