Any wooden plane builders here?

[Howard Rosenberg]

I'm thinking of building a wood-bodied jointer plane using this Lee Valley kit - https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop...plane-hardware .

Some questions weight -
- how much does it make sense to use a lighter-weight wood like pine for the body and then laminate a 1/4" sole using maple or ipe or something hard etc
- any other woods hard enough for the entire body that doesn't add crazy weight - ash, walnut, beech

And any other advice from anyone that's done this before?

Thanks.
Howard

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Making some planes out of Black Locust is on my list of things to do. There are lots of knowledgeable contributors here at SMC. I have some old threads bookmarked for when I get around to it.

[mike stenson]

Beech was a traditional wood for planes. I've made a few smoothers, mostly Krenov style, and used a harder wood for a sole. It's worked out pretty well in the 20 years I've used at least one of them, that one actually is a walnut body with an ipe sole. Oh and maple for the wedge

[Rafael Herrera]

Pine may not be strong enough to stand the stress of the lever cap over time, the cross pin may eventually crush the fibers.

A jointer will not be light, regardless of the wood you choose.

If you want to try beechwood, you can get fit for purpose billets at

https://inventory.horizonwood.com/pr...litches-391631 for rift sawn, and

https://inventory.horizonwood.com/pr...-lumber-391630 for quarter sawn.

Rafael

[Ben Ellenberger]

I made a little compass plane out of maple, just to see if I could. It was a fun little project and it came out reasonably well.

I’d make the whole body out of hardwood. The plane will still be much lighter than a metal jointer plane.

[chris carter]

I made a 26” jointer out of red oak. I did not use the kit. I use a hammer: tappity-tap-tap. I honestly would recommend not using the adjustment kit – I find my wooden planes easier to adjust than the planes I have that use a Norris adjuster. I think that kit is one of those famous Veritas “solution looking for a problem that doesn’t exist” things.

I would not use pine for the body; it will flex too much (and maybe too much movement compared to the laminated sole???). Just use a cheap and relatively hard wood. It doesn’t get much cheaper than red oak so that’s what I used and it was easily available. It’s my favorite hand plane. Ash and beech should both work fine.

FWIW my jointer weighs in at 6lbs 2oz. I will also add that if you are making your own jointer you can make it whatever length you want, and that extra 2" over a no. 8 I have were really worth it to me.

[Jack Dover]

This is a kit for a laminated plane, you don't really need a plane builder here. But to answer your questions:

1. No, pine won't do, because you will be using a hammer to adjust it. I'll explain why below.

2. Yes, ash, walnut, beech would work, as well as white oak, cherry, yellow birch (bottom part if you can pick), osage orange, any kind of maple, etc - any local hardwood is good. Some more explanations below.

Having built and used planes with and without adjusters I'm pretty confident you will end up using a hammer for iron adjustment. The adjuster LV offers kinda works, but not the way you'd expect. It's coarse in simple words, after getting accustomed to Stanley adjuster this type will just drive you crazy exactly because it "kinda works" - neither depth nor lateral adjustment is fine or convenient. So you will end up ignoring the adjuster or maybe even completely removing it. I would recommend forgoing the adjuster and buying just a blade with a chip breaker. Which brings us to a question you didn't ask - is this a good kit to buy? The answer is "probably no", because it doesn't have a chipbreaker. This means you absolutely must do the narrowest mouth possible which is going to be a challenge for your first build. Even if isn't (some people are just that talented) you will have a plane with a very limited responsibilities - it will choke immediately as soon as you try to give it a bit more iron. So I would suggest buying a Hock iron with a chipbreaker from LV. You can get the narrowest bench blade kit because ergonomics of laminated planes makes them a finishing tool only for pieces that aren't too large, so 1 5/8" iron kit is totally adequate for something like a dedicated jointer or a block plane for odd pieces.

Any hard wood actually works, but your main concern is wear resistance and stability. You can totally make it out of red oak with applied ipe or hickory sole, but be prepared that it will go out of square a few times in first few months. So stable woods like beech, osage orange, yellow birch are preferable (assuming applied sole, 'cos birch wears fast). These planes aren't heavy by the way, unless you plan using something like iron bark or some similar exotic wood that doesn't float. Otherwise even a long jointer (22" or longer) is about the same or maybe lighter than #4, you can totally use it one handed.

Another thing I'd like to share is the cross pin. It's by far the most and only complicated part of the build - making shoulders distance exactly equals to the with of the bed and making round tenons. It's done so that a cross pin can have flat landing at the bottom and a wedge has wider contact spot. I stopped doing it and instead use a brass rod (like LV suggests in their kit). Just file a little spot at the bottom feathering close to where it goes into cheeks. Cheeks could be a bit fatter than recommended, 3/16" is plenty, and the rod should sit snug, but still be able to rotate. Once you fit a wedge a few drops of a superglue will hold it in place.

All the best with the build. These planes have 99.9% project success rate, just make sure it's sharp and it will definitely work.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Beech was a traditional wood for planes. I've made a few smoothers, mostly Krenov style, and used a harder wood for a sole. It's worked out pretty well in the 20 years I've used at least one of them, that one actually is a walnut body with an ipe sole. Oh and maple for the wedge

There is a thread from about a year ago with an offer from a member who had put up some north woods Beech billets for making planes.

My mistake, it was an offer for Alaskan Birch

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[Mike Henderson]

Wooden planes are easy to build - I've built several. At one time it was easy to find low cost irons (often with chip breakers) on eBay that were taken from antique planes. I haven't looked recently so I don't know the status.

I bought some lignum vitae and laminated that on the bottom of many of the planes. Lignum vitae is a hard, slippery wood.

It's a low cost way to make wooden planes.

[A few pictures below. The long one has lignum vitae on the sides as well because it used it as a shooting plane as well as a jointer. But it was a bit too long.

The first plane used a Ron Hock iron.]

Mike

Wood-Plane-1.jpg Wood-Plane-3.jpg Wood-Plane-4.jpg Wooden-Plane-001.jpg

[Cameron Wood]

I restored a Japanese jointer plane including adding a layer of Ipe to the sole of the oak body. It is performing really well so far.

I don't think light weight is that desirable for a plane, and combining as dissimilar woods as pine and beech could have problems.

IMG_3915.jpeg

[Warren Mickley]

I made a jack plane in 1978 and bought a beech trying plane in 1979. These planes have been used on every piece of wood I have trued since. Beech is the premier wood, both for ease of working and ease of adjusting. The wedging action is particularly good.

You do not need to put on a special sole. You will wear out the iron long before you wear out the sole.

Putting a rod in pine will not work very well. The rod is only as strong as the wood tissue supporting it .

[Derek Cohen]

I'm thinking of building a wood-bodied jointer plane using this Lee Valley kit - https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop...plane-hardware .

Some questions weight -
- how much does it make sense to use a lighter-weight wood like pine for the body and then laminate a 1/4" sole using maple or ipe or something hard etc
- any other woods hard enough for the entire body that doesn't add crazy weight - ash, walnut, beech

And any other advice from anyone that's done this before?

Thanks.
Howard

Howard, firstly, I would not use that kit unless you were planning a high angle plane. A single iron plane has limitations in controlling tearout, and a high cutting angle is the basic way to deal with this. Better to get a Hock blade and chipbreaker (as used by Krenov, sold by Lee Valley.

Your choice is laminated sides or solid body; and pin-and-wedge vs cheeks-and-wedge vs lever cap. I have built all of these. Examples (all pre-chipbreaker era):

Strike Block Plane - Solid body: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...lockPlane.html



Jack Plane - Combined cheeks and lamination: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...JackPlane.html




Krenov smoother (high angle) and block plane: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...vSmoother.html




36" Jointer - Lever cap (high angle) jointer: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...rsJointer.html




Regards from Perth

Derek

[Howard Rosenberg]

Thank you to everybody that replied with your insights and advice.

- Chris Carter
your reply is consistent with everyone else's observations - thanks for that

- Jack Dover
I appreciate the thoroughness of your reply and it was among the ones that helped me "see-the-light" - many thanks - do you have any pics of your output? I'd sure welcome seeing your planes

- Mike Henderson
gorgeous pics - thanks for that info re lignum vitae
- Cameron Wood

great-looking ipe sole - many thanks
- Warren Mickley
thanks for your observations re beech

- Derek Cohen
I've long admired your contributions on so many different forums - thank you for today's links - great and practical info - plus, as always, gorgeous output - and how I envy you for the hardwoods you take for granted in Australia! - much appreciated - it appears I'll get the Hock blade chip breaker that LV stocks you suggested

Once again, many thanks to everyone.
Howard

[Jack Dover]

Hey Howard,

took me some digging, but I apparently still have my early planes — better ones were given away, but they weren't too much better. So here's what's left.

A joiner, 15" long, hard maple with applied hickory sole:

IMG_5624.jpegIMG_5622.jpeg

A "block plane", slightly shorter than a Stanley #4. Red oak and applied hickory sole (I love hickory for this). Let's call it a block plane. The idea was to have a plane that fits one hand, which it kinda does, but would do better if it would be of a lesser height. This guy had thicker cheeks, since red oak moves a lot with humidity change it had to be squared a few times. This is not necessary btw, only if you plan shooting with it. I've replaced irons on this one a few times and then lost a chipbreaker somewhere, so had to make a really thick wedge. One day I might put a spare Hock iron into it, which will require opening a mouth quite a bit. Note where the mouth is positioned, apparently there's a reason why all designs suggest having a mouth somewhere around midpoint.

IMG_5621.jpeg

I'm not doing this type of planes anymore. I had a chance to meet one of Redwood college students who went there during Krenov times. He had a plane by James himself, all dusty from sitting on top of a tool cupboard. Still recall my surprise, like, isn't that your violin or something, don't you listen to the music of shavings in the air as weather changes outside and violins change their voices? He was like nah, I have other planes — and indeed he had, a good lineup of Lie Nielsens, but his primary planes and chisels were Japanese. It was during my Krenov phase, and he let me try it. My expectation was that I'd levitate at least 5" while using it, but no, it was just a sharp plane. Not even particularly sharp, just sharp, which is totally adequate for someone doing 90% machine work. I already could sharpen better at that time, so suddenly Krenov waxing poetic about laminated planes lost its spell. And after making a few myself and realizing all their limitations and problems, I decided it's a dead end for me.

So just to give Steve Voigt a good laugh these are the planes I'm learning to make these days. Nothing particularly impressive, still figuring out basics and suppliers:

IMG_5620.jpeg

[Cameron Wood]

I've got these project plane bodies, if anyone wants to take a shot.

They came from a buddy's dad's estate- he was a shop teacher & the far ones may have been student projects. The cuts for the iron are rough. Rosewood?
The near one is pretty clean- just unfinished. Not sure the wood but heavy & dense.

IMG_4021.jpg