Hand work... glorious hand work!

I am finishing off a few A5’s right now, and thought a little “how-to” series might be interesting. My favourite aspect of planemaking (by far) is the shaping of the various infills. There are very few infill pieces that lend themselves to router bits or other mechanical shaping methods. And besides - shaping it by hand is way more fun. The front bun of an A5 is a perfect example.

The A5 in the above photo has just been lapped, the sides are fully shaped and the next step is to shape the bun.


Here are a few quick layout lines. The first radius I work on is the front one - connecting the line on top of the bun and the one of the front face. As I am rounding this over - I am watching the light reflect on the curve to help maintain a consistent curve. Once the front is done, I round over the edges - following the profile of the sidewall.



Here is a shot of the front rounded over as well as the sides. Note how rough the shaping is at this point. It is also fairly parallel to the overall shape of the sidewalls.



This photo shows the transition into more graceful complex curves. The front corners have been rounded over. They also “sag” a bit as is shown by the white layout line across the front - part of it is removed in the corners.


The coarse file marks are removed with a finer file - and the “sagging” corners can be seen a bit better in the bands of light reflecting off the bun.



Now the bun is fully shaped and sanded. From the fine file, I use 220 grit sandpaper, then 320, 400 and end with 600. The above photo shows the finish from 600 grit.




And close up shots to show the finished surface, as well as the organic compound curves to the bun.



And finally - a shot of the plane with the first coat of french polish on the bun and the overstuffed sides.

Birds-eye boxwood

In August of 2008, I had an opportunity to acquire a very rare piece of wood - some Birds-eye boxwood. Finding real English boxwood is tough enough - but to find a piece of birds-eye is kinda like finding Rosewood burl.

The above lump has been sitting in the shop for almost a year and it was time to cut into it. What was even more astonishing is that it appeared that the “eyes” went all the way to the pith instead of disappearing 1/4" under the surface. This was one amazing piece of wood!




A close-up of some of the “eyes”.



The first cut is always the scariest - and the most exciting. This piece did not disappoint - the eye were more intense 1/4" in.



This was a very irregular piece - and I did my best to save as much wood as I could while still finding the infill sets I was after. The above book-match was really striking - and provided me with a lot of information about how to proceed. And on top of the birds-eye - there was some curl.



After a few hours of flipping the pieces over, outlining parts, erasing parts, taking a small cut here and there - I had 3 sets roughed out. There are two sets for XSNo.4’s and a set for a SNo.4. There are still a few really good sized pieces left over for other small plane parts.



Here is a shot of the top of the rear infill for the SNo.4. This set is going in an all steel version - an SNo.4ss.

The toughest part now is going to be the waiting.