Friday 30 April 2010

The last Mystery Rosewood XSNo.4, the second last A5 & a variation on a shoulder plane


I am just finishing up 3 planes - two of which are some of the last Mystery rosewood filled planes. This incredible infill material continues to provide stunning color and grain patterning. Here are a few detail shots of both the XSno.4 and the A5. Both these planes have a wonderful light streak in them. Take a look at the top of the front bun on the XSNo.4 and the handle of the A5. You can see it very clearly in the next photo of the infill before it was installed.















The front bun on the A5 is not too bad either.



This next plane is based on my own design - an amalgamation of a number of vintage infill planes. I first used this profile on a pair of 3/8" wide shoulder planes. This variation is 1/2" wide by 6" long. The bed and wedge are African Blackwood.









And just to prove that this plane is not milled from a solid piece of 01 - here are a few construction photos.



Once the plane has been piened together, I use a hacksaw to shape the profile.



At this point, the sides have been lapped but the sole still shows the ends of the dovetails.



The above photo shows the shell lapped, but without the chamfers. I am always amazed at the effect a simple chamfer can have on a plane - it can transform it form bland to stunning in very short order.



The “Sharpie” chamfer layout lines.

Tracey sent me over 600 photos of the living room and dining room. Needless to say - I have quite a bit of sorting to do. Here is one of the images that caught my attention right away.

10 Comments:

Blogger David said...

outstanding work... I have nothing else to say, thank you!
Cheers
David

30 April 2010 at 16:51  
Blogger nielscosman said...

Konrad,
You are a magician with hack saw!
I love the wedge detail shot of the shoulder plane- dig your style!
cheers,
Niels

1 May 2010 at 10:03  
Blogger Kari Hultman said...

Konrad, your work is breathtaking.

1 May 2010 at 20:36  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks David - your comment is certainly enough for me.

Cheers,
Konrad

2 May 2010 at 13:52  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Niels. Magician is maybe stretching it a bit... but I am happy to take it:) It is amazing how accurate a tool it can be actually - just takes lots of practice and a good hacksaw helps too.

Cheers,
Konrad

2 May 2010 at 13:53  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Kari. For all those who may not recognize "The village carpenter" it is a wonderful blog by Kari Hultman. The content of her blog is fantastic and puts most of us to shame with how frequently she updates it. Take some time to visit it - it will quickly become a favourite.

Cheers,
Konrad

2 May 2010 at 13:57  
Blogger tomausmichigan said...

Konrad

Nothing is as pretty as Blackwood and steel after its been through your shop.

Tom

3 May 2010 at 20:56  
Anonymous Micheline said...

Sweet! You can apply that word to every picture in the bunch. As pretty as that last one is, I still can't wait to see it in real life.

5 May 2010 at 11:29  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Tom. There are going to be several steel and blackwood planes over the next year - one of which is a brand new model.

Cheers,
Konrad

5 May 2010 at 22:52  
Blogger Konrad said...

Hey Miché,

Thanks. Hmmm... hope this is the Miché I think it is. Anyway - next time you are in town... the door is always open.

Cheers,
Konrad

5 May 2010 at 22:54  

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Wednesday 21 April 2010

new blog, new post, new photos


My apologies for the 3 week lag time between posts. I experienced a bit of a perfect storm in that blogger changed in the middle of the last push to get the living room and dining room completed. In a nutshell - I dropped the ball a bit. But... the good news is the renovation is done! The furniture has been moved in and we even hung a few pictures. There is a large “hole” where the future dining room table, chairs and other assorted pieces will go - but the kids are enjoying driving their Lego cars in the empty space. We are all very pleased with the finished space and I will be posting some photos of it as soon as I get them. I hired my photographer friend Tracey to photograph the room before we cluttered it up with our stuff.

She has also generously permitted me to post these photos of a fairly recent 28-1/2" A2 jointer. I had posted about this plane earlier - but the photos she took were quite stunning so I thought I would share them.
























This last photo is perhaps my favourite. I am not entirely sure why, but I suspect my design sensibilities have something to do with it.

15 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

That last picture is gorgeous. I don't suppose there's a hi-res version that could be used for a desktop background? Glad to see you're blogging again.

22 April 2010 at 09:32  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Jason,

If you click on the image and then click again - you end up with a pretty large version of it.

Cheers,
Konrad

22 April 2010 at 09:40  
Blogger Unknown said...

you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. Worked like a champ. Thanks.

22 April 2010 at 10:21  
Blogger Konrad said...

glad it worked - it is now my desktop too:)

Cheers,
Konrad

22 April 2010 at 10:47  
Blogger David said...

A great plane maker, and a great photografer, this make for a perfect day... You made my day!
Cheers
David

22 April 2010 at 12:21  
Anonymous Derek Cohen said...

Hi Konrad

I looked at the photos before reading your blog and thought to myself, "Oh my my my ... I am now terribly embarrassed to have posted all my photos (taken by myself) in my articles and reviews. These are just simply stunning!!"

And then I read that they were taken by a professional. Whew!

The pictures are perfect. My God they are wonderful! And what they do is show up your work in the very best possible way. The pictures capture your details in all their glory and reveal the absolutely superb balance between craftsmanship and design.

Konrad, I know you are happily married, but you should consider bigamy to hold onto Tracey. My wife would kill me, otherwise I'd marry her myself!

Regards from Perth

Derek Cohen

24 April 2010 at 03:16  
Blogger Konrad said...

Hi derek,

Glad you like the photos. There are times when you just have to break down and hire professionals for things like this. She is an amazing photographer.

Sadly - Tracey is also very happily married, but I will pass along your admiration.

Cheers,
Konrad

25 April 2010 at 08:43  
Blogger Konrad said...

Glad to have made your day David. It made mine when I saw these photos for the first time too. And I only posted a very small group of them... there were over 500 taken!

Cheers,
Konrad

25 April 2010 at 08:44  
Anonymous JeffB said...

Close up photography is not forgiving of imperfections. It is amazing how well the plane stands up to the scrutiny of the lens. A sure sign of incredible work. Congrats on the beautiful plane and pictures.

25 April 2010 at 19:31  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Jeff. The camera can do some amazing things to be sure - picking up flaws is certainly one of them. But... with good lighting you can also make a plane look pretty darn impressive - to the point where it surprises even the maker.

Best wishes,
Konrad

25 April 2010 at 19:47  
Anonymous lou said...

Another beauty Konrad,perfection as always.What is that on the back of the handle in picture #6 ?.

26 April 2010 at 07:05  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Lou. An odd bit of grain. I noticed it when I was doing the final sanding on the handle. It only shows up in really particular lighting situations - an odd bit of chatoyance I guess.

Cheers,
Konrad

26 April 2010 at 07:13  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm such a sucker for that Uber-Jointer!!

Amazing work Konrad, and thanks again for sharing the new pics, very nice photography.

Cheers,
Steve

27 April 2010 at 08:29  
Blogger tomausmichigan said...

Konrad

The choice of background is counterintuitive, but it works brilliantly. The side of the plane almost disappears, and the rest seems strange and new like a familiar landmark emerging from the fog. Absolutely great, photo and plane!

Tom

29 April 2010 at 06:43  
Blogger Konrad said...

Thanks Tom. Tracey and I have been talking about an Irving Penn style shoot at some point - that should be fun too.

Cheers,
Konrad

30 April 2010 at 14:08  

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