3 spare XSNo.4’s

 

Over the last couple of months I have been picking away at a few spare planes. I was looking through the shelves of roughed out sets and 2 of them jumped out at me immediately. The birds-eye Boxwood and the Desert Ironwood burl sets needed to be made. I also noticed a lonely Ebony set and recalled a naval brass lever cap and sides that I have never used. I usually prefer bronze to naval brass, but there is something about Ebony and naval brass that I have always liked. As I thought about these 3 sets, it occurred to me that each of these could be configured slightly differently which would illustrate how different materials interact with each other with very different effects. 

The Boxwood plane would have looked wonderful with either steel or bronze sides. Part of the thinking was how the Boxwood will patina in time. The yellow cast will fade and it will turn to a mellow straw color which will look quite striking with the patina that will develop on the bronze. I used brass cross pins to keep the sides a little cleaner, but used a steel cross pin for the lever cap.

 This XSNo.4 is 5-1/2" long with a 1-7/16" wide high carbon steel blade. The bed angle is 52.5 degrees. The Boxwood has been lightly oiled an finished with a coat of paste wax. The price of this plane is $1,850.00 Cdn + actual shipping costs.

The Desert Ironwood burl plane took a bit more thought. Steel sides was a given - but as I was working on it, I waffled on the lever cap material. I went so far as to take a photo of it and alter the color of the lever cap in Photoshop. Stainless was the winner because it looks wicked and meant each of the planes would have a different sidewall and lever cap materials.

 This XSNo.4ss is 5-1/2" long with a 1-7/16" wide high carbon steel blade. The bed angle is 52.5 degrees. The Desert Ironwood has 12 coats of French polish. The price of this plane is $2,050.00 Cdn + actual shipping costs.

The last plane in the trio is an Ebony filled XSNo.4. This plane has naval brass sides, lever cap and lever cap screw. I also used brass cross pins for a really clean look. I am quite pleased with how this little plane has turned out. The naval brass and Ebony look great together. The difference between the naval brass and bronze is subtle - but you can see it pretty clearly in the first photo at the top. I don’t think there are too many other woods that look good with naval brass - but Ebony certainly does.

 This XSNo.4 is 5-1/2" long with a 1-7/16" wide high carbon steel blade. The bed angle is 52.5 degrees. The Ebony has been lightly oiled and then 12 coats of French polish. The price of this plane is $1,800.00 Cdn + actual shipping costs.

September re-cap

This blog thing can really get away one you. I can’t believe the last post is a little over a month old. It has been a busy month with lots going on in the shop.

A new variation of the K7 - bronze sides and a bronze lever cap and screw.

It was really interesting to make this plane with bronze instead of steel and stainless. Brass cross pins really help maintain a clean profile.

Figured Honduran Rosewood doesn’t hurt either.

The owner of this plane has been keeping me posted as he has been using it and sending photos of the work he is doing. It was pretty cool to see someone else planing figured veneer.

Another plane variation - an A11 mitre plane with a bronze bridge and screw. Until this plane, all the A11 mitres were all steel. This was another really great variation and the little hit of bronze really works well with the Desert Ironwood. An all steel version would have looked great too... but I think this is even better.

The dining room chairs are now completed and have been moved into the house. It was great to get the space back in the shop - amazing how much room 5 chairs take up! The finishing process went much more smoothly than on the first chair. Even still - I was going a little snakey waiting for the finish to dry. Here are a few quick photos as I was bringing them into the house before it started raining.

I am in the early planing stages of the table now. We were really curious to see how the chairs would look in the dining room. We were also curious to see how they would look in a 4 chair configuration. Our dining room space is not huge, and we assumed that an expanding dining table (butterfly leaf to be exact) would be the best solution. We had visions of a 4 seat table in the middle of the room and then on the occasions when we needed more seating - we would expand the table to 6. I made 2 mock-up tops - one 4 seat top and then a 6 seat top (the 6 seater being the 4 seat top expanded). Funny thing is - the 4 seat top looked terrible. And I mean really terrible. I had the top on sawhorses and wondered if that was the problem. I brought in the 6 chair top and very quickly realized the problem was not the sawhorses - the 4 person top was just the wrong top. I stood there for a while staring at it somewhat dumbfounded. I opted to wait until Jill came home to see if she would have a similar response. She did and, we were both somewhat flabbergasted. We concluded that the 4 seat top was too small in relation to the chairs and that if a squarish table was going to work - it would need to be about 46" wide. That might have worked for a 4 seat table, but would not work as an expandable table. The other issue is that the 4 person top was too close in proportion to the light fixture above it. It created a visual column that was not pleasing at all.

We have decided on a fixed table that will hold all 6 chairs. I am both relieved and disappointed. Relieved that a fixed base table will be much simpler (maybe, faster?) to make, but a little bit sad that I cannot mess around with a butterfly leaf design. They are so cool! The other good thing about having a 6 seat table is all the chairs will have a home. 

I covered the floor in kraft paper and traced the mock-up top onto it. We then placed the table top back onto the saw horses making sure that the top was in line with the outline on the paper. We then placed the chairs and marked the locations of the feet. We marked both the “tucked in” position as well as the sitting position. We also marked where our feet were located. I figured it would be a good idea to take the time and make a road-map of where everything was. There is nothing worse than sitting at a table and having to straddle a table leg or something. I am hoping it will help in the base design process. I have 2 rough designs in mind - one is a trestle style base and the other a 4 leg design. I suspect I will mock-up both with some construction grade lumber.

 Here are a few photos of the chairs around the MDF mock-up top.

There are several shows coming up starting with next weekend (Oct. 12th and 13th) at A&M woods in Cambridge Ontario.  It is their 40th anniversary and it was timed perfectly with Lie Nielsen’s handtool event. There is a great line up of demonstrators and should be a fantastic event.

Woodworking in America is coming up as well. November 2nd to the 4th.This is always a great event and a chance to catch up with old friends.

There is a new event called HandWorks that I am really excited about. It is a not for a while yet - but worth marking on your schedules now. There is a pretty amazing line-up of people demonstrating and showing their work.

 That’s about it for September. Working with Pink Ivory, birds-eye Boxwood and Desert Ironwood burl right now - there is some pretty funky looking dust under my tail vise - Neapolitan ice cream comes to mind.