A K6 with customer supplied East Indian Rosewood

It is very rare that a customer supplies the wood for their plane. It has happened only a few times over the years, but I knew from the moment that I saw this piece, that something special could happen.

I know that in theory, figure is possible in any species of wood... but some just seem more prone than others - and East Indian Rosewood isn’t one of them. Until now. It wasn’t a huge piece, and there was a very strong grain bias. I could maximize the material and live with very angled grain, or I could straighten it out and ‘waste’ a bit more. The customer agreed that making the best plane possible was the goal... so I fired up the bandsaw, and went to work.

I was not ruthless with straightening things out - the above photo shows the waste. You can see the angle in the grain in the largest off-cut.

The final set. I was pretty sure some of the sapwood was going to end up on the side of the plane - and the customer was fine with that. I was also very interested in keeping as much of the layer just under the sapwood - a lighter, slightly browner later before the dark purple heartwood.

Using my own K6 to make this K6 - always fun making tools to make tools.

The rear infill is fit, and the sapwood has been greatly reduced, but not eliminated.
 

Both the front and rear infill fit, but not installed.

After lapping, the sapwood was getting quite small. I still needed to angle the rear infill, and I was slightly concerned that between the angled cut and the shaping of the rear infill, the sapwood would disappear.

Thankfully, the sapwood island remained, and the layer of lighter wood just behind it remained distinct as well. Here are a bunch of pics of the finished plane.

The above photo shows the lighter brown layer nicely.

 

 This plane is staying fairly local, and will be picked up in person. Always nice to be able to hand someone their plane.

A new jointing plane - 24" version

I had thought my jointing plane making days were over... glad they weren’t!

This was a rather large undertaking. A new size with a few alterations. The first order of business was adjusting the design to a 24" plane. It is not as simple as adding 3/4" to each end of a 22-1/2" plane. Everything needs to be scaled accordingly. ‘Accordingly’ is code for ‘make it look right’. I use a rough mathematical approach, but for the most part, I rely on my eyes to evaluate things.

The front bun is pushed forward which allows it to be lowered at the same time. Forward by about 3/8". Not very much, but it allows for an interesting addition to the plane. It extends the size of the cove at the back of the upper portion of the bun - you can see it above. This provides an additional location to place ones thumb for doing edge jointing. I am a big fan of a pinch grip when edge jointing - placing your thumb on the top and then using your index finger as a fence along the edge of the board below. Lowering the bun also helps, and is just low enough that I can get a good functional pinch grip even with my smallish hands.

One technical challenge of this plane was the fact that the cove on the sides of the top portion of the bun are lower than cove at the back of the bun. This made for an interesting shaping approach, but I think the effect was well worth the effort and the detail has become a favourite of mine.  The goal is always nice visually crisp work that is also touchable and tactile.

The infill is Honduran Rosewood, the sides and sole are 01 tool steel, the lever cap and screw are bronze as is the knurled end of the adjuster. The 2-5/8" blade is high carbon steel, bedded at 47.5 degrees. It weighs 11.75lbs - exactly the same as my 22-1/2" bronze sided, African Blackwood filled jointing plane. Interesting to see the effects of changing materials.

 

 

Packaging these large, heavy planes is best done in a custom fitted block of 3" foam. I use a jig saw to cut out the opening and use a comic book storage box to contain it (yes, I was an avid comic book reader, and still have a box of comics lovingly bagged and stored away).