a 'spare' K13 in Desert Ironwood

 

Most of the Desert Ironwood I work with is highly figured, but this set has always caught my attention. I have walked past it hundreds of times, and often stopped to pick it up. It reminded me of ribbon striped Mahogany - just in a brown tone instead of red.

A few months ago, I decided to start working on it as a spare plane – picking away at it here and there. I just had to see what tame Desert Ironwood would look like. 

It has not disappointed – incredible chatoyance from heel to toe, and a wonderful beauty mark on the front pad thrown in for good measure. Here are several detail photos.

 

 

This beauty mark showed up our of nowhere. There was no indication that this was just below the surface - what a happy accident!

The sides and sole are 01 tool steel and the lever cap and screw are stainless steel.  The plane is 13-3/8" long with a 2-1/4" wide, PMV-11 blade, custom made by Lee Valley. The bed angle is 47.5 degrees.The price is $4,600.00 Cdn + actual shipping costs (roughly $3,675.00 USD based on the current exchange rate). Let me know if you are interested - konrad@sauerandsteiner.com

Ok. Back to renovating!

Two K4’s - one spare & home renovations

Things are really hopping at the moment - so much so that blogging seems to have taken a back seat for a while. This will change fairly quickly - two new restoration projects have just begun. One is our house, the other a bit of a surprise project that is out of left field, but something we are all very excited about. More on that a bit later.

I have just completed two Desert Ironwood filled K4 planes. The one with the bronze lever cap and screw is spoken for, but the darker one with the stainless steel lever cap is available for sale. 

The K4 with the bronze lever cap was really fun to make - it is configured the same way as my own K4 - the prototype (the link will take you to photos of the prototype beside other planes for size and scale reference).  It felt like I was ‘my plane’ again. This is the smallest plane I make (so far:), and makes a block plane look pretty huge. The K4 is 4-1/2" long and has a 1-1/4" wide, high carbon steel blade. The bed angle is 52.5 degrees and the sides and sole are 01 tool steel.

The spare K4 has some really striking dark Ironwood burl. This plane is $2,150.00 Cdn + actual shipping cost. Email me if you are interested - konrad@sauerandsteiner.com

And the first of the two renovation projects - our house. The second floor to be specific. One of my first blog posts was about renovating the second floor sunroom - that was in 2007. It is time for us to gut the rest of the second floor. The floors, walls, ceilings - everything. We have never rented a bin before, so the big green beast should be a good indication of the scale of the job. I will post photos of the progress as we go.