On another note, I was doing some research earlier today and I happened upon an Online Extra that I wanted to share from the June 2007 issue of Woodsmith (No. 171). The issue had a good article on chip carving and a weekend project for a Chip-Carved Book Rack. The Online Extra features images of the work of Elaine Hoekman-Dugan, a local craftsperson here in central Iowa. Elaine offered the Woodsmith editors her advise on techniques for the articles in the issue and showed them examples of her work. Sadly, she fell ill and passed away shortly before the issue was released. If you missed the Online Extra, please check it out. Her work was amazing.

See photos of some of the beautiful and intricate chip-carving (and woodburnings) done by local craftsperson Elaine Hoekman-Dugan.

“I know a lot of people think I use hand planes just because I’m old-fashioned. The truth is, I love my machines. But if you want to do quality work in your wood shop, you need to learn to use hand planes. I use at least one of the three planes I’m demonstrating almost every time I’m in the shop. It has changed the way I do woodworking. I really agree with a line I read once in an old, old issue of Woodsmith magazine. It said, ‘…no machine can come close to the quality of work a hand plane will do.’”

Get the seminar guide here: Three Hand Planes Every Shop Should Have

Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

A block plane makes quick work of chamfering the edge of a workpiece. To ensure a constant width and angle, I built the base shown in the photo above. It slips over the plane to make ¼″ chamfers and doesn’t require any setup.

The base is simply two triangular-shaped runners glued to a pair of side pieces. Then cross supports are glued into notches in the front and back to hold the sides together.

Two rare-earth magnets glued into recesses in the runners hold the plane securely in place. A shallow dado is cut in the top of the runners at the mouth of the plane for the exposed iron.

The base is easy to use. With your block plane in the base, position the V-shaped groove formed by the runners over the edge of the workpiece. Then plane the workpiece until both runners sit flush. It worked so well I made a second one for ¹/₈″ chamfers.

You can learn even more simple shop techniques, just go to PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Send for a preview issue of ShopNotes magazine

]]> http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2008/05/01/chamfer-plane/feed/ 0 http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2008/01/09/sharpening-jigs/ http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2008/01/09/sharpening-jigs/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:55:38 +0000 Joel Hess http://www.woodworkingonline.com/2008/01/09/sharpening-jigs/ Okay, you’ve seen your share of sharpening jigs. And they all seem to work pretty good. Well, I guarantee you’ve never seen anything quite like this before: The Sharpening Box. (At least I never have!)

Last night, I watched Gary Blum, a cabinetmaker and toolmaker from Walnut, IA., demonstrate the jig and I have to say, I was impressed. You can read more about the jig at Gary’s website: Blum Tool Co.

According to information on the site, “…the jig consists of a box made of UHMW plastic that is both a honing surface and a storage box for the stones. It has an adjustable angle block which is set in relation to the top honing surface.”

A couple of features that make it unique:

• The angle for honing is set directly from a scale and is easily changed
• The tool has no jig attached to it
• The tool stays set and the stone is moved – a much easier motion
• The stone can be used laterally and in a circular motion as well as back and forth – therefore, the flatness of the stone is not as critical as a back and forth motion, and the edge can be made sharper and longer lasting
• Much shorter and narrower stones can be used very effectively
• The tool references on its back, which is the widest and flattest side
• Can hone angled edges as easily as straight
• Can sharpen very short cutters as well as short cutter with handles, such as butt chisels or Japanese chisels
• Self-contained and portable-stones store inside of box
• Can sharpen scraper blades at a true 90 degree angle very easily and repeatedly – “filing” is done with a diamond stone
• Jig is entirely waterproof for water-stone sharpening

By the way, Gary also makes some pretty cool hand planes as well.

And if your a fan of old catalogs, photos, and other paper items related to old manufacturers of hand tools, check out Gary Robert’s Toolemera web site. Gary collects, studies, and enjoys old tools and related books and ephemera. There you’ll find old bills of sale, postcards, letterhead, books, pamphlets, and assorted other items from Gary’s collection. I’ve got one of his old photos as wallpaper on my computer screen. It’s fun just browsing through Gary’s site.

After setting everything up for the seminar, I had a little time to spare. So I dug out the instructions on the Blum planes and gave them a quick glance. I wasn’t planning on doing an extensive setup or anything, but I wanted to at least see how they worked. After all, they had a different design from anything I’d ever tried before.

You see, they don’t have a conventional plane iron. Instead they use a small blade which is attached to a massive (¾”-thick) adjustable, frog-like device. Sounds complicated, right? Not at all. A star knob on the back loosens to allow adjustments of the blade depth. You just set the depth and angle of the blade with two knurled screws, tighten the star knob and you’re off. 

After five minutes of tweaking the smoother, I was taking whisper-thin shavings off a birdseye maple board. Okay, now they had my full attention. I already liked the way they felt in my hand (very light weight with a comfortable tote), and clearly they were serious tools—not just eye candy.

Gary makes only four designs at this time, the smoother and the jack that I tried out and a fore plane and jointer. Prices are more than reasonable, ranging from $199 for the smoother to $245 for the jointer. (Although Gary charges a little more for rosewood versions of these designs.)

To find out more about Blum Tools, check out Gary’s website.

Well, as proof that what goes around comes around and that history repeats itself, HomerWood® Hardwood Flooring (a subsidiary of Armstrong World Industries, the vinyl flooring manufacturer) has come out with a line of “hand-scraped” hardwood flooring. Yep.  Hand-scraped. By humans.  The Amish, as a matter of fact. They’re calling this new line of flooring the Amish Hand-Scraped™ Collection. Now, I don’t know what HomerWood is charging for this flooring, but I bet it isn’t inexpensive. And apparently there’s a segment of our population that is willing to spend the money for a “hand-tooled” finish.

Personally, I think they misnamed it.  Why?  Because in the photo on this page, the Amish man is using a hand plane (looks like a No. 4). And in the photo on this page, another Amish man is using a drawknife.  A drawknife?! Neither of which can be called a “scraper.” When I think of a scraper, I think of a Stanley 112 or at least a No. 74.  Or the modern Lie-Nielsen Large Scraping Plane or the Veritas® Scraping Plane.

In any case, I think “Hand-Tooled” might have been a better name. Maybe we ought to offer to go teach the marketing folks at HomerWood a little about hand tools.

I like the recent thread on WoodNet where it talked about reversing the blade to make it a scraper plane. I never would have thought of that, but it’s an excellent idea and works great! I was able to get transparent shavings off of maple.

I found blade adjustment very easy using a plane hammer. A light tap on the front or rear of the plane advances or retracts the blade just enough to get perfect shavings.

I agree with some users who say that the longer blade would dig into your hand. But once you learn how to hold it, it’s not that troublesome.

I thought the blade adjustment screw was a little flimsy for my liking. I would have liked to have seen a little larger screw boss in the casting with a little larger diameter screw. It’s a perception thing. I had no trouble with it during use, though.

Read all the comments about this new little plane on WoodNet.

This plane is going to stay in my shop apron. 

Here’s what Kevin said about the construction of the plane:
Software was used to design the lettering and then output to a
Bridgeport CNC Milling machine with an engraving tool. The sides and sole were machined to fit. The brass sides were milled to size and the steel sole is just around .002 larger to allow for a tight pressed fit. The connector bolts have brass spacers inserted to maintain proper thickness. They were simply easier to use than bothering with rivets. The brass wedge was drawn up in AutoCAD and then exported to the CNC Milling maching with an end-mill. After assembly, 320 silicone emery paper gave the shoulder plane
the final “spit and polish.”

I told Kevin that it looked awesome, but how did it work?

Here’s what he had to say: “I broke out the Tormek and sharpened the iron up tonight and got to use the plane. Paper-thin shavings with only a little bit of fussing. This baby is going to get years of love and use!”

You can read more here on the WoodNet Hand Tools forum.

That was about a month ago. We were getting ready for a vacation trip at the time and my time in the shop was pretty limited. I kept putting him off, knowing in my heart of hearts that I’d better work with him on this as soon as possible or it would be another “lost opportunity.”

Last night I was in the shop working on a small project (photo props for an article I’m working on for ShopNotes) when I recalled my son’s request. I spotted a nice poplar board leaning against my drill press cabinet. It was ½” thick. “Perfect,” I thought. So I ripped it into strips about 1½” wide, cut the strips to length, and formed half lap joints on the ends. (Download the article “Cut Perfect Half Lap Joints” here.) I don’t have a good dado stack and I only had eight cuts to make, so I just nibbled the joints away on the table saw. Then I used my shoulder plane to clean up the joints. Actually, my 13-year old was more than happy to help with that.

At this point, I called my 7-year old out to the shop and told him to bring his little wooden stool. So he promptly lugs his stool into the shop and sets it up by my workbench. I told my 13-year old to show Alex how to use the shoulder plane. Their eyes lit up. I called my wife out to the shop so share in this magical father/son moment. She crosses her arms, watches Alex’s little hands as he works the plane back and forth and says something like, “Well, I see you’ve got another one sucked in.” I don’t remember the exact words, but it was something like that. “Yep,” I said.

We stuck a glob of glue on the joints and he used his index finger to spread it around. He thought that was cool. Then we used some spring clamps to hold it together until the glue dries.

Tonight we get to plane the joints smooth, sand it, and paint it. I mean, HE gets to plane…

We think you’ll be proud to hang this in your shop. And it’s handsome enough to hang in your office or kitchen. So tell all your woodworking buddies about this cool download.

First Furniture Project

If I’d known about this rehab process before I bought the rust-encrusted Stanley No. 6 and No. 7 planes that I found at a garage sale for $4, I wouldn’t have resold them for $20!

It’s No RareBear

This is a sweet project that this fella put his heart and soul into. I like it.

There’s a Bird in my Office

-Joel

But Bridge City Tool Works and founder John Economaki have built a strong following made up of both users and collectors. You don’t stay in business for over 25 years without a loyal customer base. And as John says, “We make a world-class product …but, there’s more to our tools than just making sawdust. I believe the combination of form and function is inspiring and adds immensely to the physical process of woodworking.”

So when I was asked last week to take a look at the new HP-7 Shoulder Plane, I was eager to get my hands on it. And I have to say, it is an impressive new tool. Its body is made from solid brass. That gives if plenty of heft, which is what you want in a shoulder plane. And the iron is almost a full ¼” thick. That’ll make it easier to hone to a sharp edge.

But what’s really unique about this plane is the mechanism used to secure the iron in place. The ergonomically-designed stainless steel handle on the back of the plane is really a lever that locks a cap iron into place. It works kind of like a toggle clamp. It’s an ingenious design and functions very well. (There’s also a set screw in the cap iron that allows you to adjust the amount of pressure for locking down the iron.)

The shoulder plane also has two adjusting wheels. The one at the front controls an adjustable “shoe” to set the mouth opening. To set the opening, simply loosen the shoe using a finely knurled adjustment wheel. Then you manually position the shoe for the mouth opening you desire and retighten the wheel. It would by nice if there were an adjustment knob of some sort, but it’s not a terrible inconvenience to position it manually. And I like that you can slide the shoe out of the way to remove the iron.

And speaking of the iron, it’s held in place by a pin on the depth adjustment mechanism. The depth adjustment is controlled by a second knurled wheel at the back of the plane. The backlash was minimal at only about ¼ to ½ turn of the wheel.

I took a few swipes on the end grain of some cherry with the prototype we tested and it did a great job of slicing through the wood fibers. And that was right out of the box without honing the iron. I do have one small complaint though. I have smaller hands and the “horn” of the lever mechanism on the prototype stuck up a little too high and curved backward too sharply to fit the web of my hand. Plus, I felt the finger indentations in the brass body were too far away for my stubby fingers to reach. But, when we mentioned this to the folks at Bridge City, we were told that the indents were moved closer to the rear on the production models to address this issue. There was no indication that the design of the lever would be changed, though.

I’m sure a fair amount of John’s tools are purchased by collectors and are never removed from their box. At the same time there are some fine woodworkers who want nothing but the best tools in their shop. The machining, polish, overall appearance and function of the HP-7 Shoulder Plane is impeccable and this new tool is sure to be appreciated by fine tool users and collectors alike. 

A Visit to Paul Hamler’s Shop

Looking for a circular saw? Acccording to some WoodNetters, the Makita Hypoid circ saw is hard to beat:

Makita Hypoid Saw

I’m not sure which is funnier – the Craig’s List item for sale – or the forum thread itself:

Craigs List – Chuckle

Even considering repeat posters, over 1000 people took advantage of this “Day After Thanksgiving” Sale:

Official HDT Black Friday List

I had always wondered why a “coffin” smoothing plane was made in the characteristic shape of a coffin. I thought it had something to do with ergonomics and how you handle the plane when using it.  Nope.  Uh-uh.  It has everything to do with how the wood moves, grain direction, and keeping everything square.

For some reason, I ended up on the Clark and Williams web site this morning. Lo and behold, they have an article, “Design and Tuning Considerations for Bench Planes,” on wood selection in the making of traditional hand planes. Here’s an excerpt:

There’s another thing happening with bench planes. The body of a bench plane is divided into three sections. The toe and heel sections are solid wood and the escapement has only air and thin sides or cheeks that have a triangular shape. These thin cheeks absorb or lose moisture faster than the solid thick sections. As they expand and contract more than the adjacent solid sides, they force the planes of the soles of the heel and toe out of alignment. This is taken care of on the traditional smooth plane by the coffin shape which exposes the end grain of the sides. The sides of the heel and toe thus are able to maintain a similar moisture content as the cheeks. We prefer the 18th Century style longer planes because the height of their bodies is less and it limits this effect.

The toe and heel sections, on a coffin shaped smoothing plane, are kept as short as possible. The heel, bed, breast and toe are all end grain and moisture moves relatively freely to and from them. The center of the mass of the heel and toe sections, because of the angled breast and bed, will be low and relatively close to the sole. The moisture carrying capability of the rays comes into play here and helps keep the center areas of these sections in equilibrium.

Bethcha’ didn’t know that. I sure didn’t.

Last spring, I bought one of two brand new hand planes, both from Lee Valley. One was the Veritas® medium shoulder plane. The other was their low-angle smooth plane. Most of my planes are restored derelicts purchased on Ebay or from yard sales. So the decision to get this plane didn’t come without a lot of thought. And the only new plane I’ve purchased up until then was a cheap little trimming plane from the BORG.

Now, you can read all sorts of lengthy reviews of this plane all over the web. But I want to talk about why I decided on this plane.

Quality of Design. I can honestly say I’ve never used a Lie-Nielsen smoother. I never had any acquaintances that owned one, and I couldn’t justify the expense of buying one. And I’ve already got a bunch of old Stanley smoothers. My thoughts (besides cost) were that if the Lie-Nielsens were basically Stanley designs, what advantages do they have?

It’s pretty obvious from looking at the Veritas planes that the designers went back to the drawing board. I’m sure they looked at the physics of planing, ergonomics, economics of manufacturing, and overall usability. After using the low angle smoother for a while, I’d say they pretty much hit them all dead on.

I like the adjustable mouth. A lot of my planing is for that glass-smooth surface, so I set it for a fine mouth and make whisper-thin shavings.

The adjustment mechanism is simple, but highly effective and operates smoothly. I have no problems adjust the depth of cut or lateral position of the iron.

The cap iron is even well-designed with a broad clamping foot that spreads the clamping pressure on the iron, keeping it in place. I can get secure clamping on the iron without overtightening and still be able to adjust the iron.

Cost Effective. For a mass-produced plane, I consider the Veritas planes middle-of-the-road in terms of price. They’re more expensive than the poorer quality Stanleys but not quite as expensive as the Lie-Nielsens.

Versatile. I chose the smoother over the Veritas bevel-up smoother because of its sides being machined square to the sole. One of my next projects is to build a shooting board, so I wanted a low-angle plane with machined sides.

Another thing I like about the low-angle plane is that I can change the bevel angle simply by switching out irons. That’s something you can’t do on traditional bench (bevel-down) planes unless you want to get into the complexities of back bevels. Lee Valley has irons available for this and other planes that are ground at various bevels.

I’ve found myself using this plane for the majority of my smoothing needs. There have only been a few exceptions where a change in grain direction has caused problems with the low cutting angle. I’d get tearout, but it was easily cleaned up with one of my traditional bench smoothers with its higher cutting angle.

Overall, I’m thrilled with the Veritas Low-Angle smoother and would recommend it to any woodworker that values great engineering and quality manufacturing.

The article doesn’t have a dateline, so I’m not sure how old it is. It mentions a book that Jack wrote called Ohio Toolmakers and Their Tools. I contacted the newspaper and a few days later got an email from Mr. Devitt. Here’s what he says:

To receive a copy of Ohio Toolmakers and Their Tools, send $30.00 which includes postage and handling to Jack Devitt, P.O. Box 116, Ottoville, OH 45876 with your name and address. Also indicate if you want the book signed and if you want it signed to a specific person. We’ll get it in the mail the same day usually.

Not long after I gave it to her, one of our cats knocked the box onto the floor. The lid was open and it snapped the lid hinge in two. It’s been sitting on the dresser — broken, but usuable — for at least two years.

Once I got it downstairs and into the shop, I figured it would be an easy job to remove the busted hinge with a chisel. But as you can see, the glue joint was holding pretty good and when I started gouging the underside of the lid, I decided to reach for my block plane.

It did a nice job of removing the bulk of the hinge. I had to sand it down with some 150-grit sandpaper, which means I’ll have to do a little re-finishing.

Here’s a tip: Use a sanding disk from your random orbit sander to pad the workpiece when you clamp it in a bench vise. The sandpaper side keeps it from sliding around and the padded, velcro side is nice and soft, so it won’t mar your workpiece.
With the old hinge was removed, I had to make a new one. Luckily, I had a nice, small piece of 1/2″ cherry in my scrap bin. This was a small enough job that I left the router and a roundover bit in the cabinet and decided to shape it by hand.

Again, a block plane and a spokeshave made the job easy.

Finally, I trimmed the hinge workpiece to size according to the original plan and glued it back into position on the base.

I’ll let it dry overnight, give it a final sanding, and drill the pilot holes for the wire hinges tomorrow. A little cherry stain to even things out and an oil finish and the box is good as new! I’m beginning to like this one hour per day thing. – Joel

A few years back, I purchased an old Stanley 71 router plane that was made between 1906 and 1908.  It didn’t come with any cutters or knobs.  Fortunately, the screws were still intact.  Since Stanley used an oddball thread size on most of their planes, it would have been difficult to find replacement screws.

One evening after dinner, I moseyed out to the shop with no particular project in mind.  I saw this plane sitting on the shelf.  I remembered I had a turning blank of bubinga I had purchased last winter.  It had been a while since I had used my lathe, and I knew this would be a nice evening project.

So, I asked the Galoots up on the OldTools list about the dimensions of the original knobs on the Stanley 71 and got several responses.  It occurred to me that I had a box of old plane parts sitting way up on a shelf, so I got it down and starting nosing around.  I found an old knob that matched the dimensions I was given.  Now I had something I could visually match and put some calipers on to get real dimensions.

It took me a little figuring before I found a reliable way to chuck the bubinga blank in my lathe.  Once I figured it out, it went pretty quick.  Let me just say right here that turning bubinga is a pleasure.  No tearout and it finishes really nice.

It’s always the first knob that’s the easiest.  It’s trying to get the second one to match that’s the trick.  I must have fussed around with it for a half hour trying to get it to match the first one.  A little rounding here.  A little shave there.  I finally said, “Close enough!” and called it quits.  I sanded the knobs through 400-grit on the lathe. Then while still on the lathe, I applied some boiled linseed oil and paste wax.  I was pretty happy with how they looked.  And you have to get real close to see that they aren’t an exact match.

Now all I’ve got to do is get some irons for it.  I’m told that the ones from Lee Valley/Veritas will work.  I guess I need to place an order.  They know me by first name by now.

One thing Rob says they’re working on is a “high end” line of planes.  Seems like there’s already a lot of competition in the high end with Lie-Nielsen, Clifton, and others.  And I hear rumors that Anant will be coming out with a line of “Premier” hand planes.  It’ll be really interesting to see what Veritas can come up with that beats their already excellent line of modestly-priced planes. 

And they’re working on their version of the side rabbet planes like the old Stanley 98/99.  They’re also looking at a plow plane reminiscent of the Stanley 289.

Whatever new planes the engineers and designers come up with, I’m sure they’ll be top notch.  I can’t wait to get my hands on them.

A few years ago, someone suggested that I try using Bostik’s TopCote®.  You can buy it from the Woodsmith Store.  It’s an aeresol product that dries quickly to a dull haze.  Then you can buff it with a soft cloth for a smooth surface.  It doesn’t contain any wax or silicone that could mess up a finish on your project.  The first time I used it, I was surprised at how easy it was to apply and what a great job it does at protecting my power tools.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that a few of my old hand planes were getting small spots of rust on them.  So I used a Scotch-Brite pad to polish them up.  The thought occurred to me if TopCote works on power tools, why wouldn’t it work on hand planes?  I usually use a paste wax.  But I tried TopCote on one of my planes.  I knew it would help keep the rust at bay, but I was curious to see if it made any difference while planing.  So I slapped a scrap piece of wood up on my bench and took a few swipes.  Wow!  It took no effort at all to slide the plane across the wood.  I was sold.

I also have a can of Boeshield T-9® sitting on my shelf.  I might do a little experiment and see if there’s any difference between Boeshield and TopCote in terms of rust protection and reducing friction.

When I was taking some mechanical engineering courses in college, I had the opportunity to spend some time in the metal shop.  Using these big milling machines to cut metal was fascinating to me.

Now, you can buy milling machines, metal lathes, and other metalworking tools for your home shop.  I know you can buy them from Grizzly, Harbor Freight, Enco, and others.  I’ve toyed around with getting a small milling machine for my own shop.

Ian Dalziel lives in the U.K. and has a CNC (computerized numerical control) mill in his shop.  And he’s using it to make hand planes like you see in the photo.  Like Ian, I enjoy making my own tools.  Someday, I hope to be half the artisan he is.

The kit comes with pre-cut front and back wood pieces, two predrilled brass side pieces, a Hock iron and cap iron, and the cap screw and washer used to assemble the iron into the finished plane.

The brass sides need some work before you can fasten them to the wood pieces. The holes need countersunk for the small brass screws. I used a countersink in my drill press, being careful not to drill too deep. You want the head of the screws to be just a little proud of the surface so you can file them flush later. Then following the detailed instructions included in the kit, I marked and predrilled pilot holes for the screws in the wood pieces. The most critical dimension here is the width of the mouth opening. You want a tight opening to be able to take fine shavings without tearout. The nice thing is, if the mouth ends up being too tight, you can file a little to open it up. But if it’s too big…well…let’s just say that it involves quite a bit more work.

I took a file to the brass sides to file the screw heads flush to the sides. Then I used sandpaper face-up on my bench to smooth the sides and make them flat. I started with 150-grit and worked my way up to 400-grit. That leaves a nice “brushed” finish. Then I rubbed the sides with a fine 3M Scotch-Brite pad. Then I went to work to form the radius on the back and front like you see in the photo. I used a rasp and sandpaper to do this while the plane was clamped in the tail vise of my workbench.

The next thing I did was flatten the sole. I followed the instructions and used sandpaper face-up on my table saw. I used the rip fence as a reference to keep the sole 90° to the sides. On my plane, the sole on the back piece was thicker than that on the front piece, so it took quite a bit of sanding to get the entire sole flat.

Finally, I was ready to fit the iron into the plane. The mouth was a little tight, so I ended up filing about 1/32″ from the front of the mouth. It’s important to keep the mouth square when filing. A little honing of the iron and I was ready to put it all together and give it a try.

I set the plane to take a very thin shaving and took a few swipes on the edge of some oak I had lying around the shop. I was able to get a full-width, “whisper thin” shaving the full length of the board. I was impressed. This is a comfortable, sweet little plane. The only downside that I could see is that the sole is wood. As comfortable and nice as this plane is to use, it’ll get a lot of use in my shop, but that means a lot of wear on the sole. Now, because it is wood, that means that I can flatten the sole anytime I need to with a few swipes across some sandpaper. But that also means risking widening of the mouth. But I suspect it’ll be quite some time before I need to worry about any of that.

A coat of boiled linseed oil and a couple coats of Briwax clear paste wax added the final “spit polish.” Then I couldn’t resist…I had to take a few more shavings.  Like I said — what a sweet little plane.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was the plane iron. Both planes use a 3/16″-thick x 1-1/2″-wide plane iron from Hock Tools. They’re branded “Woodsmith by Hock Tools.” These are quality irons that are almost worth the price of the kit. The hand plane kit also includes a nice cap iron.

The chisel plane was pretty simple to put together and finish. The wood sole and “cap” are pre-cut and pre-drilled. There’s a brass threaded insert that you need to press into the sole piece. Then all you need to do is form the radius on the back end to make the plane more comfortable to use. I put the two pieces together with the iron and clamped the assembly in my tail vise on my workbench. Then I used a rasp and sandpaper to form the radius. It went fairly quickly. The instructions also suggest making a “finger notch” in the cap to make the plane more comfortable to use. I used a round rasp to start this notch then finished up with a half-round rasp. I also took the time to lightly round over any sharp edges where my hands might come in contact with the body of the plane. I finished up the wood pieces with a coat of boiled linseed oil and a couple coats of Briwax clear paste wax. 

Then I turned my attention to the iron. A light honing and a couple of swipes to flatten the back on 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper were all it took to get a sharp edge. I assembled the iron into the plane (bevel down) using the included cap screw and washer. I then tried to adjust the depth of cut and realized there was a problem. The bevel of the blade matches the bed angle of the sole, meaning that the flat of the bevel was parallel to the sole of the plane! So the flat of the bevel just slid across the workpiece. I tried to shim the under the upper end of the iron with an old business card, but it didn’t seem to help angle the iron so its cutting edge would contact the workpiece. The only other solution I could think of was to slightly change the angle of the bed. I used 150-grit sandpaper face-up on my table saw for a flat surface. Then I went to work sanding the bed, concentrating the pressure on the “mouth” end of the bed. After quite a bit of sanding, I tried fitting the iron. It was a little better, but I ended up shimming the upper end anyway to get the plane to cut. Once everything was assembled, I gave it a try on some scrap lumber. It was a little tricky to get the exact depth of cut, but once that was done, it worked great. It’s good enough that I’ll keep it on my shelf of “users” for future projects. It’ll be great for getting into those corners to remove glue squeeze-out and general cleanup of a joint.

While Hartville will stock some planes, you can still order planes from Knight Toolworks. 

Here’s a little of Steve’s philosophy on hand planes from his web site:

“The hand plane is an ancient tool, and its design has changed little over time. I do not see myself changing it. I do, however, borrow ideas from different cultures and traditions, combining the best of them into a new and better plane. I use Western, Japanese, and Chinese traditions. By taking the best of all worlds, I can combine features into a single tool that can be used, enjoyed, and cherished indefinitely.

“Most importantly, all of my products are backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I will do whatever it takes to make you happy with your Knight-Toolworks product. It’s my personal promise!”

Now personally, I don’t really like the looks of Steve’s planes.  To me, they always looked too “boxy” or clunky.  But, I’m always on the lookout for a good smoothing plane, so I ordered one of his coffin smoothers.  Compared to other new hand planes, the price is pretty competitive.  And, after all, looks aren’t everything, are they?

As is Steve’s trademark, the plane arrived with a test shaving and a wood block over the mouth to protect the edge on the 1/4″-thick iron.  Call me obsessive-compulsive, but I removed the iron and honed it just a little.  The bevel is wide enough that you can hone it by hand without a honing guide.  And Steve already did a good job of flattening the back of the iron, so I didn’t need to worry about that.

If you’ve never used a traditional wood-body plane, it takes some time to get the hang of setting the blade depth and tightening the wedge.  Some strategically-placed taps with a soft-faced mallet will get everything right.  And this plane has an adjustable mouth that helps eliminate tearout.  Once I got the blade seated properly, I was able to take full-width, whisper-thin shavings off of mahogany.  One of the guys in the shop saw what I was doing and seemed intrigued, so I offered to let him take a few swipes.  We both agreed that the plane may not be the most beautiful thing to behold, but it sure does a nice job of smoothing.  It’s purpleheart body and ipe (Brazilian walnut) sole add plenty of heft, which is what you want in a smoother.  It helps carry the momentum of the stroke as you’re planing.  And in spite of it’s boxy look, it was comfortable to use.

This plane has a set screw on both sides of the plane to help align the iron and keep it in position.  Veritas® has the same feature on their planes.  I wonder who thought of it first and if Steve will get a letter from a Veritas attorney? 

My only other comment on the Knight smoother pertains to the adjustment screw for the mouth.  It would have been nice to have some sort of thumbscrew or knob to make the adjustment.  Steve uses an allen screw which forces me to hunt around the shop for an allen wrench when I need to adjust the mouth opening.  I guess I just need to keep my shop more organized!

Overall, I was pleased with the performance of the Knight smoother.  Pleased enough that I plan on keeping it within easy reach next to my other planes.  I plan to use it on my next project.  Nice plane, Steve!

First, Lee Valley just came out with a complete set of router bits that duplicate many of the cutter profiles that used to be available for the old Stanley “55″ plane. This plane was marketed by Stanley as “A Planing Mill Within Itself.” It had replaceable cutters of various profiles (“55″ of them) that you could use to create an endless variety of edge profiles. 

And if you can’t find one of those profiles that’ll work for you, Clark and Williams in Arkansas is still making traditional wooden molding planes the old fashioned way. If the traditional profiles won’t do the job, they’ll make a custom profile for you. Now admittedly it’s no small investment to own their planes, but if you do a lot of restoration or custom work, you’ll appreciate what they can do.

Larry Williams of Clark and Williams has been getting some press coverage lately. He was designated the 2006 Arkansas Living Treasure by the Arkansas Arts Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage. You can read more about it here. 

Now I enjoy working with my hand tools but I’m not shy about using a power tool when I need to. But I’ve found that there are a lot of power tool users that have never experienced or don’t understand how hand tools can make their woodworking better. Hand tools (especially planes) can add a level of craftsmanship you often can’t get from power tools alone.

So, I started a couple of threads on WoodNet. One is for the power tool user. The other is for mostly hand tool users.  I want to know your thoughts for a seminar I’m giving in October. The title is, “Why You Need Hand Planes in Your Workshop.”  Click here for details on the seminar titles and calendar.

Please chime in with your thoughts. If you’re mostly a power tool user, chime in here on the Power Tools forum.

Hand tool user?  Chime in with your opinions here on the Hand Tools forum.

I would appreciate your thoughts so that I can make the seminar fun and educational.

Have you had a similar experience with hand planes? See this thread and get lots of experienced help from the woodworking community: WoodNet Forums: Planing Techniques

Did you know a Unisaw is a table saw, but a table saw isn’t necessarily a Uni..? (Submitted mostly for the pictures of Keith’s A100 Unisaw, presumably the very first one produced/sold by Delta.)
What is a Unisaw?

There are some true artists out there, and it seems like the Woodnet forums gets their fare share of them who build beautiful hand planes.
Damascus and Ivory Plane