A Roman Plane

Go for it!! You’ll find that you have plenty of the right skills. Use a cutting torch to bend the ends of the sole and a way you go. The rest is the same as a Kernov plane. I’ll bet the pitch is 50 degrees though, you know, “York ” pitch??? I’ll bet Phil Edwards could help on this one. If you are thinking of Ivory Micarta, it would work very well.
Tom

-- Thos. Angle

Thanks for your confidence in me Tom. The pitch is quite steep at 65 +/-1deg despite being found a few miles from York! I’m lucky in having a copy of the archaeologist’s report and drawings.
Regards, Stewart

-- Res severa verum gaudium - True pleasure is a serious business. http://www.folksy.com/shops/TreeGems

Good Luck Stewart. I would look up Phil as Tom suggested. He would make a good technical consultant.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

That’s a pretty cool plane!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Would be a little beyond my ability to restore I belive…

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Hey Stewart…........that’s really neet!!!! I wonder if you could substitute a solid surface material (corian, etc) in the place of the ivory.

Very cool… It will be very interesting to see the finished plane.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Stewart
What a fantastic plane – just goes to show how long the “plane” has been in existence and how important a tool it is to woodworkers.
Here’s an interesting link for you – Chris Schwarz (Editor of Popular Woodworking) recently made a plane based on this.
If you need any advice making your own just ask.
Best regards
Phil

Great link Phil, and nice share Stewart. No wonder that the woodworking journals just recycle major topics year after year. We Lumberjocks have been doing this work for centuries…

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

To follow Philip’s link, here’s a later post by Christopher Schwarz where he has completed the plane:
Roman plane completed

-- johnjoiner

Thanks very much indeed for the offer of help Phil. I’ll call on you. I ‘visit the plane’ in its humidity controlled showcase, whenever we’re in Beverley and always get a kick out of the realisation that the tool has not really changed in two millennia. Thanks, too, for the links to Christopher Schwarz’s work Phil and johnjoiner. That plane is so close to this one.

-- Res severa verum gaudium - True pleasure is a serious business. http://www.folksy.com/shops/TreeGems

Neat! I wonder what it is worth today. Hey, if you do make one, try and copy what you have there. I mean that, anyone can make a plane out of a block of wood. And anyone can copy the Roman style. This one was ivory? Don’t they have something else like that on the market? Like Corian (as already suggested) or Alabaster? The original wasn’t made of any wood. I just thought of a new forum question.

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

You’ve sparked me off to do an eBay search and ’faux ivory’ does bring up a supplier. The site tells us This Polyurethane is easily turned on a lathe, it can be drilled, tapped and threaded. It is useful for Jewelry making, Scrimshaw, Custom Inlay, Pen Blanks, Reel Seats, Custom Knobs, It has the look and feel of real BONE, not plastic. It’s located in Cochise, AZ, USA but I’ll bet there are others. Maybe similar to Ivory Micarta that Thomas mentioned. Nevertheless, I’ll be happier doing a dummy run in treewood.

-- Res severa verum gaudium - True pleasure is a serious business. http://www.folksy.com/shops/TreeGems

No problem, Stewart!
Looking forward to seeing your plane take shape,
Phil