First home-made handplane

I needed (wanted?) a larger handplane than the crappy little #4 cheap chinese casting I have (Hock blade and breaker though, just a cheap casting). So I looked around and looked on eBay and after talking with a member of the KC Woodworker’s Guild at the recent WoodShow in KC I decided, “make it”. :) I ordered a 1-3/4 blade and breaker from Hock tools, got the small ones they sell for Krenov style planes, so it is much shorter and without the hole for a lateral adjuster.

Then I started to sort through the pile of exotics I’ve sniped off eBay. Gotten some pretty good deals on pieces around 30”. I had a hunk of 6/4 sapele that I decided would make a nice body and a much smaller piece of caribbean rosewood that might make a good sole. While neither piece is ideal, the rosewood can be chippy for example I decided to go ahead. I would resaw both and glue back to get the grain running as close to vertical through the plane body as I could.

All that said, I’m pretty happy with the result. I finished the shaping of the body (which I may rework just a little more but I want to use it first) And after more playing around I will likely remake the wedge, the shape on this one is very “plane” and it would be fun to have something a little more curvey.

I do like the way the sapele worked and it looks very nice and feels good in my hand. The rosewood has already started to take on a “polish” after some practice planing on scraps of pine, poplar and even some white oak.

Fun to tippy-tap on the plane body to adjust the blade. :)

Oh, and I did work from plans of a sort. There are lots of examples out there on the web. Google’d for “hand plane plans”. After reading several, I made some notes and just went after it. Made something that seems the right proportions for me.

-- Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.