New handles for my planes

Nice plane handles

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

well done! do you take orders? :-)

-- The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...

That looks real nice. I was using my #5 tonight and thought “I need change the handle to fit my hand better.” No need to modify the handle that is there: just make a new one. Nice work.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Looks great. I’m in the process of making new handles for my jointer plane. Any tips on drilling the holes?

-- Hold on! Let me get the board stretcher!

Hey Matt – The main tip is to drill the holes as early as possible – that way you can cut the blank to give flat surfaces to locate off.
I used the drill press, sandwiched my handle blank between two (buzzed square) pieces of 4×2, with a couple of spacer blocks the same thickness as the blank. The whole sandwich was then clamped to the drill press bed. I drew the hole locations on the side of the blank and used a square to check for vertical. I figure the holes are within half a mm for line and position and they didn’t give me any trouble. Each handle took about 2-3 hours all up.
Good luck!

-- ... must be time for a cup of tea and a sit-down

Amazing what a wooden handle will do to beautify a handtool. It looks sooo much better. Nicely done!

-- Steve, New Zealand, www.steveracz.com

kiwisharyn, here is a link for printable handle templates and a router bit to shape it.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=56664&cat=1,46168,46175&ap=1

http://www.leevalley.com/shopping/TechInfo.aspx?p=63263

-- RIP Sam Maloof.........

Thanks for the link – I knew the info would be around somewhere. Still happy to make them by hand :-)

-- ... must be time for a cup of tea and a sit-down

Thanks for the project, I love handles. Also kiwi for the link.

-- "That which has in itself the greatest use, possesses the greatest beauty." - Unknown Shaker

Nice plane handle.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker