Krenov-Style Block Plane

I finished making a 6” block plane, inspired by both James Krenov and William Ng today and I am pretty happy with the result! I sat in on a class that William taught, and I got caught up in the idea of making some of the hand tools I work with. That, coupled with Seeing Yeung Chan's Tools up close this week got me itching to build some planes. This is the second plane in a set of 4 or 5 I plan on making. You can see the first one I made in the last picture – I still don’t have the handle feeling right on that one, so I will give it a few projects worth of fiddling with the grip before I decide it feels right and put a coat of oil on it.

This one is all finished up, and just waiting for a project to get used on! The body is bubinga with a bit of ebony, and the sole is made of goncalo alves. I put a hock blade in it and, while he pictures don’t show it well, there is a hollow right where your thumb sits on the side when you use it; feels like it was made to fit your hand.

-- -Mark Donovan, Donovanwoodworks@gmail.com