Making a Wooden Plane
Wood Selection
Obviously, you'll need wood for the plane, and there are countless ways to put a few pieces together and form a plane body. I'll describe a couple of my methods, and you can see how they fit into your plans.
If you've been working with hardwoods, there is a very good chance that you have everything that you need around your shop. If you don't, it can be found very inexpensively because you'll only need about a board foot of total wood . Many woods can be used; they must be hard and durable, and workable with hand tools. You'll be planing and scraping the plane body, so keep workability in mind.
I made my first plane out of rock maple, and it's proven to be very durable. Maple has a high rate of expansion/contraction, so in some ways it's not the ideal wood - but it's a very good wood if your shop climate is fairly stable. Oil and wax do provide some protection.
Beech is a traditional wood for planemaking, but it's even less stable than maple. Goncalvo Alves is an excellent wood for making a plane, and so are apple, pear, and hornbeam. I have used cherry, ash, oak, and birch - but in each case added a seperate sole of rosewood or pau ferro (morado). For this plane, I would discourage adding a seperate sole because it really complicates things and adds the potential for mishap.
If you buy wood for this project, particularly thick stock, don't rush home and start working on it. Let it sit in your shop for a period to become acclimated with the conditions. I have learned this lesson over and over.
Handtools Only
The body of our finished plane will be approximately 3x3x12 inches long, so we'll build it up from thinner stock. Since we're making a "sandwich" style plane, you'll need several pieces of wood 3" wide x 12" long to form the "meat". You'll also need two pieces that are both 3/8 - 1/2" thick. These will be the "bread" of the sandwich.
The "meat" will need to be 1/16" to 1/8" wider than the plane blade. A 1/16" is usually plenty. Antique irons are often tapered to allow for lateral adjustment. There are lots of combinations you could use to create this piece. I like to use wood that is all sawn the same way. This may not be crucial, because lots of people get away with it. I'm of the opinion that you might encounter wood movement problems by mixing quarter and flat sawn boards.
Symmetry and Grain Orientation
When forming the sandwich, I try and maintain symmetry in the end grain. This is the recommending practice when face gluing flatsawn boards together. Orient the side grain, so that the "fur" all runs towards the end of the plane. This is important, because we'll need to plane the bottom of the plane, and we'll get tearout if the grain runs haphazardly. My preference is to form the sandwich out of quartersawn wood. This most closely approximates the technique used in antique planes, and it has several advantages. One is that a flatsawn surface burnishes more easily, another is that wood movement will mainly occur in the width of the plane, and not the height. Since we rely so much on that glue joint, minimizing the movement of the height is important.
Flat and True
It's important that any wood you use be straight and flat. Although you can clamp some cup out of a thin board, I wouldn't advise it. Don't do anything to your plane that you wouldn't do to a fine piece of furniture. In fact, be even more meticulous about it, because any small errors, oversights, or compromises will manifest themselves as a tool that is difficult to tune, and frustrating to use. Use a quality glue, and adequate clamping pressure along the entire length of your pieces. I find that 6-8 clamps combined with cauls or clamping boards do an excellent job. What you want is to spread out the force evenly across the entire blank.
Once you have your center portion glued up, make sure that the top and bottom are both square to the sides. This is very important for marking and creating the bed.
Another Alternative...
Is to start with a full-sized block of wood, saw off the sides, and then glue them back on later. This is perhaps more work, but easily accomplished with a bandsaw. It's also a convienant way to perform the initial layout and dowel placement.
If you can accurately cut and surface stock this thick, I would suggest starting with a single piece of wood 3x3x12 inches long. This can also be glued up from smaller stock, and such construction has worked well for me. If you wish to add a contrasting sole of a very hard wood, then the majority of the body can be something moderately heavy and easy to work with: maple, birch, oak, cherry, walnut, and ash all work well, and are very available.
If you do not have stock this thick, create your block by gluing up a few boards to create the thickness. Unless the wood is very hard, I then glue on a seperate sole. I like to use a sole of a hard, tropical wood like pau ferro (sometimes called Bolivian rosewood or morado), honduras rosewood or cocobolo. They're very durable, fairly easy to work, and just a bit oily, which helps in planing other woods. Pay close attention to your end and surface grain orientation. Again, you want to orient the pieces propely, and have the grain of the sole flowing towards the back end of the plane. This is important.
Oily Woods
Since these woods are oily, you may need a glue that is intended for tropical woods. In the past, I've avoided this expense by throughly wiping down the surface with Naptha or paint thinner, letting it evaporate, and then using a yellow glue like Titebond, or Titebond II. I haven't had any problems, but time will tell. If you're nervous about this, then use a two part resin, or a polyurethane glue, both of which are intended for this type of work. I've started to experiment with Gorilla Glue, and so far have been very happy.
Squareness
Make sure that your blank is square on all 4 edges before marking. Once you've glued up your block, you'll carefully mark everything, and then measure and cut off the sides, or the "bread" of the sandwich. This type of resawing and surfacing is not difficult, and I think it is the ideal technique to use. It gives you more flexability in terms of the woods you can use, and it makes some of the construction easier.
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Steve Spodaryk
Medford, MA
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article
12.10.2008
- Making a Wooden Plane
Introduction
Tools
The Iron
The Chipbreaker
Wood
Marking Out the Blank 1
Marking Out the Blank 2
Forming the Plane Bed
Drilling the Pin Holes
Making the Pin
Test Fit
Glue Up
Post Glue Cleanup
Adjusting the Mouth
Making the Wedge
Test Run
Shaping the Plane Body
Troubleshooting
Advanced Topics
- Making a Wooden Plane
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