Hollow and Round Plane Bodies

M

macchips4

Well-known member
To make the plane bodies, are there subtitutes for the traditional quartersawn beech? I see the modern makers use cherry which I'm assuming is cut quartersawn. Are There other woods that could  be used? white oak, maple? does it need to be quatersawn?
I have a few single hollow and round planes I was thinking of trying to make it's mate, Attempting to put together a "set", but purchasing a set is expensive, used or new.
Joe
 
I have used cherry (salvaged from a fruit tree) with success. I've also read that maple makes nice planes. It seems to me that almost any reasonably durable, dimensionally stable wood could be used. I know that european beach was not the only material used traditionally. Regardless of the material used its important to have well dried material and to saw it so that the correct grain orientation is present in the board. The video "Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes" by Larry Williams is excellent and provides a nice discussion of all aspects of making hollow and round planes (including wood selection and grain orientation). The video is available through a number of sources and can be found pretty quickly through a web search. I highly recommend it.
 
I use mostly Japanese planes and make the dai (plane body) from kashi (white Japanese oak) mostly, a couple of hon red oak. Now these are very strong, tough woods. People who know more than I about N American woods and Japanese planes say that Live Oak is the only viable American substitute; so I'd be tempted to try some Live Oak, especially given that there's a lot of it around here (Texas) and hardly anyone wants it.

Other than that, I'd say most any quality fruitwood or dogwood would be high performers. As would desert ironwood, like Terry Gordon used to use; but your edges would be sorely tested.
 
I suppose an explanation of the perhaps tongue-in-cheek suggestion of garolite is in order. Once upon a time, there was a woodworking website called Badger Pond, with a hand tool forum called Neanderthal Haven. There was a maker of wooden planes in Portland (whose name escapes me at the moment) who posted photos, construction details, asked many questions of those in attendance and stimulated many interesting discussions. He had been experimenting and working with non-traditional timber species (including purpleheart) and even more exotic materials, and posted his experiences with a fiberglas reinforced epoxy resin often used as a structural dielectric. Many people found this experiment and results very interesting, while some made humorous quips, and some others decided it was just wrong, perhaps because it was so untraditional. The moderator evidently didn?t appreciate the humor, or could not abide whatever negative comments may have been posted, and deleted all the conversations on the subject and banned even mention of the word on the forum. I have no idea what was said that set off this overreaction, but I could understand that some very practical tool applications might have developed if the material could have been investigated further by the community.

I don?t believe the rabbet plane in the photo I show was in any way associated with this incident. A galoot friend of mine spotted it later at a tool auction. No, the properties of garolite are not so exotic that they allow the plane to work with the blade installed upside down.

If you notice the Garolite plane is flatsawn, but that is not germane to your question, as it doesn?t move. For stability, my understanding is that wood plane bodies should be quartersawn. All that I own are.
 
Thanks to everyone for their posts. I quess I'll use 1/4sawn cherry, easiest to get and would "look nice".
Joe
 
Look into buying some used planes, If the profiles aren't exact you can use the hollow to reshape the round or vise-versa. User planes in good shape from common makers such as Kellogg, Greenfield, Auburn tool, etc. gor for $10 - $20 on ebay. You can have them tuned up and working in a few hours, verses a few days for making them.

I have used http://www.jimbodetools.com/ to buy planes in the past if you let him know you are looking for users he has always sold me good working planes at a good price. No affiliation, just a happy customer.
 
To add some details to Tim's good advise, you may want to consider the pitch (cutting angle) of the molding planes you buy. There are four standard pitches. Common (45?), York (50?), Middle (55?), and Half (60?). Old American planes are most commonly found in common pitch, whereas it is easier to find English planes in higher pitches. Higher pitch planes work better in hardwoods, especially figured hardwoods, but are a bit harder to push, and may need sharpening more often.

Hollows and rounds and unfenced rabbet planes can be used in either direction, to address grain reversals. Snipes-bill and side rounds are made and sold in pairs, for the same reason. Complex molding profiles only work in one direction (right handed, with your bench and sticking board on your right, your right hand on the top of the plane, and your left hand on the side. For this reason, a higher pitch or rigorous wood selection criteria are important for a complex molder.

The main disadvantage of cherry is that it will not wear as well as beech, but for amount of most of the work most of us do, that is not important. If the planes were to be used in a production environment, making architectural moldings day in and day out, boxed planes (with boxwood wear strips) would be an advantage, but the boxing may require maintenance, especially on old planes.
 
wrduffield said:
Garolite?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I vaguely remember two such threads: one on Badger Pond and one on Woodcentral; and it seems to me they were both started, or at least significantly helped along, by Adam Cherubini. FWIW.

Pam
 
I will also recommend Jim's web site:  http://www.JimBodeTools.com    I got a good usable 1/2 set of different but matching pairs in excellent condition.  Plus a refund when the shipping was less!!! All at an excellent price. I also have no affiliation with Jim Bode Tools. They have saved me with many a restoration. 
 
Question: how do skewed moulding planes compare to non-skewed versions? I realize they are skewed to help cut cleaner profiles in difficult woods, but does it actually work in practice? Or does the skew make the plane too hard to track?
 
wrduffield said:
Once upon a time, there was a woodworking website called Badger Pond, with a hand tool forum called Neanderthal Haven. There was a maker of wooden planes in Portland (whose name escapes me at the moment) who posted photos, construction details, asked many questions of those in attendance and stimulated many interesting discussions. He had been experimenting and working with non-traditional timber species (including purpleheart) and even more exotic materials...
Click to expand...

I do not specifically recall the thread, but it sounds like you are referring to Steve Knight. Badger Pond was certainly heavily moderated, wasn't it? I can't believe it shut down almost ten years ago.
 
Try using old wooden rabbet planes with straight or skewed irons. Woods to consider: rock maple (quartersawn), live oak, applewood, well seasoned birch or beech. Any blocks you get should be air dried 1  year for each inch of thickness. You don't want to do all the work and then have the plane body twist. Try going to orchards to see if they have fruitwood scraps from downed trees and always be on the lookout for trees lost to storms in year local area; you'll probably get free wood. If you get fresh wood  I suggest you do what Roy Underhill does and split it into billets at the start of the drying process. See if you can borrow a copy of Ken Roberts "Wooden Planes in 19th Century America, Vol. II." He reprints the article "Practical Plane Making" by W. J. Armour From "Work, The Illustrated Journal for Mechanics," Vol. XV, No 461, January 15, 1898, pg. 8.  You may be able to get this through the public or a college library. I do not know if it is available online. If you cannot, email me - [email protected] - with your mailing address and I'll photocopy the pages and send them to you. Be well.
 
pampine said:
wrduffield said:
Garolite?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I vaguely remember two such threads: one on Badger Pond and one on Woodcentral; and it seems to me they were both started, or at least significantly helped along, by Adam Cherubini. FWIW.

Pam
Click to expand...

It was my belief that the labor intensive nature of wooden planes is what originally gave birth to metal planes.  Bailey, I believe, wasn't looking to make a superior plane, but a cheaper one. Injection molding, CNC technology, and possibly 3D printing all offer the opportunity to make 18th c forms cheaper than they could be made conventionally (which still involves a great deal of hand work).  Materials used for industrial bearings/bushings such as PAI or Delrin/Acetal would offer many of the performance characteristics we seek in a wood plane such as wear resistance and low friction. These plastics also would offer a few advantages over wood (stability, damage tolerance, impervious to water/moisture damage).

I mentioned that saw makers interested in traditional saw handles could substitute injection molded handles for hand carved wooden ones.  It was my experience, and I believe Mike Wenzloff said as well, that saw handles were the single most time consuming part of making a saw.

It wasn't long after these posts that Rob Cosman started making DT saws with plastic handles.  I spoke with Rob about his handles recently. I don't believe he saw my post.  Rob visited with Mike Wenzloff and was interested in using plastic to avoid the large amount of scrap associated with correctly orienting saw handles in wood.  Rob can get many more handles out of a similarly sized piece of corian (or whatever he's using). So that is another benefit of using plastic.

I have no doubt that the day will come when highly evolved and sophisticated shapes of 18th c tools will be resurrected in plastic.
 
3D printing surely makes this idea a lot more practical; but I've spent half my life trying to get the plastics I consumed during the first half out of my body. I don't see myself making a lot of plastic dust to fit a blade.

Generally I think you've got a fine idea; but I love making and using wood planes, so I'll have to line up in the "I'm not going to do this" column.

Pam
 
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