Reply To: Wooden moulding planes – construction guide?
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See if you can find Tod Herrli’s video on making hollows and rounds. If you get it used, make sure the printed sheet is included because it has dimensions and plans. The video covers making the plane as well as making and firing the iron. It also describes how to make a set of floats, which you will need.
There are many woods that you can use. Grain orientation is important. Ideally, you want quarter sawn, although riff is fine. I know Tod “glues up quarter sawn,” which means finding riff or riff-ish cut wood, sawing and jointing pieces so that the grain is running perpendicular to a face, and then laminating the pieces together to get the blank that is needed. The end result is an approximation to quarter sawn without the high cost.
Larry Williams has a similar video, which many like, but I’ve never seen it.
You need to have a way to get the profile, though. One way, if you have access to a lathe or a friend with a lathe is to turn a dowel of the appropriate size, rough out the hollow with gouge, grooving plane, etc., and then use the dowel and sand paper to finish the hollow profile. You then use the hollow as a mother plane to make the corresponding round. You can buy dowels if you do not have a lathe, but the available dowel size will then dictate the dimensions of the plane. Plan B is to cough up the price of a hollow or round online or at an antique store, restore it, then use it as a mother plane for the other half, which you build.
You also need to buy O1 tool steel. Add up your costs, including the video(s), and compare with buying, of course.