Homemade Hollow and Round Moulding Planes

I’d been frustrated with eBay (either losing auctions due to automatic bids or not knowing the quality) and tool sellers (high prices) regarding H&R planes. After a bit of research I’ve been experimenting with making my own and it looks like it’s coming out pretty well. It hasn’t been too difficult either, especially if you cheat. I don’t have plane-makers floats, or a 3/16″ chisel, which would be nice.

I’ve completed a pair of 1/2″ and am in process of making a 3/8″ pair. Will follow up with a 5/8″ pair. I’m just using some wood I have on hand (recycled wood of course, from my sister’s kitchen reno) – I think it’s alder or something, but not sure. On the 1/2″ hollow plane, I made it from a solid block of wood, sawing and mortising (1/4″ mortise using Sellers’ mortise guide) the area for iron and wedge. I had to buy a 1/8″ chisel (couldn’t find a 3/16″) to complete the work. I shaped the bottom with the round plane, which I’ll discuss next.

The 1/2″ round plane I made by laminating three sections. The middle section I sawed to remove the waste for wedge mortise so that part is really two pieces. I hope the picture of me holding the plane shows this OK. From the back view of the plane, the left side (nearest my wrist) is 3/16″ thick x 3 3/8″ x 9 1/2″. The Center section(s) was 1/2″ thick x 3 3/8″ x 9 1/2″. On this I made a rabbet 1 1/4″ x 5/16″ deep. The right upper section is 1 1/4″ x 9 1/2″ to fit into the rabbet. Using the moulding planes I already had as a guide, I very carefully (this is key) laid out the bed and breast angles on the middle piece (do this before cutting the rabbet), cut out the middle section for wedge and iron, glue those pieces to the 3/16″ thick piece, and later glue on the upper right piece to enclose the “mortise”. I shaped the bottom with a #4. Finished with three coats BLO.

Shaping the irons was a challenge. I have no grinder, just files and I suck at metal work. But I managed to get them pretty close to the right shape. I got the iron blanks from Lie-Nielsen for about $18 a pop.

I’ve shown an example of what can be done with these. I cut rabbets first to remove the bulk of the waste, and then rounded the rest with the H&R’s. Came out pretty good.

I’d love to hear comments and critiques. This was an experiment, but I’ll hopefully use these for a while (I don’t do much moulding at this point, so they might last a while). If they wear out fast, maybe I’ll try maple. Doubt I’d ever try to find some quartersawn beech.