I have been searching a website where people sell antiques and art. I found lots of old woodworking tools, etc. You should check it out, http://www.etsy.com, its a great resource as there is no bidding. Anyway, I came across the below listing for “Vintage Wood Plane Wedges”? Does anyone have an idea what these ‘wood’ be used for? (pun intended)
If you have interest in making your own hand planes, I can recommend David Finck’s book “Making and Mastering Wooden Planes”. He was a student of James Krenov before he authored his plane making book. He shows how to make laminated planes using a bandsaw a block plane and a drill press. The laminated planes are constructed quite differently (probably a lot easier) than the more traditional plane in Ken’s picture. Those traditional planes are usually constructed in one piece by creating the center void like a mortice, and shaping that mortice using special tools called plane maker floats. Floats are sort of like a combination of a file and a saw in one tool.
You can see a plane making float being sharpened in the following video:
Hey scott, thanks for that info. Unfortunately I have neither a bandsaw or a drill press 🙂 But those plane maker floats look like handy shaping tools 🙂
You do not have to have a bandsaw or drill press to make a laminated plane. You could easily resaw the stock by hand, saw the mouth out of the center section by hand, and drill the cross pin with a brace and a simple jig to improve accuracy. Using a mitred shooting board like the one in Paul’s video should correct any inaccuracies in the cut.
Now you got me going. I’m going to have to try to build one…