Saturday 27 January 2018

Gidgee burl smoothing plane

I was excited to get the opportunity to use some of this beautiful Gidgee burl in one of my low-slung smoothing planes.
(Click on any photo to enlarge).




This is rare and valuable wood, so I had to be extra careful on the band saw. I got some nice clean blocks and I made sure to keep even the smallest off-cuts.


The shoe box of small pieces will be good for inlay work, small infills or beautiful knife scales.
Here are a few photos of the finished LSS-35 smoothing plane.





This low slung smoother measures 156mm long, with a 35mm wide blade.
The imperial equivalent measurements would be approximately 6 1/8” long, with a 1 3/8” wide blade.
I used to make this plane size with an 1 1/4” (31.75mm) wide blade. The extra blade width definitely improves this small smoother.