Latest Planes

Here are some photos of my latest planes. (Click on any photo to enlarge).
If you would like to follow more of my day to day plane making please check me out on Instagram. You do not have to be an Instagram member, just click on the big pink camera on any page of this website or Google search: bjsplanes Instagram.

Low Slung Smoother: LSS-30 with figured Belah infill.

LSS-35 with ringed Gidgee infill

LSS-35 with Damascus steel sides and Ebony infill

And matching Damascus steel and Ebony adjustment hammer

Squirrel Tail plane with Coolabah burl infill

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.

1 ¼” Low-slung smoother

I just finished this commission. Here is a picture with its first coat of finish.

1¼” Low-slung smoother – 6⅛” long, 1¼” wide blade, 01 Tool steel, Naval brass, Kingwood infill

I was contacted a couple of months ago by a local woodworker and hand tool enthusiast, who was interested in potentially commissioning one of my planes. The next step was simple, invite him over for a Saturday afternoon and take some shavings. It was a great day, low key and lots of fun. He was able to try all of my planes, old and new, and was happy to pick them up and put them to work. Like myself, he enjoys doing smaller woodworking projects and he was attracted to the feel and versatility of the 1¼” low-slung smoother. If you do fine woodworking, chances are you do smallish projects such as box making or small drawers, or your larger projects include small details such as inlays. This small smoother is great for all sorts of smallish jobs and can be used comfortably with two hands or one. Why use a sanding block to remove machining marks from the edges of a small drawer side? One or two passes with this plane and the edge is smooth and ready for finishing.

Or use it with one hand to gently round an edge or clean up a chamfer.

With the blade cambered, I can level up a delicate joint or smooth any small surface.

Of course every woodworker has a favourite plane to perform these tasks. You certainly do not need this plane or an infill plane - whatever works for you. I would just like to encourage more woodworkers to trust in their fine planes on projects. I’d rather sweep up shavings than sanding dust. I actually use this size plane to fit my parallel sided infills and the first time I tried it I was surprised at how accurate this method is.

I was finally able to get my hands on Naval brass for this plane thanks to a good Samaritan in America. It was a great brass to work with and it will be what I use for now on for my low-slung smoothers. Here are some more pictures of the finished plane.

While taking the photos for this most recent blog, my wife and I had a play with the video feature of her camera. It was a bit of fun – you can check it out on the new Video page on my website - BJS Planes and Working - Video page.

Getting started

Where to start? Well I guess I should talk about why I started making planes. As an apprentice in Canada in 2003, our first project was a dovetailed foot stool that was constructed using only hand tools and I fell in love with working wood in this manner. My instructor was using a wooden plane that he had made. I was struck by how beautifully it worked and how he had customized the shape to fit his hands. He was very generous and offered to help me make my first plane. Here is a picture.

This is basically a copy of his plane, except I carved a horn in the front of mine. The scrolled wedge was his design. This plane was made using Rock Maple and Rosewood.

From here I continued to make and use wooden planes. Here is a picture of my next two planes. A 19 inch Try plane and an 8 inch Smoother with custom adjustment hammer. These planes were constructed using Beech and Wenge. As my skills increased I could incorporate the sliding dovetail sole.

As I began to gain more woodworking experience and try out different styles of planes. I realised that the shape of my earlier Smoothers was not really that comfortable. Then I made a couple of these Smoothing planes.

The shape is basically a more organic version of the ECE Primus wooden Smoothing planes. The body is Pearwood and the sole is Cocobolo. Another difference in this style plane was incorporating a knurled screw in the lever cap as opposed to a wedge. This makes adjusting the plane much easier. When you tap the body of the plane to adjust the depth of cut, only the blade moves, not the blade and wedge.

In my next blog I will talk about how I progressed to making the infill planes that you can see in my gallery. Here are a few more pictures of some of my wooden planes. The low profile, radius bottom plane was made from a beautiful piece of heartwood Pear and Cocobolo.