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.

Red Gum Slab Table Build Part 2

Here is a beautiful Red Gum slab that I purchased last year. (Click on any photo to enlarge)

It’s a monster! 2.4 meters long by 1.2 meters wide and 50 mm thick. It weighs approximately 150 kgs. First order of business was to fill all of the pitch pockets and checks with clear epoxy.

The more meticulous you are with the filling process, the better the finish you will get. Here is the top after a good polish and eight coats of Danish Oil.

The lower frame was a good challenge and pretty labour intensive. It involved cutting some big, half blind dovetails. Even though this joint will be hidden, perfect accuracy was important because of the massive weight of the top. Sloppy joinery would not hold up. The added challenge was that the frame was angled at 5 ½ degrees. I have cut many dovetails but it was surprising how this angle made it tricky to sight my lines when cutting. Also the Victorian Ash is 44 mm thick. After cutting all of the tails with my dovetail saw, I carefully lay out the pins.

You can see from the photo how I used an off-cut to register the 5 ½ degree angle to lay out the pins. Then I used my Lie Neilson dovetail saw to cut the pins.

A series of relief cuts are made and then the first section of waste can be removed with a Jeweller’s saw.

Then I switched to a more aggressive Coping saw to remove the remaining waste.

Removing the rest of the waste involves many hours of chiselling. You know the quote “To understand you must do”.
A glue up of this scale is always stressful but, my careful layout and accurate sawing and chiselling paid off.

In my next blog, I will finish up with the build of the base by showing the dovetailing of the the upper and lower stretchers. Then I will show ebonising and applying the Danish Oil finish.

Damascus Steel Infill Plane

My latest plane is all about the challenge of trying out a new material, and I thought that Damascus steel would work nicely with my low-slung smoother design. As soon as you lap Damascus steel the pattern disappears, so you have to etch it with ferric acid to bring out the pattern again. I knew this job was going to be better handled by my wife, the “mad scientist”. We did a bit of internet research regarding the etching process and a little experimenting on a few off-cuts. I always lap the insides of my planes before assembly, so acid etching the inside was a good warm up.

Here is a couple of photos of me doing the final fit of the ebony infills. I used two of my low-slung smoothers from my original set.

After the infills are in and all the cross pins are drilled and peened, it is time to lap the outside up to 600 grit.

Now it’s time for the final acid etching to the outside of the plane. I was definitely less nervous about how the etching was going to turn out because my wife had perfected her process and did a great job on the inside. Here is a photo of the pattern reappearing under the ferric acid.

Under the acid you can see the dovetails and cross pins clearly. When the acid is removed however the cross pins and dovetails turn a dull grey. I wanted the dovetails to be more visible, even from a distance, so I decided to make a quick sanding tool out of some scrap aluminium (or aluminum) and meticulously sanded each dovetail.

The finished plane turned out better than I imagined. I picked Damascus steel with a pattern that was leaning forward to give the feeling of forward momentum.

1¼” Low-slung smoother – 6⅛” long, 1¼” wide blade, 50° pitch

If you would like a more detailed description of acid etching an infill plane, check out Konrad Sauer’s blog – Etching pattern welded steel - Damascus. I would also like to mention Brian Buckner. I am pretty sure that he was the first plane maker to use Damascus steel. Both Brian and Konrad’s Damascus steel planes were a huge source of inspiration. Also, feel free to contact me if anyone has any questions regarding plane making using Damascus steel. Here are a few more photos.

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.

The little guy gets left behind

This was my first go at incorporating my new shape in a set of four low-slung smoothers. I experimented with a new type of brass for this set and in my opinion it was too soft for tool making. I assembled and peened the smallest size plane body first and was not happy with the results. As you see in the photo the brass deformed too much and the dovetails on the smallest sized, plane body look sloppy.

I wanted to redo this body however my 01 tool steel supplier did not have any steel in stock for the plane sole so I continued on with the rest of the set. I used my common sense to alter my peening technique for the next three planes and it all worked out fine. These three planes look and work beautifully. I will not work with this type of brass again, so this is a finished set of three planes.

The Kingwood infill material was wonderful to work with and it was an added challenge to get the infills to match from the same piece of wood. The sizes of the set from left to right are:
7 ½” long by 1 ¾” wide blade
6 ¾” long by 1 ½” wide blade
6 ⅛” long by 1 ¼” wide blade