Popular Woodworking 2003-02 № 132, страница 49

Riveting the infill to the metal shell is remarkably easy. First you file a small chamfer (about VW') around the rim of your rivet hole using a rattail file.Then you place the rivet pin in the hole and peen both ends. File the rivet down and it's a seamless fit.

throat is another one of this smoother's secrets to success.

Lumpy, then Oooh La La

The rest of the work on the plane is sanding. At this point the tool didn't look like much. The sides and sole were lumpy. Plus the wood was boogered up from filing and shaping. But a few minutes on the belt/disk sander made a world of difference. Misshapen rivets and dovetails were abraded into a shiny metal surface with all the joint lines nearly invisible.

Maybe, I thought, it really was possible to build a metal plane.

The rest of the work was easy: sanding the cocobolo infill up to 600 grit, sharpening the awesomely thick iron and finishing the wood with a few coats of Deftoil, an oil and varnish blend.

When completed, I secured the iron and chipbreaker in the plane's body and pulled out a weird board of curly cherry with the grain going in all directions. This, I thought, should be a good test.

Filing the bed of the plane takes a while, but it is worth every minute.A perfect fit between the iron and the plane helps ensure a chatter-free planing experience.

I pushed the plane forward and it responded with a swish and ejected a nearly transparent shaving 2" wide and 18" long. Not bad for a first pass.

After a little more tuning, the plane's performance can best be described as awesome. And though I'm thrilled with the tool, the best thing about the process was becoming comfortable with modifying my other tools. Shortly after I finished my plane I had a spoke-shave that was clogging. Either

To file the mouth of any plane, clamp the tool nose down in your vise. Use a bastard file and take your time. Check your mouth occasionally with a combination square to ensure the opening remains square.

the mouth was too tight or the lever cap needed to be polished. A few months earlier I would have hesitated to attack the tool with a file. But after just a few minutes of work, that tool began performing like it never had before.

And the downside to making your own tools? Once you get a taste of building a high-performance plane you can see why some woodworkers will settle for nothing less. So you make plans to build another one. PW

KIT SOURCES

The Shepherd Tool Co.

shepherdtool.com

519-624-7350

Also available from Woodcraft (woodcraft.com or 800-2251153) and The Fine Tool Journal (207-688-4962). A Spiers #7 smoothing plane in cocobolo costs $365 plus shipping. Other woods, plane patterns and finished planes are also available.

St. James Bay Tool Co. stjamesbaytoolco.com 800-574-2589 A similar Spiers smoothing plane kit (but with a blade adjuster) costs $257 plus shipping. The unshaped cocobolo for the plane costs $20 to $30. Other plane patterns and finished planes are also available.

FINISHED PLANES

Museum of Woodworking Tools toolsforworkingwood.com 212-604-9535 A finished reproduction of a Norris A5 smoothing plane built by Ray Iles costs $550 plus shipping. Other planes available.

Sauer & Steiner Toolworks 905-272-2939 or 519-539-6364 Sauer & Steiner offers a full line of traditional infill planes, including a Spiers-type smoother. Call for pricing.

Holtey Classic Handplanes holteyplanes.com Considered one of the finest planemakers of our time, Karl Holtey makes a variety of new infills. A Norris A6 smoother costs about $5,300.

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