Popular Woodworking 2006-08 № 156, страница 59
SAUER NO. 4 S Sole length: 7V2" Weight: 4 lbs. 4.7 oz. Pitch of iron: 55° Mouth opening: Immeasurably tight Iron: High-carbon steel, .186" thick, 2" w. The Sauer & Steiner No. 4 smoothing plane is unexpectedly comfortable. Note how the knuckle of my index finger rubs the back of the iron; this can be uncomfortable after hours of planing. link to tools of the past has heavily influenced the tools he builds today. They have an unmistakable old-school feel. The enormous miter plane of his that I got to use was simply an awesome piece of engineering and design. The decorative pattern worked into the sidewalls of Here you can see in detail how carefully fit and detailed Robert Baker's work is. the plane was something I'd never seen anything like before (and in fact a couple other toolmakers have wondered how he does it). The wood is finished to a high-grade furniture look. And the details are right-on. This tool was designed to be used on a shooting board and both of the sides were Baker's amazing and huge miter plane, with two smaller examples of his work. almost exactly perfectly 90° to the sole (the right sidewall of the tool was an airtight 90°; the left just a smidge off). As someone who has tried to "fix" a misaligned sidewall on a few tools I can tell you that this is no small achievement for a handmade tool. The weight of the plane made it a formidable shooting board plane; your fingers fill right in next to the lever cap like they should live there. The tool was not comfortable when used upright like a bench plane - but few box-shaped miter planes are. Brian Buckner Miter: An Amazing Amateur Buckner isn't a professional tool-maker - he does sell some of the planes he makes, but he also holds a high-tech day job in state government. What is particularly interesting about his tools is the ROBERTBAKER BOX MITER PLANE Sole length: 10V2" Weight 6 lbs. 1.5 oz. Pitch of iron: 20° Mouth opening: Immeasurably tight Iron: High-carbon steel, .180" thick, 23/16" w. Contact 1 Fieldstone Road, York, ME 03909 or HoltzGear@aol. com. (Note: Baker does not have a catalog or web site). level of detail he achieves because he doe sn't have to put food on the table by selling his planes. As a result, everything is over the top. The chamfers he files into the steel sides are (and there's no other word for it) downright sexy. He used Damascus steel for the sidewalls of this plane, which gives the tool an unmistakable graphic look. The ebony front bun has the presence and precision of a well-made chess piece. This tool (photo, next page) is what's called an "improved miter" pattern of plane. It's a form that is related to the box-shaped miter shown at left. What's improved about it? Well you can use it like a smoothing plane, which is something I've become comfortable doing. Buckner's tool fit in my hands and was effortless to get it set and taking beautiful shavings. Wayne Anderson Smoother: No Two Alike First, some full disclosure: I own this particular plane and have been using it regularly for several months now. Anderson's planes are all built with Swiss-watch mechanicals and European old-world flair. Every one of his tools is a little bit different than the ones he made before, even if it's the same basic form. They all have an organic and human-made quality to them that sets them apart from manufactured tools. This tool, which was made in late 2005, has some unusual characteristics. First, there's no chipbreaker. This makes the tool simpler to set up - an errant chipbreaker can cause serious clogs. But it also makes the shavings bunch up in the mouth. Chipbreakers have one excellent benefit in bevel-down planes: they push the shavings up and out of the tool. With this smoothing plane (and others I've used without a chipbreaker) the shavings popularwoodworking.com I 57 |
