Planemaking Tools Archives - Handplane Central

DID YOU KNOW…

Ever wanted to try your hand at making a woodworking plane? Handplane Central has a ton of information for budding planemakers. Whether you’re a beginner who wants to start off making a simple Krenov style handplane, or a more advanced woodworker who wants to tackle something more complex like a dovetailed infill plane, you’ll find something here on Handplane Central.

We’ll show you how to source materials, design, cut, shape and construct your plane, as well as information on what tools you’ll need and which books are more helpful. We even have plans and diagrams that you can use.

Basic Tools For Metal Plane Making – Part II

Infill plane maker, Cameron Miller, gives a rundown of the basic tools needed for making metal planes. In this second part he concludes the article by concentrating on fabricating, marking and layout tools. Joining And Fabricating Tools Drills — Drills are essential for planemaking, not…

Basic Tools For Metal Plane Making – Part I

Making infill planes – from little planes, big planes grow Infill plane maker, Cameron Miller, gives a rundown of the basic tools needed for making metal planes. Part one of this article concentrates primarily on vices, saws and files. When I made my first metal…

Timbers Used For Pattern Making

When it comes to making the patterns used for castings, there are some fundamental attributes that need to be considered. Woods chosen for this purpose should be straight, and evenly grained, sufficiently dry and most importantly, dimensionally stable – with only a small amount of…

Books On Wooden Plane Making

There are a number of different ways to make a wooden plane, though some purists may have you believe that there is only one “true” way and that is to make them out of a solid block of wood. To my way of thinking this…

Woods Used In Making Infill Planes

The Lore Of Timber Many different kinds of timber can be used for planemaking in general. Most of the old wooden planes of past generations have been made from timbers such as beech, hornbeam, maple, boxwood and birch. I have seen some fin examples of…

Perfect Pitch – Bedding Angles Explained

It’s no secret to anybody familiar with using hand planes that different blade angles produce different results. A lower blade angle is generally better for end grain work while a very high blade angle is great for scraping. Is there a perfect blade angle that…

Practical Plane Making (Part IV)

Practical Planemaking 4 By W. J. Armour Sash Fillister Next to the plough the sash fillister (Fig. 36) is the most difficult to make. Views of the top, sole, and side of a sash fillister are given in Figs. 37, 38, and 39. The wood…

Practical Plane Making (Part III)

Practical Planemaking 3 By W. J. Armour Stop Work: the Plough Ploughs are generally made in lots of from three to six; the reason is that the mouldings on the ends of the stems and fences are stuck together, and could not be stuck so…

Practical Plane Making (Part II)

Practical Planemaking 2 By W. J. Armour Moulding Planes As a rule, all moulding planes are made 9 1/2 in. long, and as they mostly work on the spring, they are not required to have the grain of the wood so straight as in a…

Practical Plane Making (Part I)

The following article by William J. Armour was originally published in four parts in “Work, The Illustrated Journal for Mechanics” in early 1898. Armour was a plane maker from the Pimlico area of London and is noted in W.L. Goodman’s book “British Planemakers From 1700”….

Dovetailing Infill Planes (Part II)

Continuing on from yesterdays article on dovetailing, today we talk about the peening side of making an infill plane. Peening dovetails Diagram of a former for a smoothing plane. The easiest way I’ve found to peen dovetails together is to not use a vice at…

Dovetailing Infill Planes (Part I)

To many people the British style infill plane symbolizes the epitome of high class plane making. The 19th century hand planes manufactured by Stewart Spiers, Thomas Norris and others are coveted and prized by collectors and users alike for their workmanship, their beauty, their solidness…