The 20$ Woodcraft spoon plane

[else24]

Every time I went to Woodcraft I'd notice that little spoon plane

think about it, and move on. Last week I had twenty bucks burning a hole in my pocket and couldn't help myself. What the heck, if I don't like it I can always beat myself up.

Took me around an hour to get a decent edge on it. Most of that time was finding a stance and a methodology. I don't like honing curved blades, but I managed. It had one monster of a burr on it.

And I carved out a spoon bowl! Took me about ten minutes. It was actually fun. Like scrubs and members of that family, cutting across the grain, even at just a slight angle, works best. Going along the grain, with or against it, gave me chatter.

Pretty soon I had me a nice hefty cherry spoon. Total time for my very first spoon including unpackaging the plane, honing, staring at it, picking out a nice piece of scrap, cutting, carving, and sanding it to

320; under three hours. Finished it with walnut oil, waited 24 hours. SWMBO thinks it's beautiful. It looks nice, feels great.

Okay. Not bad for 20 bucks. :-) I've found me an easily shippable Christmas/birthday present for a while, anyway. And we've got a nice neighbor who gave me several nice chunks of her crabapple tree when it blew down last summer. I think she'd like a spoon from that tree.

[George]

I do a few hundred spoons each year, and the sole on the plane in question does limit you where a curved knife, open scorp, or even

does not. With a gouge for the heavy work and the others for cleanup, they get down to about twenty minutes per. Do two water sets for fuzz before oiling. I do one at 150 and one at 220.

Of course I do have the Lee Valley low angle shaves for the handles, too.

[else24]

When I'm up to a few hundred spoons every year, I'll probably have other favorites.

For now, I'm happy that the tool does what I hoped it would. Yes, I can already see what its limits are but for the moment I'm nowhere near them. :-) If I can get it down to a half hour per spoon, that would be fine, and I think that's quite possible. And an afternoon in a lawn chair scooping out bowls doesn't strike me as irritating. I'm not thinking of sales and profit. Yet.

[Puff Griffis]

Wood Working for relaxation is truly enjoyable isn't it. Puff

[John]

Just curious but is the blade itself flat? The edge is obviously curved but I'm wondering whether the blade is concave like the spoon part.

J.

[e-mail] wrote:

[else24]

It's flat. You can lap it like any plane blade. It's like a scrub plane blade with a more exaggerated curve.

[Andy]

If anyone's interested, I just noticed this spoon plane is available at japanwoodworker.com for $15.75. Shipping would make it more expensive if you have a local woodcraft, but if you're going to order one, or if you live in Alameda, CA, that's another option.