About handplane design

Samu.Aalto · 2007-05-16T21:21:03+00:00

Hello,I am just an amateur woodworker, who just awhile ago got into buildinghandplanes. I like krenovian approach (gives me an excuse to usecombinations of flashy hardwoods :). I have finished now about a dozenwooden handplanes and conditioned (or actually re-built) some cast-iron english Stanleys and one Anant smoother by machining their solesand sides, mouths, beddings and assembly surfaces with a precisionmilling machines and other such methods. I think they work now as wellas those expensive (and beautiful) Lie-Nielsens and Veritas planes.Well, I'd say the Anant smoother costs now about 400-500 USD :).Nothing further on that, just to say that now I have some preliminaryexperience about making and conditioning planes to somewhat usefulwoodworking tools.Okay, during these exercises, it got me thinking one seeminglyfundamental design-based thing, on which I have not yet founddiscussion or comments anywhere. It may be because english language isnot my native language and that's why I have missed something. But itstill bothers me, and I still I would like to receive some commentsand guiding in this matter, which actually fights against certainfundamental classic design principles I have used to keep as rock-solid approach when talking about woodworking handplanes.Consider the side profile of for example Stanley #5, just to mentionone basic design. It's side profile starts as shallow at toe, risingalong the side where blade is and then again decreases to the heel.This side profile says that the body construction is most rigidagainst mechanical bending in the mid-section where the blade and it'sadjustments are.The plane iron itself, when you push the plane forward and blade takesshavings, will create a force which pulls the sole against the woodsurface. Then again, when I think of the generally accepted principlethat plane sole should be levelled at least at toe region, at heelregion and especially at the area right in front of the blade edge, itmeans that if there is...

May 16, 2007 20 Replies

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Bob 19 years ago

I think you are right Bridger. I don't want to make my head hurt to much by thinking about it to rigorously. :-)

Bob

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