Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey all,
I know some ppl must think I only hang around the OLF asking dumb questions,
But I actually do some woodworking believe it or not.... well something I been toying with as Ive stated previously here, is the notion that someone can make thier own planes - so I been trying my hand at making planes, and more recently an itty bitty one {as far as wooden ones go} for starters. Actually it was more of an experiment than anything else because I didnt really have any dimensions to go on other than a couple pictures in Bob Benedettos book and in the Hand Plane Book, and online.
So I roughed one out to see how it went...not bad, definitely not perfect, but not horrible....
I had an old Mibro#4 plane thats really a hunk of garbage.. so I reduced the blade to a couple smaller dimensions, I had a chunk of rosewood for the body, but when I completed it, I decided to add an ebony sole which I got from an old wormholed fretboard, that was salvaged from the Larrivee dumpster many years ago.
The wedge is mahogany from that score of blocks of wood from Windsor Plywood {the same day I got the lignum vitae} and the brass rod was given to me free by an employee from the metal supermarket that same day.
Having gotten the free combo sander from ToddStock is really opening up the possibilities of what I can get done, and more quickly,
a really big plus and a big thumbs up again Todd - you Rock!!!
Here it is... as I said I really was just rolling with it to see what it would end up like - and while Im not sure if it will be my No.1 {in fact almost definitely not} it was reassuring to me that I could tackle some more wooden and metal planes, and end up making one I would be satisfied with eventually.

I was hoping that if anyone here has made thier own violin {instrument makers} or smallish planes they could post some pics so I could get a better idea of where I could go from here,
I certainly would appreciate it.









Oh yeah and heres a mallet I made - hiding - behind the violin plane, which is resting with some others. The mallet handle is made of oak with a center strip of rosewood, and the head is mahogany with an oak core
{bored and filled with lead pellets which were epoxied in place}the ends were faced with leather, this is actually a shopnotes project.



Cheers
Charliewoodcharliewood39111.5615393519

a beautiful small plane, very nice indeed. if you decide to carve any archtop plates, mandos or violin family you will have to make son with curved soles.

[QUOTE=crazymanmichael] a beautiful small plane, very nice indeed. if you decide to carve any archtop plates, mandos or violin family you will have to make son with curved soles. [/QUOTE]

I decided to leave it flat soled until I have the capabilities to sharpen a curved blade, which I dont know how to do yet, really.
As soon as I can figure out how to maintain a sharpened curved blade then Im curving the sole right away. Thanks for having a look.
Cheers
Charliewoodcharliewood39111.5949074074

Looking good, Charliewood!

I either sharpen curved irons by hand, or in my eclipse type honing jig. This jig allows you to rock the iron from side to side on the stone because the guide wheel is so narrow. For a really short iron it is possible to either clamp or double stick it to another iron and then clamp it in the jig. But learning how to sharpen these by hand speeds up the process and you will likely be honing them more frequently.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Whoa Charlie, that's a really cool plane! Looks like you do very nice and precise work. So, how is she at making shavings? A flat sole plane in that size is very handy.

Make some more, I wanna watch....

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Charlie, that's really nice! Something like that would be useful in both radiused and flat configurations, even if you don't carve plates.

BTW, not all radiused planes are curved in all directions. For instance, a finger plane that's radiused just in the toe-to-heel direction is used by some builders for shaving braces--and it uses a straight blade.

Thanks guys, coming from you those compliments really mean alot. While it didnt exceed my expectations, Ive yet to sharpen the blade and give er a run yet, who knows. Many more will follow though.
Im looking forward to the completion of my brass body planes, and I hope they turn out well enough to be daily users.
Carlton, I do hope to have the whole array of archtop instrument planes one day, Im looking forward to an archtop build in the future.
Cheers
Charliewood

[QUOTE=charliewood] Carlton, I do hope to have the whole array of archtop instrument planes one day[/QUOTE]
I'm looking forward to seeing them. I'm wondering--it looks like you carved out the middle of the body, rather than building it Krenov-style. Optical illusion? Either way, it looks great!

Charlie-
Nice work!
The violin makers planes are pretty small so quite a challenge to adjust sometimes. I made one years ago but didn't use it much once I left the fiddle project behind.







For archtop guitars and the like, a bit larger plane is more useful. LMI has a number of 'em with pictures on their website. The Irving Sloane book on Steel String building has plans for a smallish plane as well. PM me your address and I'll throw a zerox of the Sloane page in the mail or we can hook up at a VIWG meeting some time.

Using metal (brass?) for the cheeks keeps the strength up while letting the blade get close to the edges. It's tough not to split wood cheeks once the plane gets small. (How do I know this?? )
Cheers

John

I'll start the bidding at __________

Nice Charlie -- that looks like it would be nice for shaving braces as well!

Let me know when you will consider taking orders!

Carlton - yeah I chisel carved the center, I think I will make a Krenov style next and use peened brass pins.
John thats a great looking plane!!! Im impressed, I would love to get some different guage brass plates next time I go to the metal supermarket,
VIWG??
Van Isle Woodworkers Guild? I been meaning to join that org - nice bunch of guys!
Anthony, I doubt this is worth the price of the wood, lol jk
Cheers
Charliewood

Here`s another wooden plane design. I made these to do the roughing out on archtop guitars. They work superbly removing a lot of wood very quickly. I then do the refinining carving with my Irving Sloane carving plane. The planes have received around six coats of boiled linseed oil before use. Each coat allowed to thoroughly dry before applying another coat.

Nice Charlie,

A while back I purchased a fingerplane that was all brass here on the OLF that was offered by one of the members. I can tell you that I use that little dude on a number of tasks and love it.

Mike

Very nice plane Charlie!

Man, if you can build planes that beautiful, what will it be when it comes to your guitars?

Serge

luthier49 Those are very very nice and quite likely what Im going to attempt next - much easier to keep the angles deadly perfect that way....
you make some very nice work man, and Im very happy to see some other peoples ideas, thanks everyone!
this will most like speed my learning curve on some final designs...
Mike - good score - who knows mabye someone will have a nice small plane that I can scoop up at the upcoming swap meet.{whats happening with that anyhow>?}
Serge, very encouraging as always -- you are too kind my brother,
oh yeah I forgot to mention
John Abercrombie, I anticipated cracking a bit and flooded the brass pin holes with CA a couple times, and heated the end grain in front of them, and flooded with CA as well, obviously your idea is by far superior.
Thanks to mark who also PMed me with a photo of some very very nice brass planes he made!
Cheers
Charliewood

[QUOTE=luthier49] Here`s another wooden plane design. [/QUOTE]
Welcome to the OLF Bob! Nice work on your planes. I like your solution for holding the wedge. Do you just glue those small bits to the sides?

Hope you'll let us see some of those archtops. BTW, we LOVE work-in-progress pictures!

[QUOTE=CarltonM] Hope you'll let us see some of those archtops. BTW, we LOVE work-in-progress pictures! [/QUOTE]
We sure do!!!!! anything luthiery related no matter how many times weve seen it before too! LOL
Cheers
Charliewood

Here's some more carving action...

My little birch thumb planes are as good or better than the Ibex planes, partly because they have better irons which I recycled from old plane irons, and partly because they are better to hold.

Arnt39112.8317708333

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Very nice, Arnt! There's just something special about those little planes--makes me want to get one and get some work done! How did you carve the inside? Do you have those special planemaker's files? Would they even be effective in such a small format?

[QUOTE=CarltonM]Welcome to the OLF Bob! Nice work on your planes. I like your solution for holding the wedge. Do you just glue those small bits to the sides? [/QUOTE]

yes they`re just glued to the sides. I put the blade and wedge up against the back infill and then glued the side blade and wedge retainers with spring clamps making sure the side retainers were hard against the wedge.

[QUOTE]
Hope you'll let us see some of those archtops. BTW, we LOVE work-in-progress pictures! [/QUOTE]

Well I`ve only got one to show, my first archtop build. I made a mess of the F hole binding which I could have routed off at the time and tried again. I could`nt be bothered at the time thinking it does`nt look too bad, but the gaps look like caverns now and I`m not happy with it. I`m afraid it`s got to go and some new to be applied. The binding is b/w/b/w veneer. I`ll apply the new binding one at a time so it`ll be easier to flush off on the inside with some kind of tool, ( maybe an L shaped scraper of some kind ). Suggestens anybody ?

Thanks for the plane-making explanation, Bob. Nice solution to a problem!

I think your archtop looks quite good! I understand the urge to just "git 'er done", and then finding those little flaws to be increasingly annoying. This guitar looks like it's worth revisiting, though, for a little spit-and-polish--nice work!

Nice planes Arnt!!!, and very nice guitars Bob... thats a beauty that is worth a little retooling no doubt
Arnt I took your advice and sharpened this blade freehand - it was much easier than I thought to keep the angle steady and the job went much quicker as you said it would!!
I gave the plane a few strokes on some small pieces of rosewood - I didnt want to mess up any of the larger pieces I had because I have so little of it! And I tried larger blade sweeps on some mahogany, I am pleased to say this thing actually cuts pretty nicely! I did an avergage job sharpening {and no strop, Im just letting the glue dry on my stropping plate leather on 3/4 birch ply}
I could do a much better job and do much finer shavings Im sure, anyhow Im surprised that I have a plane thats actually doing some shaving first time around - Im sure the next few will get better yet!
Heres some photos
please excuse the cigarette ashes in the photos Ive yet to shed that dirty habit.





the mahogany sweeps





oops I knew I had better even out that sanding curve on the front of the plane body, but I didnt think it would show "that" badly in photos, back to work.
Cheers
Charliewoodcharliewood39113.7107986111

Nice!!!

Great thread guys, great input and pics, thanks!

WOW! I love these little planes.   Really cool stuff to be making your own tools. Kudos.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck