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Hi folks,

I'm going to make a wooden round bottom plane for the purpose of carving an archtop guitar top and back. What is a good radius for the plane bottom?

I found an round bottom plane on the lee valley tools site that has a 1.5" side to side radius and a 12" front to back radius. Is 1.5" a little too curved?
Here is a link: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=57205&cat=1,41182

The blade for this lee valley plane has a 1" radius, that is, its a tighter curve than the plane bottom. Is this recommended?

I'm thinking of taking a 1" chisel, grinding the blade to a curve for this project.

Thanks for any advice

Stefan

opps, I miss read that website, the plane has a blade that is 1" wide, not a 1" radius

I made a curved bottom plane a few yaears ago when I stated carving plates.

Mine has a 9" radius in both directions and it seems to work well.

Mark

I've posted this before but I made a bunch for instrument-sized thumbplanes for the violin a couple of years ago & use many of them for archtops. (Actually, it's hard to STOP making them, once you get rolling.) I used old 10mm &and 12mm files for blade material, ground into several rounded, straight & toothed edges (invaluable for highly figured wood) for each width. The smallest, shown in the middle, becomes invisible when covered with the last digit of your pinky! (The big one on the left I made for windsor chair seats many years ago, & use it now, as well as many of the others, on the interior of archtops.)

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Dave
Milton, ON

Mark, you made that plane?!! Its beautiful, reminds me of Chris Laarman's planes (never seen one in the flesh, much less used one but they sure look fine).

Here is a picture of the instrument maker's plane collection of a friend, a collector; he doesn't even use them! 2 or 3 Laarman planes in the front.




I don't make archtops, but my humble shop made wooden planes work fine for carving arch top mandolins. I also use Ibex planes and a sqiurrel tail Kunz, and I have a carving spoon that works well for the insides of the plates.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Stefan, I use the 47 mm length IBEX plane from http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=32680&cat=1,41182 for fine tune carving Archtop plates and finishing with scrapers. Regardless of how good a plane you purchase or make I think you'll find using a plane on maple to be really tough going. I got half way through my first maple back plate and switched to a Lancelot followed by 60 grit paper on an angle grinder. Lee Valley also sells the Kutzall http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=33253&cat=1,42524,42527 which should be a little less intimidating than the Lancelot.

Anthony, if you haven't already, you absolutely have to give toothing blades a try in your Ibex. You'll be amazed at how much easier the job becomes on figured maple. (In many areas, I go directly from that to scrapers.)

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Dave
Milton, ON

Consider also the possibility of using spokeshaves. I find them faster and easier on the body because you can use both arms at once. They take a wider shaving and leave a smoother surface. I do at least 90% of my plate carving, inside and out, with spokeshaves.

Mark

Who sells small, rounded spokeshaves? I remember seeing some quite small bronze models a while ago but have forgotten the source.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Stefan with apologies for not limiting my response to the question you raised and advocating a different method. In the process experienced folks here have added some good ideas you will find of value. I was trying to save you some of the hand pain I experienced.

Dave, Lee Valley didn't sell the toothed plane blade when I got mine...seeing as they do now, I think I will pick one up for my IBEX next time I am there (thanks for the heads up). I thought you rough carved your plates with a duplicaver then went to hand planes and scrappers.

JJ the little bronze spokeshaves I have seen are sold my Lee Valley http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=32681&cat=1,50230. I've not used them so I have no idea how good they are for this application. The tool that looks really nice is this one, http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=54888&cat=1,310 but it is fairly pricey.

Anthony, I do use the duplicarver (sorry if I mislead) but there's still a lot of planing/scraping to be done as I leave the roughing fairly heavy. I'm still guilty of scraping when too far away from final, but toothed blades give me alot more confidence to get close knowing I'm not going to rip it up. (I also "map" tearout directions on a drawing of the inside as I go, to prevent accidents when I get close.) If roughing by hand, I'd be tempted to try an angle grinder.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Nice work, Mark. Is that a laminated cap iron?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Yes Howard, Is a laminated steel. A client of mine is a knife maker. He gave me a rough billet of steel and I used it to make the blade, cap and finger pads for that plane.

We also collaborated and made a set of laminated steel tuner knobs for the guitar I built for him. They looked really cool !!

These are my spokeshaves.

The workhorse for the outside of the plate is my Stanley #51.

I had trouble locating a good spokeshave for the inside of the plate so I modified another Stanley #51. It works well for concave surfaces because the rise of the handles is greater than most spokeshaves. On a concave surface that is important so that you have clearance for your fingers. To make it work on concave surfaces I soldered a piece of 18" thick brass onto the sole and than ground it into a convex shape on my belt sander. I opened up the throat with my jeweler's saw and some small files. Once that was done I reground the blade to match the curve of the sole. It's a little bit more tippy than a standard #51, but not to bad once you get used to it.

I also use my set of small brass planes, two of which have convex soles. Diefenbacher tools sells them. These little shaves are also great for brace carving and heel shaping.

Mark

Blanchard, You da Man!!! That is a beautiful plane and the tuner knobs are superbad!!

I just bought those 3 Diefenbacher planes today...looks like I got the right ones. Thanks, Mark.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Are the small planes with the wooden Palm rests generally considered "rare birds"? I've only been getting my hands dirty with this stuff for a little over a year and I've been dreaming of buying some small planes like that but it seems like they are going to stay a thing of the past. Imagine how nice it would be to have a range of sizes with the quality like Ibex but with a nice wooden rest fitted on the end?! Maybe I'm just a fetishist for these particular tools.

Jack
there are some really cool tools sometimes used sometimes new castings at St James Bay Tool Co. -

Used
http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/toollist.html
theres a stanley 15 1/2 with a wooden palm rest

Luthier
http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/luthier.html
here theres a Handled Brace Scraper plane $55.00 - a Violin Plane with Rosewood Palm Rest $55.00 and other cool luthier tools especially squirrel tailed stuff

Stanley repro parts here
http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/stanley.html


Featured Tools
http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/featured.html


This is one of my favorite places to check out tools - mabye youll find something you like here!! Plus they really provide a cool niche and deserve support so they will continue making and selling these cool repros originals and used planes and parts!
Cheers
Charlie