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Mine is pecan with cherry sides, because it's what I had on hand that happened to be about the right size. Sure a lignum sole would be nice, but by no means necessary.

Aluminum would indeed be interesting. Not a whole lot more durable than wood, but ought to work just fine, and could use a screw thread depth adjustment rather than the fiddly wedge on wood planes.

I would definitely NOT recommend that. Stanley made aluminum bodied planes, it leaves dark black marks on wood as well as not being very well suited to an item that needs some weight to work properly. They made an entire line of them and then promptly discontinued them as a result of it being a poor material for the job.

I'm still in the camp that a wood plane would be perfect for your situation, less headache and if you want to modify it it's much easier to cut/mod than any metal.

Totally agree that wood choice doesn't matter much. A second quality finger board would make a good sole.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Beech is a great for making planes. If you want to get fancy, Beech upper and Verawood sole. Verawood is sometimes sold as Lignum Vite, but it's less money. I was lucky enough to buy some European Hornbeam a while back and it's really good for planes. Ulmia (ECE) uses it in their better planes. Wish I could find more.

An aluminum plane built in similar style to a wood plane would be a lot heavier than a wood plane, and they work fine. Especially when taking fluffy thin shavings for plate jointing. But leaving black marks on the wood is indeed a show stopper. Perhaps anodizing (especially plasma electrolytic oxidation) would prevent it, but probably more trouble than it's worth. And if the anodizing causes any warping resulting in needing to re-grind the sole, then there goes your hardened surface...

There were a lot of transitional forms of planes when they were switching from wood to metal. I have and old Stanley with a metal blade holder on a beech wood base. A while back you could get 'infill' planes or kits to make your own. The fully assembled ones were very expensive, and the kits moderately so. They consist of a wood body, often something heavy like ebony or rosewood, that has been been covered with brass or iron plates. The plates are tightly fitted to the wood, and dovetailed along the edges. Once they have all been fitted the plates are screwed to the wood core, the dovetails hammered tight, and the outside filed and polished. I used that method a few years ago to make an over center catch for a folding harp guitar. I needed to use brass that was too heavy for me to bend, and I'm not confident in my ability to silver solder something that takes those stresses, so I used walnut cores and brass for the parts, with stainless steel shafts. It was a lot of work, but looks good and works well.

I'll "borrow" a quote from a wood working guy I used to read/listen too back when I made furniture using a LOT of hand tools.

"Every tool will cost you three things: Time, Money, Aggravation. Before buying one, you should think about which of these you want to spend the most on."

After a couple/few decades of using hand tools (and trying various brands), I've firmly settled on paying what I have to in order to reduce the Time and Aggravation as much as possible. For my personal preference, that means buying everything I can from Lie-Nielsen. If they don't make what I need, then I go and look for a maker/manufacturer that plays in the same league... I've never picked up an "expensive" tool and thought to myself "I wish I could increase my Fiddling Time and Aggravation in exchange for some of that money back."

Honestly, the only regrets I have on tools purchases were the ones I didn't pay enough for. Those, I usually end up replacing as soon as I can afford too.

All that said, a wooden plane can be a wonderful tool and is usually very low on the Money scale. But, the Time and Aggravation are usually very high for the first couple. I've found the same to be true for vintage planes that I've picked up at antique stores or flea markets. After lots of Time and Aggravation, they turned into nice decorations for inside the house. Pick your poison.

Build on!

Yep, I reached the same conclusion about 10 years ago.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

"All that said, a wooden plane can be a wonderful tool and is usually very low on the Money scale. But, the Time and Aggravation are usually very high for the first couple. I've found the same to be true for vintage planes that I've picked up at antique stores or flea markets. After lots of Time and Aggravation, they turned into nice decorations for inside the house. Pick your poison."

The trick is to be able to recognize one that doesn't need a lot of fettling to bring it into good working condition. I have purchased old rosewood handled Stanley planes of various sizes for under $10 that only required resharpening the blade to work well. Either they were well made from the factory or had been fettled by a previous owner (or both).
If a person wanted a longer lasting sole on a wood bodied plane, screwing a thick metal plate to the bottom might work. It works for horses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrP-01zuEO0

Someone mention transitional planes?
Here's a 22" no 29 I bought cheap as a project, now brought back to life.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

"What I need to know is, when they are milling planes flat with a milling machine, how do they clamp it?" I don't know, but I have read that when flattening a sole, such as on sandpapers, one should have the blade and cap installed as if one were going to plane, although the blade would not extend past the sole. So however one would clamp it, my guess is that the blade and cap should be installed.

Given all the rehabing that was necessary, and your skills, wood planes might be a good alternative for you. Here in the US, there are plenty of garage sales where one can still find good old planes. It is nice to be able to see how it fits in the hand. Near my shop in downtown L.A., there is a tool swap meet, and there are very good prices on very serviceable tools.

I have a nice ECE wooden smoothing plane with a lignum vitae sole, which I bought in the mid-'70's. I bought it because it seemed a lighter plane would be less tiring. But it turned out, the opposite is true. It is fine for a relatively short planing sessions, but it is tiring to use for very long, because it is too light; the heft of it is just off for me. I also have a Wards Master cast iron plane, which is probably a rebranded Stanley No. 5. It was my first plane and cost a few dollars. I still prefer it to all my other planes, including a veritas BU smoother, for the feel in my hand. I did replace the original blade with a Hock blade. The Veritas however, is a very nice plane, much more accurate in setting the blade, etc, and is my second-most used plane. I think any plane can be set up to plane well, depending upon how much time one wishes to invest. I hope the OPs plane is working well for the effort.

To Allan's point, that the internal stresses work themselves out to some degree, I had a machine shop flatten the sole shortly after I bought it, and it has not shifted since. I just measured it with a straight edge, and it is still flat. It was old when I got it at a garage sale over 40 years ago, so perhaps the internal stresses were worked out somewhat at that point.

I meant Alan.

It was satisfying to see someone else point out the fatal flaw, which is the cutting geometry. A flat sole with the blade protruding will, by its design, not produce a flat surface.
Surely someone has made a hand plane that is designed properly, which would have a two- part sole. The movable front section would adjust cutting depth, and the blade would be flush with the rear fixed section.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

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John

Someone had to point that out, eventually. Cat out of the bag..........

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I have seen at least 2 vintage patented iron planes that have that feature - the front and back of the bed are parallel but adjustable for depth. Pretty complicated mechanisms, and heavy to be hauling around with every stroke. The regular bench plane can work just fine if you get used to it, and as I mentioned, I have seen many that were not flat that produces a good surface because the user understood what was happening

Ed M

Yes, it's about technique for sure. IMHO, at the end of the day the issue of the hand plane is more about what you prefer to use. When I consider the pieces of a guitar, and which of those are taken from the edge tool directly to applying finish... well, there are none. Everything gets scraped and/or sanded (at least in my world). So, the reality is that I *could* make a guitar without hand tools for the most part. I would be on the struggle bus without using a chisel to carve braces when I'm tuning the tops, for example, but I really think I could figure out a way to do everything else with power tools.

The thing is, I hate power tools. Now, I use them because of their efficiency, but every time I turn one one I'm a little less happy because of the noise and dust. But, I'll never go from a band saw to a bow saw, simply due to the time factor and the almightily Arthritis factor :-/.

To end this borderline off-topic rant, it's a simple fact of life that hand tools require a knowledge of the material and the tool to be successful. I find it unfortunate that so many aspiring woodworkers (regardless of their end product) have so little opportunity to learn first hand from someone who understands both.

As you were...

Your's truly... *the hand tool guy*

Jointers and electric hand plane all have this feature. But hand planes are supposed to have blades protruding very slightly, like less than a hair. With proper techniques this is supposed to be negated. But if the plane is flat, or slightly convex, then at least I can plane the middle a little bit to compensate. If the plane is concave, this isn't possible at all.

Actually was wondering about bow saws. Why not just make a device that moves a bow saw up and down similar to jigsaws or scroll saw. So then you can use very wide bandsaw blades that is then clamped and tensioned to a bow saw. Maybe this would allow some resawing without needing gigantic bandsaws.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Thant's what they make muscles for

https://brfinewoodworking.com/video-resawing-by-hand/

Ed M

I was taught to make 'sprung' joints in the top and back. They're planed so that there is just a little light showing in the center, while the ends touch, and you can press them together with hand pressure to close up the gap. This seems to work for two reasons:
1) the glue swells the wood a bit, so the joint surface tends to flatten out, and,
2) rather than peeling up little by little from the ends the joint pretty much has to let go over it's whole length, which is less likely.

At any rate, the usual plane setup, with the cutter protruding slightly from the sole, makes just that sort of surface.

Also, as I point out to my students, there is a tendency when planing to take just a little more material off the ends, so they end up with gaps. I find that to get a flat joint you almost have to try to take a little more out in the middle. Again, the usual setup works well. Remember that we're talking about removing the merest wisp of wood with a very sharp cutter in a very flat plane.

I do use an opposite strategy to radius braces; sticking a shim on the sole of the plane behind the cutter. I clamp the brace stock in a holder and use the plane to shoot the surface. Because of the shim it starts off by sniping from the ends of the braces, but as you work on them you establish the radius. With the right setup when you're planing the whole length of the brace the radius is correct.

FWIW Tai . I bought about 13 yrs ago a GROZ indian number 7 plane from hartville tool in OHIO for $50. I tweaked it and flattened it, and it is used for all my hardwood jointing with a 35deg bevel an a spare blade. I also purchased an old stanley number 7 , which I use for planing softwoods . The bevel angle is 25 deg.I also paid $50 for it on evil bay. They are both used with an angled shooting board from Todd stock/s video on youtube. Good luck, Hope you find something that works for you. I/ve also made homemade wood planes using blades from wood river an lie nielsen . Specifically their widest plane blades. for a number 7 plane. Dont know what is available for wood in Taiwan . But any really hard stable wood will work !!