Miniature planes

Here I'm going to show you two small planes that I made recently. I used Geza Burghardt's design, with his permission and guidance.

The first step was to cut some square brass bar stock. It is about 1cm thick and 2cm tall. I cut it into 5cm segments and then into the shape in the picture. The piece on the left is the 45 degree angle needed for the blade to rest on.

Here are most of the ingredients needed for a single plane. Two rosewood sides, a blade (which I purchased from Dick Tools) and some brass. The only thing missing is the brass rod used to hold the blade in place with a wedge, and also as reinforcement.

I was delighted to discover when working with rosewood for the first time that it smells like roses when cut.

I used epoxy to glue the wood to the brass, scratching both surfaces first to ensure a good bond. I scalloped out the smaller piece of brass to help clear the chips and shavings during use.

In the photo I am outside my house because epoxy is smelly stuff, and goes straight to your head without ventilation.

Once both pieces of brass were glued to a single side, I drilled a hole for the main brass pin. I then glued the other side on, and used the drill press to make a matching hole. The brass rod was super/krazy glued into place.

After that the basic shape was given to the plane using a file. Brass is quite soft and is pretty easy to work with using a file.

In this photograph is a calipers to show scale. The full length of the plane is less than 5cm.

After that I glued in five reinforcement rods using super/krazy glue. And then did some shaping on the sides. The first ebony wedge I made was too thin so I eventually replaced it.

Here are the two final planes completed. They have new wedges which are a bit thicker and easier to hit with a mallet. The brass and the wood have both been polished up to a high gloss on a buffing wheel.

The plane on the left has a curved bottom and is used (as shown previously) in the construction of the heel. It can also be used to scallop the braces of a steel string guitar. The other plane is identical except that it has a flat bottom.

I hope to use these finger planes for lots of different tasks.