I’ve made a number of moulding planes now but have always had it in mind that one day I’d make an “Ogee” moulding plane. I knew it could be a challenge because it’s a step up from making Rounds and Hollows. This seemed true to me because an ogee is the combination of a Round (see “a”) and Hollow (see “b”) on the same blade (see “c”) and sometimes with a quirk in between. Think of a quirk as a little stepped recess. Cutting the “Round” portion for the blade (see “a”) is finicky but not too difficult because you are using a round file for shaping. However, cutting the “Hollow” portion (see “b”) can be difficult because a number of small files are required to shape the curve and you are placing a quirk in between .
The Beginning
There’s a lot to do when making a moulding plane. I start off by choosing what wood I will use and milling the stock. I start off by making my moulding plane a little on the large side at 3-1/8” tall by 10-1/8” long and finish to 3” tall by 10” long. Thickness will vary depending on the blade but usually I shoot for 1”.
I will be making this plane out of two kinds of wood. The top half will be Pine and the bottom half will be Maple. Here I made the Maple top half about 1-5/8” x 10-1/8”. The pine top half will start off with the same dimensions.
After card scraping the stock, see Fig 1, all around and acheiving a perfectly square profile, I will mate the upper and lower halves (Pine on top and Maple on Bottom) using a sliding Dovetail to join the two together. See Fig 2. shown upside down here. Then I proceed to doing the profiling on the bottom (shown completed here)
Next, I flush the ends square. I don’t take too much off because I want enough to finish off to final dimensions at the end.
Then I do a final check before continuing.
Shaping the Profile on the Bottom
As mentioned, I wanted to do a “Classic Ogee” profile on my plane’s sole. There’s a number of different kinds but this one is the one that I wanted to try. See Fig 3.
No small task. I have to say that this was a real challenge!
The edge highlighted “orange” is the actual shape that I now needed to make the blade shape. It just gets tougher but I’m up to the challenge!
Here, I do some light sanding to prep the sides for some beading that I will do with a scratchstock. See Fig 4.
Scratchstocking Beading
I scratchstock some beading where the two different woods of Pine and Maple join at the dovetail. This is done on both sides. The reason is two fold. First it will help to hide any gapping that may occur with wood contraction and expansion. Second it will aesthetically hide the parting line between the two. I start by using my homemade scratchstock because it has a larger fence and allows me to reach the area to bead. See Fig 5.
Once I made the initial beading using my homemade scratchstock, there is enough scratched depth to allow me to switch to my Veritas scratchstock and finalize the beading freehand. See Fig 6.
Why? Because I found for me that using two hands on a scratchstock allows far more control to accomplish the final perfect beading. Look at Fig. 7.
Mortising for the Blade
I now begin to do the mortising for the Escapement, Mouth, Bed, Cheek, and details. First I set up my Moulding Plane Mortising and Angle Jig that will give me a 50° Bed and a 60° Wedge face. This jig has an adjustment screw that allows me to fine tune the mouth opening for the blade and the wedge. When set up, the front half provides the angle for the wedge face and the second half provides the bed angle. See Fig 8.
In Fig 9, I flush the 60° front half to the front nose of the plane’s body and clamp down. Note that the plane’s body sits on an “alignment edge” on both jig halves.
I use the blade (see Fig 10) to get an idea how much gap to allow for a wedge’s tip to almost reach the blade’s tip for maximum clamp down force on the blade when installed. I usually like this gap for the wedge’s tip to be 3/32” – 1/8”. See Fig 11.
Then I cut a 10° wedge. Final shaping for this wedge will come later. Along with the blade, I butt these two against the 60° front half. Then sandwich the second half against it.
I then micro adjust the screw until it just touches the jig’s front half as shown. Then I make sure both jig halves are clamped well to the plane body. I then pencil in the lines on the plane’s body for the two angles.
After mortising the Escapement, Mouth, Bed, Cheek this is what it looks like. See Fig 12. I also made a cardboard template for the blade that I make next.
Making the Blade
I ordered a couple of plane blades from Amazon. I was hoping they would be at least HSS steel. I know they will be from China. I did a spark test and pretty sure they are at least 1084 or 1095 steel. Here I cut out the blank from my cardboard template. See Fig 13.
Here per Fig 14, I have annealed the steel to remove the hardness and start shaping the blade.
In Fig 15, I then place the blade into the plane body and trace the sole onto the blade with a hooked awl. I then proceed to shape the blade.
After getting the desired results, I then re-hardened the blade. I clean it up and temper it. Finally, I hone it.
Then I do a test to see how it planes.
Modification
So after doing this, I felt the fence was a little short and decided to add another fence. It proved to be easier to use.
Rick, Magnificent work, this is one beautiful molding plane. I enjoyed the write up, very well detailed and informative. There is no doubt you've mastered this craft, both wood and metal work. Are you self taugh in the craft of making these planes?, or perhaps have you attended a seminar - school? All the details in the making of a molding plane like this are many, and very intricate. While I use molding planes in my work as much as possible, I've picked up some pointers here to check for when the old planes I have present some difficulties. Great work on the sliding dovetail too, a difficult joint to make accurately.
Oldtool Rick, Magnificent work, this is one beautiful molding plane. I enjoyed the write up, very well detailed and informative. There is no doubt you've mastered this craft, both wood and metal work. Are you self taugh in the craft of making these planes?, or perhaps have you attended a seminar - school? All the details in the making of a molding plane like this are many, and very intricate. While I use molding planes in my work as much as possible, I've picked up some pointers here to check for when the old planes I have present some difficulties. Great work on the sliding dovetail too, a difficult joint to make accurately.
Thanks for posting, much appreciated.
Thank you so much Oldtool! I'm also very happy you liked the writeup. It's alot of work so the encouragement is appreciated. I am self taught. I just research, study, and make the effort. I learn by doing and improving. I love sharing. If you ever have questions please don't hesitate to ask.
That is the true art form of woodworking- creating the shapes with a hand tool like that. Very nice work on it and nice results. I don't have the patience for that and grab a router bit to get the shape!!
cheers, Jim
Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day
