New Molding Planes No. 7/8 Hollow & Rounds

So pursuing the challenge of creating small batches of molding planes, specifically hollows & rounds. Rabbet planes to follow. This latest batch has European Beech bodies with custom fabricated plane irons. You can see the earlier planes above in Maple. I like challenges and this was one of them. Perfected some techniques and processes in the project for more production work. These planes are small but there is an incredible amount of precision involved with little room for error. They have been individually tested and perform very well. I standardized the sizes to conform to conventional, modern molding plane dimensions and decided on an average size of Hollow & Round No.7/8. This is an optimal size for most work from experience.

The escapement area and wedge design presented the biggest challenge. Shavings need to exit this area smoothly and clogging of the mouth area is to be avoided. I cut the plane irons from O-1 tool steel flat bar. This was very laborious and tedious. Considerable filing afterwards for a uniform consistency of width along the tang and flag area. The profile was both hand filed and ground on a wheel, both actually in that order. The relief or clearance angle is set to 45d. I found that a shallower angle can interfere with the sole area behind the blade. It is hard to believe how many hours go into creating these small objects (tools). However, I have yet to harden and temper the blades. This will occur in the coming days once I am set up. All in all, I learned how to create these in small batches. I might go to a batch of eight planes in the next round.