Marcus Sly - Furniture Making and Design

A lot of people are put off making old-style rebate and moulding planes because of the need to make, or find, a suitable iron.  There's an easy solution though.  I've just made this plane to use on an forthcoming project using my favoured solution, which is to reclaim an iron from a cheap antique plane and modify it.  There is often good steel hidden behind all the grit and grime! 

Adapting an old iron is very straightforward so long as you have a bench-top disc sander.  Such a machine will make surprisingly short work of grinding the sides of a tempered steel plane iron to the correct size - and to the angle you need if the iron is to be skewed. A word of caution though! These machines are not designed for wet grinding, so to avoid a dangerous shock you should dry the iron after each time you dip it in water to cool. This is not too onerous.  So long as you have a coarse sanding disc - P60 or less - you should find that you can grind for a good long time before the iron gets hot enough to loose its temper.  Always follow the machine's instructions.

Strictly speaking the plane is not a dovetail plane but a dovetail shoulder plane.  I didn't want the fence and spur that most dovetail planes have.  I tend to cut my sliding dovetails with a saw and chisel, which I find just as quick as with a plane - and usually more accurate.  I've wanted a plane to help with fine tuning the fit for a long time, though.

The sole of the plane is brass, which is well worth the extra time.  It lasts longer and makes it possible to get a really fine mouth.  I also skewed the iron, since the plane will be used exclusively across the grain.  If you are tempted to make a similar tool here are some random tips that occurred to me as I made this one:

1. If at all possible have a comparable plane in front of you as a model to work from.  If not a dovetail plane, then at lest a skew rebate.  Over the years these tools evolved into a fairly standard form which makes good sense from both a using and making point of view. 
2. Although you can get specialist plane makers' floats like these, it's not really necessary unless you intend to do a LOT of plane making, or feel a need to achieve absolute perfection!  A couple of sharp chisels and a selection of files will suffice to make a perfectly workmanlike job of it.  I suggest looking at the standard to which the old planes were made and use that as a touchstone.  If you are making tools primarily to use on other jobs they need to be good enough to get the job done well and to be nice to use - not works of art!
3. You can fit the plane to the iron or the iron to the plane.  If you are using a reclaimed iron I suggest doing the latter.  The relatively slow speed at which one grinds away metal makes it a cinch to creep up on the correct fit by eye.
4. Fit the brass sole pieces a little bit wide, and one at a time.  Plane them almost flush to the plane's side using a block plane with a fine mouth, a VERY sharp iron, and the finest setting you can get away with.  Finish off the last .25mm (approx) using an ordinary cabinet scraper.

The point of a brass sole - a nice tight mouth to take delicate shavingsIt's a while since I made a plane, and I had forgotten just how enjoyable it is.  There's something hugely satisfying about making a tool which you can use for many years and which works well.  Few people experience this so make the most of it and - enjoy!