My latest design of a chair-makers plane with a tote

 

I am listing one of my new chair-makers planes with tote on ebay. I am currently finishing up work on a batch of ten, but have not yet heat treated nor tempered the blades for that group of planes. Several are ready to go so I am interested in putting them up for sale to see what reactions to this latest design will be.

 

I have been working off and on for a number of years, is it six or eight?, to arrive at a design which I am satisfied with. I have a box full of earlier prototypes filled with rejects which I keep around to document the journey. I arrived at a workable design about three years ago, and used that plane at the Common Ground Country Fair, where I demonstrated Windsor chair making for three days. That particular variant lacked a front knob. I used it like some of the European design hand planes which lack a front knob. Three days saddling seat blanks left me with several impressions. The tote worked well, as well as the smaller plane I have used for years. But, the lack of a front knob meant that my hand partially obscured the plane's throat when I was bearing down on the front end of the plane. Adding a front knob to the design meant either lengthening the body of the plane, or reducing the throat opening. Neither option really appealed to me. On the other hand, using that plane made me realize that in use the plane iron could be taken in and out of the plane without the tote being in the way. This meant that I could shorten the length of the stock, allowing for the addition of a front knob, move the tote's forward, and still reduce the overall length by a good inch.

 

With this experience in hand, I made another prototype resulting in the design pictured above. The finished plane is 7-1/4 inches long, 2-1/8 inches in width, and 6 inches in hieght with the tote. The tote is secured to the stock of the plane with a sliding dovetail joint. This batch of planes uses a plane body laminated using cherry and maple.

I am asking $225.00 plus $17 and change for priority mail.

 

Thanks for dropping by. STB