Krenov-Style Hand Plane, Part 3: You Can Use Hand Tools to Make a Plane!

My first suggestion would be to ask yourself, "Am I doing this out of curiosity, or do I believe in it? Do I intend to arrive at the point where this becomes the thing for me, and I know I can make a wooden plane anytime I want to and I can do fine things with it?" If it's mere curiosity, then it becomes just like anything else we do for the sake of exercise. Just to prove that we can go through the ABC's of it.

James Krenov, Making Music with a Plane, Fine Woodworking #126



I believe in wooden hand planes, I always have, but I also believe you can make a plane with the tools that you have on hand, if you have the desire, or the need to make one.

What Krenov says in his statement is true for anything that you do in life. You must believe in it, you must have a passion for it. Otherwise, there is no point in doing it. I say this to people who tell me that they want to make a guitar, and yet they still haven't held a plane, knife or chisel in their hands, nor do they have any interest in doing the work. They like the idea of making a guitar. You must be willing to do the work, that is where the magic exists. I know this sounds sappy, but to work is to pray.







I drilled out a hole yesterday and this afternoon I chiseled out the slot for the screw on the chip breaker. It was pretty quick work.




I scored the edges of the channel with a shop made cutting gauge. Nothing fancy here.




The blade with chip breaker fits nicely in the channel.




The completed channel.





The plane blank is ready to receive the indexing dowels, then I can layout for the cross pin.



This morning I Googled for images of guitars made by the great Spanish luthier, Santos Hernandez, to remind myself what it is that I do--I make guitars. I am making this plane to see if I want to solely use wooden planes to help me create guitars, to add another layer of romance to a craft that, for me, is steeped in romance. I am not a tool maker, but a wood worker who occasionally makes my own tools to help me progress in my craft.

Okay, off my soap box!


Here is a YouTube of Scott Tennant playing on some magnificent guitars! These guitars are why I had to study the classical guitar!








Comments

  1. Wonderful videos! What a great concept to have a master playing them.

    I like how you unabashedly embrace the romance of woodworking. Krenov was the guy who opened my eyes to it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice sharing, you can get any kind of tools from here: www.erniestools.com

    ReplyDelete

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