New Tote for My Veritas Small Bevel Up Smooth Plane

A few years ago, I purchased a Veritas small bevel up smooth plane to help with thinning down guitar backs and sides. I ordered two O1 steel blades and one medium toothed blade, the O1 steel blades were for smoothing and the toothed blade for reducing stock thickness. The plane worked well right out of the box and I quickly found out the with the toothed blade it excelled at removing stock! I work all of my tonewoods by hand, I don’t have the space for drum sanders, jointers, etc., nor do I have the desire to own them, hand tools are quiet and efficient for the guitars I make.

As I said, this little plane worked well, but the factory made tote left much to desire, it was too thin for my hand and poorly shaped, I got a blister on my right hand after one half hour of use, something that never happened to me with a Stanley or Lie-Nielsen tote. After that planing session, I began to search the Internet for a replacement tote. On a woodworking forum, I found a reference to a one man company, that according to one well known furniture maker, was making “the best replacement plane totes and knobs the world has ever seen!” I went to this company’s website and began the process of ordering new tote and knob for the plane. Two weeks later, the replacement parts arrived in my mailbox. I happily put the new tote and knob on the plane and tried them out on some wood.

I quickly realized I made a mistake ordering a walnut knob and tote. The maker didn’t pore fill the wood, the walnut had thin coat of sprayed on lacquer, and the unfilled pores became a bit annoying as I used the plane. The tote was way too large for my hand, I don’t have really big hands, the width, thickness and height made the plane a little uncomfortable to use. The knob was pretty much the same size as the original, but it was poorly shaped, I ended up chucking the knob into a cordless drill and reshaped it until it felt better. I regret not ordering the replacement parts in cherry, but I still would have ended up not liking the knob and tote do to their shapes and finish.

I don’t use this plane every day, so I accepted the annoyance of the knob and tote, until last week. I finally had enough of them and went digging through my cache of wood. Deep down in a box were turning blocks of Pacific yew that I had bought with the hopes of using some of the wood for making guitar bridges. I chose the prettiest blocks that were too small for bridge blanks…

…jointed them and then glued them together. I used the tote from my Lie-Nielsen No.62 plane for a template.

With the help of my drill press and twenty three year old Porter Cable jig saw…

I roughed out the tote.

Here’s the finished tote. I believe that I will have to do some more work rounding out the front and back of the tote, but right now this plane is more enjoyable to use!

The walnut replacement tote I ordered was nearly 1 1/4 inches thick, my new tote is just under 1 inch thick and is about the same height as the Lie Nielsen tote. Yew wood takes well to sanding, it is smooth and very comfortable. Yes, I do plan to replace the knob with a knob made of yew, the new knob will be a close copy of the knob on my Stanley No. 3, type 11 smooth plane. The classics never go out of style!

This isn’t the first tote I have made, about 20 years ago I made a tote for a Stanley No.5 plane that was owned by my grandfather. I made it from a black walnut tree that he had planted that died and I milled into lumber. A year later, I found a period correct Stanley rosewood tote for the plane. I eventually sold that plane with both totes to a young man who really wanted a vintage Stanley plane.

Last year I found out that the person who made me the replacement walnut tote and knob sold their business. Apparently, the maker wanted to move onto other things. 

If you own a hand tool that doesn’t fit you well, don’t be afraid to make a new handle, knob or tote, etc., I have re-handled most of my chisels without regret.

If you have a positive comment about this post, please email me at the address I have posted on this blog. If you have a negative comment, don’t bother me with it.

Now get out into your shop and do some work!