Australian Wood Review - June 2018

40 Australian Wood Review

PROJECT

A

lthough they may not be your

first priority in woodworking

tools, shoulder planes are very handy

for traditional hand work. Nineteenth

century infill shoulder planes were

minor works of art, with bronze or

steel bodies ‘stuffed’ with exotic

woods, but they are relatively simple

in construction and do not require

any special skills to make. The

combination of spectacular wood and

brass can make a very attractive tool.

There are several ways to make the

metal body, but perhaps the easiest

way is to cut brass pieces from stock

bar and rivet them together. This

requires only basic tools and a little

care to make a strong, neat plane body.

The plane I will describe was

fabricated from readily available,

standard thicknesses of brass bar.

Sides of 1/8" (3.2mm) thick, plus core-

pieces of 1/2" (12.7mm) thickness,

make a body 19mm (3/4") wide, which

suits the 19mm Qiangsheng shoulder

plane blade I used.

The materials cost me around $55

($30 for brass and $25 for the blade)

and it took me all up 12 hours to

make. I didn’t bother with a screw

adjuster because they can be more

bother than they are worth on this

type of plane.

Setting is not difficult using a small

hammer to tap the blade, and you

rarely need to change it between

sharpenings. The finished plane

weighs just shy of a kilogram and

has a nice heft.

The tools required include a hacksaw,

a jewellers saw; a couple of flat files

(one fine, and one coarse for the

rougher work); a chainsaw file around 7

or 8mm diameter for smoothing inside

curves; a small, extra-slim triangular

file (or needle file) for the corners;

some small G-clamps, and a medium

sized (6–8oz) ball peen hammer.

A drill press is desirable, but not

essential. The straight cutting,

particularly of the thicker material,

can be done with a 1mm cut-off

wheel in an angle grinder, but do

ensure the work is held securely

before using any power tool.

Blade-bed angles for shoulder planes

vary between 15 and 20°. I opted for

15° because it suited the bar stock I

used, but 20° works just as well in my

experience. The side profile is copied

from an old G. Millers plane that

appealed to me.

Making an Infill

Shoulder Plane

Ian Wilkie shows you how to saw, file, sand, peen and refine

brass and wood to make your own shoulder plane.

A suite of shoulder planes made by Ian Wilkie.