4Legged Furniture

Over the weekend I took a one day class on making brass hand planes. It’s not really furniture, but you never know when you will need a custom tool for a specific job; besides it was fun and gave me a chance to dust off some of my metal tools and put them to good use.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Yes, this plane is tiny. The body measures only 5/8” wide by 3” long by 1” high. It started as two pieces of brass bar stock hand cut and shaped, then soldered together. The blade started as bar stock as well and was hardened, tempered, shaped and sharpened to a razors edge. The wedge was cut from a scrap of Purpleheart I had in the shop.

I have started a second, larger plane, but it will be a while before I get back to it. As it is, I’m not sure how much action this little one will see and I really need to get back to some furniture projects that are waiting for me.