Making a Rabbet Plane

Kind of looks like a rabbit

I wanted to try a rabbett or shoulder plane from the ground up...including the iron.  I had an old chrom-steel saw blade I used for crooked knives and used my metal cutoff blade on RotoZip to get the rough stock out... With careful grinding and frequent dips in water I got it to the shape I wanted without having to heat treat the metal.

I put a 30 degree bevel on it and then lapped the back with my sandpaper sharpening system.   Final honing on the bevel and it is a very nice blade.  However, I think I need to make a longer wedge to support the 1/8 in. iron.

The body is laminated with the central maple being two parts.   I could quickly and easily make the bed dead flat and then just glue the cherry sides in place.   Bed is 45 degrees and iron is at 30 degrees.

It cuts with the grain in bevel down position, but clogs up fast.   Next one will have a cone shape escape hole.   Cross grain is terrible...but then for that, the bed angle should be more like 20 degrees.

Since it is quick to do, I will keep experimenting with different shapes and find something that works well.  Sure is fun to make your own tool!