Making A Krenov Style Plane

8 inch smoothing plane - 50 degree bed

9 inch scrub plane - 45 degree bed

Alaska Creative Woodworkers hosted a class on building the Krenov insired smoothing plane this weekend.  We were provided with a Hock blade w/ chip breaker, a block of maple, a pair of cheeks and blade pin  -- and pizza ;o).

The first task is deciding on a blade angle and scribing it to a little front of center.   We used a high angle of 50 degrees to allow an almost scraping action on hard-to-plane materials.

Bandsaw cuts

Now the painstaking work of getting that blade ramp dead flat and smooth.....with a block plane.   If you haven't done more with yer block plane than I have, this will take a while.

 Plane, plane. plane.....





check progress...and repeat.

Heel and toe swung away to mark for blade holder pin

Chop a slot for the breaker screw, carve the locking pin, and time to glue her up!

Spent some time making a wedge and filing the mouth so the blade just barely slides through. I chucked in the iron and wedge, and it made shavings!   I just needed to figure how I wanted the shape to fit my hand and make the cut.

Fresh off the bandsaw

A little work with  rasp and it's ready to make shavings.

I had planned to leave the surface rough...just like I got done with rasp -- all organic and tactile.  Well, that didn't last long when I saw how nice that grain on the sides looked after sanding down to 150.  Just kept going and pretty soon it was all dressed like a fancy-schmancy tool catalog picture.   Forgive me, oh great spirit of tools.

I'll be using this baby to put a beautiful edge on the table top sections I'm doing for an earlier post .. alder extension table.   The Hock iron is just so sharp, and the mouth I filed is real tight -- so the shavings are lacy thin.

 

 Nice view showing the curly grain in maple

  

 Notice the plane hammer I made from an old one my wife's dad owned.  She said they used it for hammering paint can lids back in place.  The plastic material on each end shattered and left the center steel piece and a nice handle.   I turned a couple of Oak replacement ends and it is perfect for the job.  Plus my wife is tickled her dad's tool is back in use.   After sanding off the red finish and a little lacquer, the hickory handle looks pretty skookum too!

Scrub Plane

I liked the result so well, I ordered another blade from Hock tools -- a 1.5 inch scrub blade with a 5 in radius.  The body is qs white oak and I dispensed with the chip  breaker.  I think the 3/16 thick iron is plenty -- and I don't have to cut relief for the  CB screw.  I just made a thicker wedge from mahogany and the plane makes shavings like it should --- really hogs out the material fast.

Just in case you didn't know, the scrub plane is for getting a rough board to nearly flat and true quickly by planing across the grain while checking progress with winding sticks.   After the board is relatively flat, a jointer or jack plane will even out the hills and valleys.   Then it is time for the smoothing plane to make a finished surface.