A Knightish Smoother

Derek Cohen

Member
Messages
42
Location
Perth, Australia
About two years ago (?), shortly after receiving his CNC machine, Steve Knight offered a few of his prototype kits at a reduced cost. The aim was to get the new kit off the ground. I bought a razee jack.

Steve ran into problems mastering the CNC machine - the two sides of the plane did not line up - and time marched on .. and on .. and on. Eventually I gave up receiving the plane. Steve, however, made good by sending me a beautiful Chinese laminated blade by Galoot Tools. Steve also sent me a Bubinga (I think - help me here) bodied 45 degree bed smoother kit. The only problem here was that the blade was 2" wide and the smoother kit was designed for a 2 1/2" wide blade ... and the sides of the kit did not match well.

I hear that Steve has since solved all these problems, so please do not link this kit with his current product. They are likely to be a world apart. I hear nothing but good things about his finished planes.

I decided to make the kit anyway, put it aside, but finally got around to it recently, finishing it this evening.

I had to recut the body to fit the blade, as well as reshaping the bed to lie in one plane. It really would have been easier to build the plane from scratch, but the wood (Bubinga?) looked wonderful and I had not seen it before in the "raw".

The kit had come with a Purpleheart mouth piece, but I had to replace this (it was the wrong size now), and chose Jarrah (what else!). The wedge is also Jarrah (what else!). I also decided on a fixed mouth (Steve provided for an adjustable mouth) and further added a brass wear plate. The mouth is small.

The kit body was slab-sided (only the top of the heel was rounded). I decided to shape it along the lines of Steve's coffin smoother. So he cannot take the blame for the result!

The smoother is small - just 7 1/4" long and 2 5/8" wide at the centre. It is very comfortable to hold and push.

Knight1.jpg


Knight2.jpg


Knight3.jpg


Regards from Perth

Derek
 
Another fine-looking piece, Derek. :clap: I've not used a nice woodie like that, but I'll bet it feels wonderful in use.

FWIW, it looks like bubinga to me, too. ;)
 
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