Traditional Wooden Double-Iron Planes - Update

Bill Satko

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Methow Valley
A year ago Steve Voigt (a SMC regular) opened a new planemaking shop (Voigt Planes) specializing in making traditional double-iron planes. I thought that there might be a few here that might be interested in what he has to offer. I have heard a lot of good things about his planes.

I know from my wooden moulding & rabbet planes the pleasure of working wood with wooden planes. It is a totally different feel than using metal planes.

Sometimes the itch just needs to be scratched:

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As Ryan's excellent link shows, by double iron, it means a blade with a cap iron.

But not a regular cap iron...

Do you think his changes he made improve the utility? It looks like its a bit steeper than a lot of cap irons, and I could see them being easier to get well seated to the blade (which I've had some trouble with especially on old planes that were ill treated in their previous life needing a fair bit of fettling to get to be happy). The tapered blades are also interesting, I'm guessing that the grinding on those is a decent chunk of his costs from what I've seen other folks talk about.

I was also curious how you liked the try plane with the wider front and no front tote... I haven't actually used a plane that large with no front tote and was pondering what it meant as far as usage goes. My naive guess is that it might actually be beneficial because you wouldn't be tempted to pull up on it (something I'm pretty sure I'm occasionally guilty of based on some issues that sort of randomly pop up).
 
But not a regular cap iron...

Do you think his changes he made improve the utility? It looks like its a bit steeper than a lot of cap irons, and I could see them being easier to get well seated to the blade (which I've had some trouble with especially on old planes that were ill treated in their previous life needing a fair bit of fettling to get to be happy).

The cap iron curve looks fairly close to the sketches in The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton. I have the book, just took me a while to find it. While looking, I found Whenlen's The Wooden Plane and although it is not a cross section view, it appears to also have an abrupt curve for the wooden try plane in it. So I believe that it is not that unusual for that time period.

Just to show some extreme curve, that a look at this picture I found. It appears to be from a metal plane which came some time after the time period of Seaton Hall which is the basis of Voigt's planes.

Record Cap Iron.jpg


I was also curious how you liked the try plane with the wider front and no front tote... I haven't actually used a plane that large with no front tote and was pondering what it meant as far as usage goes. My naive guess is that it might actually be beneficial because you wouldn't be tempted to pull up on it (something I'm pretty sure I'm occasionally guilty of based on some issues that sort of randomly pop up).

I tried it out as soon it arrived and naturally held it at the front with my hand reversed facing to the back, similar to how I hold my hollows and rounds sometimes. Seemed to work well, but I really need more time working with it. Too hot the last couple of days (87 now) but it will be in the 70's Sunday, so I should be doing much more with it. I have a chore in mind that it will be perfect for.
 
Yeah, thinking about it I don't think the approach angle is a lot different than some/most of my planes because I've been putting a micro bevel on the cap iron as well to get a crisp fit. I read somewhere about doing that and it seemed to work pretty well so just kept it there :) Pretty interesting to see in use, generally I figure there was some reason things were done the way they were and we just have to figure out what it was (whether or not it ends up being what we want in the end is somewhat orthogonal, hard to decide that without figuring it out first). I don't see a lot of stuff like that locally so pretty fun to at least live a bit vicariously through other folks :)

That would seem like the natural way to hold it overhead. My dad has an old woodie jack that the front knob was busted off of I used a bit, I was holding it from the side for edge jointing which seemed to work pretty well - basically just guiding the front. Obviously that didn't work as well for face jointing (and I can't recall what I did there). It does make me kind of wonder if the more "grab-able" front knob actually encourages some bad behavior in some cases.
 
Well that iron cap iron approach is not new. I have a wood coffin plane that originates from UK and its plane iron made by Mathieson is identical both in wedge thickness and width as well as cap iron.
Paul sellers mentions the hard time Stanley et al had introducing metal planes to the market all those years ago and one reason was the feel and ease with which woodies moved over the surface.
So i dont see anything hugely innovative in this plane Bill. Even the milling of the throat /blade support area has been standard fare for years.

what i would like to explore in this area is Lee Valleys latest kits which enable putting a Norris adjuster into a wooden plane and be able to clamp down the cap like us done on a Norris instead of the hammer and wedge.
i dont say it will be the be all and end all just fun experimenting.
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=74621&cat=51&ap=1

Enjoy the plane Bill. looks like a great buy and good on u for supporting a local tool producer.

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New Jack Plane

Well I liked the Try Plane so much I ordered the Jack Plane in February. It just arrived this Monday. It is a beauty and works great. I have not had a chance to do much with it yet. The blade is ground with a 10" radius.

You can see pictures of the Jack in action and details of the plane on Steve Voigt's Instragram here and here.

Pictures of the Jack with the Try Plane.

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