Squirrely Rabbet

There are just too many Rabbet planes, so I had to make a squirrel plane! 😀

It was modeled loosely on the Clifton 400 plane my son got me for my birthday!

The Clifton 400 is now my most expensive hand tool. The marking knife is also made with mesquite.

Here are the mandatory shaving pics, mesquite shavings; (for those who do not know hand tool enthusiasts, a plane discussion without shavings shown is not a complete discussion.)

And here it is stripped down;

The blade cost me $3.90 at Lee Valley. The wood is mesquite I cut out of a fallen limb.

The design is based off of concepts I gleaned from the bevel up reviews and discussions here by the ever wise, Derek Cohen. The concept is that at high angles mouth becomes less important, combined with the concept that a low angle bed increases stability and reduces chatter. This seems to be well supported by my experiments. The blade in this plane has a microbevel that puts the total angle to 60 degrees. This seems to do fine and make tight smooth curls of wood while nearly burnishing the surface planed. 🙂

On thing I learned on this project is that 12 degree bed is pushing the limit for a wooden sole. The bed on Squirrely is 14 degrees and I think that the next one I make will be about 16 degrees.

One thing I would do differently, is to not taper the back edge of the sole so I could rock it back off the blade on a back stroke. It works fine, but I have to pay attention to putting the nose down or it won’t plane. I have gotten used to it, so it is fine, but I prefer to have my tools work instinctively.

This is now one of my favorite hand tools. I may be foolish, but I would not trade it for an infill.
Bob