Hi Peter,
Deja vu is right! That was 6-years ago and you were a savior then, too.
What follows is a too-long tale of why I'm back to kit making. When we
were last chatting about plane making, I finished a dozen shoulder
planes: http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/1112-003.JPG
After those I got a little more ambitious; too ambitious really. I
found the design for a jointer on line somewhere. I made my drawings
and then reworked the drawings to design a smoother and a miter plane.
I adjusted the sizes so that the metal I needed was similar for all the
planes; blade width, sole dimensions etc. That was probably my first
mistake. I had trouble cutting the mouth with the tools I have, but I
finally got some that looked like they would work. I got the sides and
soles peened together after making some more mistakes and buying more
material. I was trying to make 9 planes, three of each style. I
finally got so frustrated with all the mistakes and poor quality of my
efforts I called it quits. I sold the assemblies on Ebay to make
certain I was thoroughly done with the project. The moral of this
little tale is that there is more to this plane making than meets the
eye. Buying small quantities of metals is cost prohibitive. There are
specialized and expensive tools needed for some of the machining
operations, both for the wood and the metal. If I had ever had dreamed
of selling kit materials (I hadn't) I could never have produced anything
worthwhile with the knowledge, skills and tools I have. ( I know, other
folks do it, and I admire them greatly!) All, this to say the products
Gurd Frietsche produces seem to be a good value. For the price you get
solid historical designs, the required small quantities of wood and
metal materials, manufactured items like the Norris adjuster, blades
(sized, hardened and tempered) and much of the tedious metal cutting.
The latter metal cutting is done on a gerbil powered laser, or so I'm told.
Anyway, Peter, thanks again, I remain in your debt.
Bill W.
In Beautiful downtown Nottingham, PA
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