Boxwood mitre smoother

A little while ago a member of a woodworking forum I read on a daily basis sent me a 3 part article from Furniture and cabinet making magazine. The article was by Karl Holtey and was a plan for a mitre smoothing plane based on the style of the Norris 11 mitre plane. I agreed to make one based loosely around this plan but a little larger. Here is the first one completed tonight. Another one for myself is close behind almost finished.

I had never worked with european boxwood before. While not the most interesting grained or colored wood, its dense tight grain is wonderful to work. The buttery color has really grown on me. I was a little concerned when the request was made to use this wood for this plane as its not that easy to find especially in sizes large enough for infills. This material is sold usually in log form which for boxwood is really quite small with only 3-4 inch diameters typical. Luckily I found some and as an added bonus it was really old and dry. This is what i started with.

The pieces were just large enough when I had removed the split portion from each section. I have a couple pieces left over for the bent back mitres I am working on.

Now i really need to get mine finished...

The Tools #2 Myford ML7 toolroom lathe

Fine machinery like fine tools bring pleasure every time they are used. This is one such piece of machinery. This lathe like me was born in Nottinghamshire U.K. in the 70's. It was made a few miles from where i was born i think in the same year too! I am very fond of this lathe, its capable of very precise and accurate work to within thousandths of an inch. I was fortunate enough to pick it up a few years ago from a retired gentleman who used it to make brass clock parts. It was well cared for with very little wear. I use it often to make lever cap screws, pivot pins and infill spacers. It does all i need for planemaking and making other hand tools like small brass plane adjusting hammers and tool handles in wood. I could not imagine buying a chinese import after using this fine lathe. I really like buying old used machinery.

The tools #1 "The Hogger"

I have a real love hate relationship with this piece of machinery. I love the operations this type of machine can do in making planes. I can cut dove tails , open up the mouth of the sole of a plane and true the frog of a plane for example. The hate comes from how much damage this machine can do in an instant to a piece of work you already have many hours of work into. Admittedly ( if thats a real word) some of the damage is self inflicted as i am a self taught "machinist" so i probably do things i am not supposed to. This machine is also a little old and worn, there is more backlash than i would like. I am sure this wont be my last milling machine but for now i could not live without it. I can do the processes manually by hand but when you make planes in your spare time like i do a machine like this to do the "hogging" or rough work is really appreciated. Here are some more pics of some of the milling operations.