32 ShopNotes No. 88

I’ve always been fascinated by old, metal hand planes.Especially ones that were made using dovetails to jointhe sides of the plane with the sole, like the shoulderplane in the photo above. If you look carefully, you’llsee that they’re really “double” dovetails. Both thesides and the sole have flared “tails.” Now this seemslike it would be impossible to put together. But thesedovetails are cut almost the same way as regular dove-tails. The tails are cut into the brass sides and the pinsare cut into the steel sole. But there’s a little trick to

fine tools

dovetailedShoulderPlane

make the pins look like tails to create the double dove-tails. I’ll explain more about this later.

When building your own plane, you’ll need todecide how to go about locking the iron (or blade) inplace. I could have used a simple wedge to do this. ButI wanted to be able to easily and accurately fine-tunethe depth of cut. The solution is really pretty simple. Iused just a few commonly available hardware items.This allows you to adjust this plane to make paper-thinshavings for tight-fitting joints.

Make an heirloom tool and learn the secret to creatingdouble dovetails in metal — it’s easier than you think.

Infill and Wedge (cut from same piece) 1/2 x 4 - 8 (Rgh.) (1) 1/4"- 28 x 6" Threaded Brass Rod (5) 3/16" x 1" Brass Rod(2) 1/8" x 2" - 6" Brass Sheet Stock(1) 3/16" x 1" - 8" Low-Carbon Steel Stock(1) 1" Brass Lamp Shade Riser(1) 11/16" Shoulder Plane Iron

www.ShopNotes.com 33

LARGE OPENINGALLOWS SHAVINGSTO ESCAPE WITHOUT

CLOGGING

BRASS SIDES AREDOVETAILED TO SOLE

STEEL SOLE ISLAPPED FLAT ANDAND SQUARE TO

SIDES FORACCURATE CUTS

TIGHT MOUTH HELPSPREVENT TEAROUT

20º BED ANGLE ISDESIGNED FOR

CUTTINGEND GRAIN

WOOD INFILLTHICKNESS

DETERMINES WIDTH OFFINISHED PLANE

STEEL NUT IS TAPPED TO ACCEPT

THREADED ROD

BRASS ROD IS USED TO RIVET SIDESTOGETHER

EASED EDGES MAKE FOR

A COMFORTABLEGRIP

ADJUSTER KNOB IS“TURNED” ON THE

DRILL PRESS FROMBRASS LAMP SHADE

RISER

WEDGE SECURESBLADE TO BED FOR

CHATTER-FREE CUTS

SLOT IN PLANE IRONENGAGES COLLAR ON

ADJUSTER KNOB

THREADED BRASSROD ALLOWS FOR

FINE DEPTH-OF-CUTADJUSTMENT

Materials & Hardware

ACTUAL SIZE(CROSS SECTION)

FRONT INFILL

REAR INFILL

WEDGE

ExplodedView DetailsOVERALL DIMENSIONS:11/16"W x 21/4"H x 6"L (plane body only)

building the

Plane BodyFIGURE1

The shoulder plane is made from apair of brass sides and two steel solepieces that wrap around the woodinfill pieces and wedge. You can seewhat I’m talking about in Figure 1.

The box below shows the step-by-step process to layout and cutthe dovetails. But there a few otherthings I want to mention.

Making the Sides. The firstthing to do is make the brass sidessince all the other pieces are madeto fit them. You can turn to page 40for an overview of the tools andtechniques for working with metal.

Since the sides are identical, youcan file and drill both at the sametime, as shown in the box below.Using carpet tape to fasten themtogether, make sure to align onelong edge and one short edge ofeach blank flush with the other.Now you can begin to make accu-

rate layout lines using layout dyeand a sharp scribe.

Laying it Out. The first impor-tant layout line you’ll need is theone to mark the bottom of thedovetails. I made this line 1/4" fromthe bottom edge as you can see inFigure 1. Since the sole is 3/16" thick,

that’ll leave about 1/16" of brass topeen over later when you lock thesides to the two sole pieces.

The next step establishes a ref-erence line for the bed angle(Figure 1). The purpose of the bedis to provide support for the planeiron when it’s wedged in place.

34 ShopNotes No. 88

Use a protractor and scribe to lay out thetails on the brass sides. I used an angle

of 15° for looks and strength.

A square file quickly removes most ofthe waste. Then finish up the dovetails

with triangular and needle files (inset).1 2

Filing the double dovetails isn’t ashard as you might think. It’ll takesome time and patience to get every-thing to fit right, though. They startout like ordinary dovetails. But lateron you’ll turn them into doubledovetails. Here is what you need toknow to get started and get great-looking double dovetail joints.

Clean Layout Lines. Just likeyou do in woodworking, you’ll be“working to a line.” This meansyou’ll need sharp layout lines forthe best results. Layout dye and asharp scribe make it easy to markyour lines in one pass (Step 1). Thiswill guarantee a thin, precise lineyou can work to while filing.

Use Guide Blocks. When you’refiling, the file can skate across themetal, especially as you start thecut. To help guide my file, I clampsome scrap wood blocks along mylayout lines (Step 2). And if you dohappen to accidentally remove a

Step-by Step: Filing Dovetails

Pieces to the Puzzle.You’ll work on the two brass sides at the

same time, making your layout lines on oneside. The two steel sole pieces form the mouth.

layout line, just daub a little morelayout fluid on and scribe it again.

Take Your Time. As youfile closer to your layoutline, take a little more care.And you might want toswitch to a finer file. Themore time you take at thispoint to get nice, straight linesand sharp corners, the better thedovetail joints will look in the end.

FIGURE2

I used a 3/4"-dia. hole saw and 7/16"-dia.bit to rough out the mouth opening.

Then drill 3/16"-dia. holes for the rivets.

www.ShopNotes.com 35

Using the plane iron as a gauge, planethe infill stock down until the plane

sides and infill match the width of the iron.

After centering the infill blank on thesole piece, you can scribe the

baselines for the dovetails.

Use a wood guide, cut to match thebed angle, to file the 20° bevel on one

end of the long sole blank.

With a spacer block, hold the two soleblanks between the sides. Then

scribe the pin profile on the sole blanks.

Once you rough out the waste to formthe pins (like you did on the tails),

finish up with fine needle files for a tight fit.

You’ll use the layout line when youposition the sole piece on the brasssides. The bed angle on the soleshould line up with this layout line.

Tight, Square Mouth. There’sone thing to point out when itcomes time to cut and assemble thetwo blanks for the sole. To take anice, clean shaving from end grain,the mouth opening needs to bepretty narrow. I shoot for about 1/16"(or a bit less) for the mouth (Fig. 2).If it’s too narrow, you can alwaysopen it up as I’ll show you later.

Infill Blank. Before making thesole, I chose a nice piece of hard-wood for the infill. (I used padauk.)Step 4 below shows you how to useyour plane iron to determine thefinal thickness of the infill.

Filing for Tight Joints. With thelayout lines in place and the infillblank in hand, you can follow thesteps below to complete the sidesand make the two sole pieces. Ifound it helpful to stop filing occa-sionally and test-fit the pieces untilI got a nice, tight fit between them.

7 8

5

6

43

assembling the

Body & Infill

{ DoubleDovetails. Thesimple trick togetting great-

looking doubledovetails is some

careful filing.

At this point, the two sides and solepieces should fit together nicely. Butthere’s one more small step. To cre-ate the double dovetail look, youneed to file a “splay” in each bottomcorner of the pins on the sole pieces.This leaves a gap or pocket betweenthe pins and the tails onthe sides (detail ‘a’).Then, when you peenthe brass sides to the sole,the brass fills in these little pockets,creating a locked joint. The boxbelow shows you how to do this,along with the other steps you willneed to do to complete the body.

Adjuster. Now that you have the“shell” of the plane done, you canmove on to the infill and adjustermechanism. The adjuster is madefrom three pieces. There’s a knob, a

short length of threaded brass rod,and a shop-made, steel nut.

The knob is made from a lamppart called a lamp shade riser(margin photo on opposite page).

One end has a threaded hole thatyou’ll use for the threaded brassrod. The other end has a stud thatyou can cut off. The top photo onthe next page shows how I shaped

36 ShopNotes No. 88

The object is to force the brass into thegaps in the sole. Work on a solid surface

and take your time.

Use files to finish forming the mouthto its final shape. But don’t file below

the layout line for the bed angle.

Mark and cut the infill pieces and drillthe rivet holes. The rear infill should

line up with the bed angle on the sole.2

3

4

A triangular file is used to create the 15°“pockets” on the sole pins. This will make

them look like tails after peening.1

Peening the brass tails into the steelsole pins is what holds the planebody together. You actually “flow”the brass into the joints. The trick tomaking the double dovetail, though,is in filing the “splays” in the solepieces, as shown in Step 1. All you’redoing here is removing a small tri-angular section of material from thebottom corner of the pin.

Peening Tips. Once that’s done,it’s time to peen the pieces together.There are some tricks to getting thebest results. One is to have a solidsurface to work on. I ended upusing the peening buck (next page)on the concrete floor in my shop.Another trick is to make carefullydirected hammer blows. It doesn’ttake a lot of force to move the brassinto the joints. It’ll look like a mess,but don’t worry. You can take careof that when you file it smooth.

Step-by Step: Peening

FIGURE3

a.

{ Shade Riser. Abrass lamp part is“turned” into theadjuster knob.

www.ShopNotes.com 37

Scrap laminate with holes allows therivets to “mushroom” on the bottom.

Remove it when peening the other side.

the knob on the drill press. Theimportant thing is for the “collar”on the knob to fit into the adjust-ment slot on the plane iron. For fineadjustments, it should have a closefit without being too loose.

The shaft is a short length of 1/4"-28 threaded brass rod. The knob isthreaded onto one end and theother end of the rod engages ashop-made steel nut in the infill.The drawing on the previous pageshows how it goes together.

I made the nut for the adjusterfrom a piece of leftover steel I usedfor the sole. It’s drilled and tappedwith a 1/4"-28 thread.

Rear Infill. The rear infill is a tri-angular piece that houses theadjuster and forms the bed for theplane iron. You need to drill a holefor the adjustment rod and cut aslot for the nut. I found it waseasier to do all this before cuttingthe infill piece to shape (Figure 4).After that, you can cut the 20° bedangle to match the sole and insertthe infill into the body. Just make

5

A flat file smooths the sides and sole.Just be careful not to round over the

edges of the plane body.

sure it lines up with the bed angleon the sole. Then you can trim theend flush with the brass sides.

Front Infill. The front infill isangled to match the shape of thewedge and hold it in place. (You’llmake the wedge later). I roughedout the shape of the infill piece butdidn’t do any final work until I had

4

When peening the sides to the sole, Ihad trouble with the pieces shifting.So I came up with this “peening buck”to help hold the pieces securely.

The base and two side pieces aremade from 11/2"-thick hardwood. Thecenter support is planed to the samethickness as the infill and is gluedand screwed securely to the base.

To hold the plane body in placewhile you’re peening, the two side

pieces have oversized holes for a pair oflag screws. A bolt clamps the side piecesof the plane tight. Then you can tightenthe lag screws down. Finally, place theassembly on a firm surface and startpeening using firm, direct blows.

a.

Peening Buck

6

{ “Turning” the Knob. Chuck theknob into the drill press and usefiles to shape it. The collar shouldfit the slot in the plane iron.

the mouth of the plane complete, asdetailed in the box below.

Rivets. The final step is to addthe rivets that lock the sides andinfill in place. I used a dab of epoxyto hold the infill pieces in placethen drilled the rivet holes. Afterpeening the rivets in place, theycan be filed flush with the sides.

adding the final

DetailsNow that you’ve got the body of theplane assembled, you can make thewedge and add a few last details.

Wedge. The wedge holds theplane iron securely in the plane. Imade mine from the same stock asthe infill. But you could use a dif-ferent or contrasting hardwood fora “custom” look.

What’s important is to shape thewedge so that it forces the planeiron tight against the bed, espe-cially at the mouth. So some carefulfitting is in order here.

You can use the drawings at rightto rough out the shape of thewedge. Then it’s just a matter offine-tuning the fit as you go. Thegoal here is that the “nose” of thewedge should end up just slightlybehind the bevel on the plane iron(see photo below). If the wedge istoo tight to move that far forward,you can remove a little material at atime from the bottom edge,checking the fit as you work. Thenyou can sand the finger notchessmooth and ease the edges.

OVERVIEW5

Pattern

Tuning. At this point your planeis almost functional. But there are afew details to take care of beforegiving it a workout (see boxbelow). For starters, you need to

Now is the time to double check the width ofthe sole against the plane iron. You can usefine-cutting flat files and sandpaper to lapthe sides of the plane to a smooth finish. Thegoal, besides a great appearance, is to havethe edges of the plane iron projecting pastthe sides of the plane body just a hair. Thishelps the plane cut right into corners.

At the same time, you want to lap thesides and sole so they’re square. Put someadhesive-backed sandpaper on your tablesaw and run the plane along the rip fence tokeep the sides square with the sole.

Finally, check that the mouth is square tothe sides and the bed is flat. The iron shouldsit tight against the bed without any gaps.

fine-tune the width of the planebody so that the iron projects a littlefrom each side. This lets the planeremove shavings all the way intothe corner of a joint.

38 ShopNotes No. 88

Tuning Your Shoulder Plane

Lappingthe sole flat.

Fine-tuningthe mouth opening.

Lapping while using therip fence as a guide.

Widthof planebody is slightlynarrower than thewidth of the iron.

www.ShopNotes.com 39

{ Shoulder Work. The shoulder plane excelsat slicing the end grain of a tenon shoulder. Forbest results and to prevent tearout, work fromboth sides toward the center.

{ Width and Depth. Clean up the face of arabbet and fine-tune the depth using theshoulder plane as shown. Flip it on its side todress up the shoulder of the rabbet.

{ Smooth Cheeks. Remove saw marks andsneak up on a snug fit using the shoulderplane. Shave equal amounts from both cheeksto keep the tenon centered on the workpiece.

{ Clean Bottoms. A pass or two with ashoulder plane is all it takes to get rid of sawmarks and create a smooth bottom in dadoes,grooves, and lap joints.

1. Tenons

2. Rabbets

< StoppedChamfers. Use aflat file to formthe chamfers onthe edges ofthe plane.

< Final Polish.Use abrasivepads and wet/drysandpaper togive the plane apolished look.

Chamfer and Polish. Traditionalshoulder planes had a smallchamfer on the edges. Besidesadding a nice detail, it makes theplane more comfortable to use. Afile makes quick work of addingthe chamfers (upper right photo).

To finish up, I used some abra-sive pads to polish the brass (lowerright photo). A little oil gives a nicefinish on the infill and wedge.

Once you’ve done this, you’reready to give the plane a try. Thebox below shows how to use yourshoulder plane. After taking sometime to get it set up just right, you’llbe amazed at the results.

Using thePlaneShoulder planes get their name fromtheir ability to slice the end grain ona tenon shoulder (Figure 1). They’redesigned for fine-tuning joinery.Since the plane iron is a hair widerthan the plane, it can get “into a cor-ner” for professional results.

Tenons. When I want a perfect fitwith mortise and tenon joinery, ashoulder plane can’t be beat. I use itall the time to trim the cheeks of atenon to get a snug fit in the mor-tise. And a couple of cuts on thetenon shoulders gives me nice,tight-fitting joints.

Rabbets and Dadoes. As youcan see in Figures 2 and 3, ashoulder plane is also ideal for fine-tuning rabbets and dadoes. Youcan fine-tune the thickness of arabbet by sneaking up on the fit.And it works just as well forcleaning up the shoulder.

A dado blade is a great way tocut grooves and dadoes. But there’sa problem. The bottom of a dado orgroove can be rough. But ashoulder plane makes it easy toclean up the bottom of the dado.

Since the shoulder plane excelsat working into corners, it worksgreat on lap joints, too.

3. Dadoes & Grooves