Prestigious plane maker Karl Holtey announced his intentions to begin selling do-it-yourself plane kits by the end of the year as an alternative to his assembled planes that cost upwards of $4,700.

Best known for building high-end infills based on the collectible 19th-century Norris plane, Holtey is taking aim at a more modest market. His kits will be aimed at the “competent woodworker” and sell for a fraction of the cost of his finished planes, he said. 

“The kit is going to take away a lot of the difficult work that goes into making a plane,” Holtey said in a phone interview from his home workshop in remote Lairg, Scotland. “The handwork and the finishing will be a very big part of it.”

The compound dovetails that join the base to the sides will come already filed, which almost ensures that the finished product will look attractive. Also, the bottom will have the frog machined and fitted to better ensure a flat bed for the plane iron. The kit won’t include the wooden infill, he said.

Holtey’s plans come just months after the bankruptcy of Shepherd Tool Company, a small Canadian upstart that produced infill handplane kits. Straddled with expensive production costs and numerous reports of customer service problems, Shepherd’s closure leaves a void in the small market for handplane kits. The only other established kit maker is St. James Bay Tool Co.

Kits coexist with collectibles

Holtey has already heard from some critics, including those who worry a kit might devalue his heirloom-quality assembled planes.

“This in no way is a Holtey plane,” he said. “I’ve made it impossible for someone to use the kit to imitate my planes.”

Holtey planes hold a high value due to the handwork that he invests in the production of each tool. Since he began making planes more than 20 years ago, he has produced only a few hundred, and still turns them out one at a time.

In addition to missing the maker’s touch, the kit planes also will have thinner side walls than his commercial planes, and will be stamped with the initials “KHD,” which stand for Karl Holtey Design, rather than the standard Holtey logo.

Building a strong business

Holtey began his career as a cabinetmaker, but found that the time he spent in his shop working with metalworking and woodworking machines held the most appeal.

“I’ve always had an interest in model engineering,” he said.

Sometimes called a perfectionist, Holtey established himself as a preeminent tool maker on par with historical figures including Thomas Norris, for which many of his planes are modeled. When Fine Woodworking reviewed his A13 Norris-style smoothing plane for a June 1999 article, we wrote: “That planes are still being made with such impeccable craftsmanship — in the grand tradition of the best British smoothing planes — is worthy of appreciation in itself.”

“I tend to go over the top a bit,” Holtey said, noting that he spends countless hours carefully shaping the wood infills.

In developing his planes, Holtey spent a day with the last living employee of Norris’s shop where he gleaned many details about the little-known process used to produce those rare tools. He got his recipe for the high-quality A2 steel, which he uses to make his plane irons, from Southern California woodturning tool maker Jerry Glaser, one of the first to use A2 steel for woodworking tools.

Holtey said he hasn’t yet decided which model plane he will offer as a kit. He’s considering the A13 smoothing plane or the A6 smoothing plane. He expects the kits to sell for between $700 and $850, but won’t set a final price until his first production run.

“I’ve been making planes for more than 20 years, and I’m still learning,” he said. “There’s always room for learning.”

For more information, visit Holtey’s Web site at www.holteyplanes.com.

Send your comments to[email protected] or join a discussion in the Knots forum.

 

Photos: Karl Holtey and Jonathan Binzen

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