Replies

1. 
   MikeHennessy | May 13, 2008 05:11pm | #1

   Traditionally, beech. But more important is that the wood be straight grained quarter sawn stock. Not a particularily simple project. You may want to make one or two "practice pieces" out of whatever you can get your hands on easily just to work the kinks out.

   Mike Hennessy
   Pittsburgh, PA

2. 
   dkellernc | May 13, 2008 05:54pm | #2

   Depends on where you are.  If you're in the western U.S., it doesn't matter, because it'll all have to be shipped from the east coast.  I'm not aware of a western species that's hard enough and available in large enough sizes to make planes - someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that.

   If you're in the Eastern U.S., then you should be able to easily get hard maple in the size you need for a plane, and quartersawn to boot.  While not quite as stable as beech, it's a lot more available, in bigger sizes, and usually cheaper.  Many antique molding and bench planes were also made of tiger (soft) maple.  "Soft" is a bit of misnomer - it's still plenty hard, just not as hard as hard maple.

   Finally, if you can't get quartersawn beech or yellow birch in large enough sizes (minimum 12 quarters for bench planes, you can get away with 8 quarters for molding, rabbet and dado planes), you might consider using cherry or walnut.  While not as hard as beech or fruitwood, both species wear very well, and I have several 150+ year-old planes made of cherry and walnut.  It's far easier to work than beech or pear/apple, and generally available in large-size quartersawn stock.

   P.S. - Stay away from hickory or pecan.  When dry, both are hard as glass, and just aren't worth the extra effort required to make planes out of them in exchange for increased wear resistance.

1. 
   BobSmalser | May 14, 2008 09:59pm | #7

   Pacific Madrone.  I resole with it routinely.  Similar properties to beech, so straight-grained qsawn stock is required.

   View Image <!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- -->

   View Image

3. 
   joinerswork | May 13, 2008 07:06pm | #3

   medic,

   Traditionally, beech was used.  I've seen a few old planes in birch, one or two in cherry, apple, maple.

   Most any stable, mild, close-grained hardwood will do.  Hickory would not be my first choice, nor oak.

   Ray

4. 
   DrChops | May 13, 2008 07:50pm | #4

   hi,
   i'm not sure how much is applicable to your moulding planes query, as i've only made smoothing and bench planes. however, as others have said, straight grained, quatersawn hardwood is best. in my case, i also added a base of a different species, usually honduran rosewood or lignum vitae, because they wear well and burnish nicely (great for smoothing). and if the base gets worn away, it's easy to replace. one favorite is a 10" smoother out of purpleheart with a honduran rosewood base (about 1/4") -- see david marks' "european hand plane" episode of woodworks for the example..

   as far as making the plane itself, going slowly and being painstakingly accurate will pay dividends. for example, get the mouth opening to within 1/16" of the blade when in position, and then gradually open the mouth up with hand tools -- i use superfine files and a chip carving knife -- to maintain complete control.

   plane making is a lot of fun -- enjoy.
   cheers,
   bert

   if it's worth doing at all, then it's worth doing well.
5. 
   Barracuda | May 14, 2008 05:11am | #5

   I took a class with David Finck on making wooden handplanes.  Our planes were maple, but in his own collection were oak and some other more exotic woods.  His advice was, if the wood was softer, to glue a foot on the bottom of something harder like the maple or lignum vitae.  I made a very nice plane out of osage orange.  Nifty color and very hard.  I bought the blank off of ebay. 

   Take care,

   William

6. 
   flairwoodworks | May 14, 2008 05:57am | #6

   Choose a dense wood and find a piece with straight grain and as little runout as possible.  Like others have said, oak or hickory would not be my first choice.  Maple, fruitwoods, or most exotics will do nicely.

   Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com

    - Success is not the key to happines.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

7. 
   ChipTam | May 14, 2008 10:27pm | #8

   As others have already mentioned, I also used hard maple for the body but a very hard exotic for the base.  I haven't made a plane in a long while now but I remember using purpleheart, wenge, osage orange, and "motorcycle crate" for the bottoms. Back in the 1970's, motorcycles were shipped from the far east in crates made from some spectacularly colorful exotics.  American woodworkers (myself included) had no idea of the species but the wood sure was pretty and very hard.

   Chip