The Lazarus Handplane Co. Large Infill Hybrid Smoother
Madness is a slow, creeping weed. I delved into plane making slowly and out of necessity. Over the years I picked up a collection of Bedrock “users” on ebay . “Users” is often a nice way of saying rusted hulk. After some cleaning and truing, making new kobs and totes, sharpening, and costomizing, I’d be left with one less weekend and a decent plane. I enjoyed the act of re-birthing these, so began buying old Bailey #6’s. I chopped them down to 4 1/2 smoothers, dee-luxed them, and resold them on ebay. This is were the wheels started turning. If I’m going to spend all this time and effort, why not build a better mousetrap?
So here’s the first “hybrid” infill offering. The fundamental design element is a blade supported by a thick frog plate that is dado housed and screwed into the frame. The plate is backed by an infill block. The infill is not pressed against the side walls, which allows the wood to move within this ridged structure. And, although a case can be made for overkill, the block is absorbing vibrations in this mass of brass. I’m kinda proud of the knife handled tote as well. I haven’t seen it in a plane before. I think it solves the problem of the short grained handle.
Comments
Outstanding! When do they go into production?
Lazarus, can we see more pics?
This plane is currently posted on ebay. Search "lazarus infill plane". There's a dozen sexy shots of it.
This plane won't go into production. It's way to costly and time consuming to produce. I'm striving to make a user priced infill as an alternative to bedrock designs. Although, seeing that this is stagnating at $200, I might already have.
a work of art!
Excellent Plane!!!!!!
I would love to learn how to build those . . . . if only I had all the time in the world.
Not sure why you would take a Stanley #6 plane and turn it into a 4 1/2. Why not just buy a 4 1/2?
That is a stunningly beautiful plane.
To think that your plane stagnated at $200 back then. The latest plane (3/2013) went for over $1000!
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