Here’s my latest infill plane, finished New Year’s Eve after about a month of work – double-dovetailed 0-1 tool steel surrounding an infill of black acacia with an oil finish hand-rubbed to a fare-thee-well.

The 2-inch Hock iron is pitched at 50 degrees. George Wilson, whom I found via Sawmill Creek, made the brass screw for the lever cap. The Norris-style adjuster is a Ray Iles special.

Mateo Panzica, whose gorgeous planes you will see elsewhere in Reader’s Gallery, tells me I can expect to take some flak over the design of this plane, as it’s hardly traditional. To be sure, the open tote, the long arc of the crown, and the bun aren’t what you’ll find on an old Norris, but then I didn’t have it in mind to re-create such a plane. I just wanted to improve on the design and performance of my last plane, and I like the result.

As for the knot in the rear infill, purists may gag, but purism be damned! I like the colors.

The plane weighs 7 pounds and measures 12 x 2 ½ inches, with a 3 ½ inch registration from toe to mouth. There’s a ½ inch steel frog just aft of the mouth, adding to the plane’s mass and a low center of gravity. The mouth is a sliver, and stuff like gossamer comes spiraling up out of it. Fun, fun.

Launch Gallery