Welcome to the Daedworks blog. It seems somehow fitting to launch this new blog with a new plane. Today was grinding and lapping day on the first of two new miter planes I’ve been working on the past couple of weeks. Grinding off the excess metal from peining the shell together, and then lapping the sole and sides of the plane down are a very cool stage in making an infill, but it also brings up some anxiety; it’s the point when you get to find out if all the hard work cutting, fitting, filing, and peening all came out OK, or if there is a problem.
And unfortunately, there are any number of things that can show up at this point that are all but impossible to fix properly. It’s also the first point in the construction when the plane starts to look reasonably good – until now it’s been a bunch of metal pieces with coarse surfaces, hammer marks, and rough filing. I wish I could say I’ve never experienced disapointment at this point in the process, but it wouldn’t be true.
Fortunately, though, today’s went rather well.
Now it’s time to start making a wedge – one of my favorite shaping chores. After that is done, I can do the final sole lapping, and finish up the mouth. The plane’s steel-sided twin is just a few steps behind, so hopefully it’ll come off as well as this one did when I get to that point – probably sometime next week.