Small & Elegant Cast Iron Infill Smoother Plane

Often through the process of scouring the internet I will put aside images of infill planes that take my fancy for one reason or another. Most times it will be because I want to make a replica of a plane in question — either with or without my name stamped on it — such as in the case here.

Sometimes though it’s just the shape of the plane, or the metal side plates, which interest me. I might like the sweep of the lines or the curvature of the sides, lever cap or some other feature. Like everything else in the world, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the planes that I might like might not appeal to others.

This petite little mahogany infilled smoothing plane is one such plane. Crafted by a user-maker, this plane shows, to me, a bit of the good and the bad of infill plane making — mostly good though. Unlike most of the coffin, or round sided, smoothing planes by name makers such as Spiers and Norris etc., the footprint of this plane is quite narrow and almost sharpish at the ends. Because it is such a small plane, the front infill appears rather high by comparison. It’s not that unusual to have the front infill at the same height as the rear however.

I’m not sure what’s happening with the lever cap though, as it appears to have a pin as well as a screw on each side. Often this is because the maker has misjudged where the pivot should be, but I’m not sure that’s the case in this instance.

The lever cap itself is quite slender and decorative, and the screw seems nicely turned and equally delicate. I can’t tell from the pictures what material they used for the cap.

I would like to give you details of the dimensions for this plane but, I must confess, I cannot find them on my computer at all. It appears that I did not include the notes with the pictures and I can’t even remember where I sourced this one from. I do know that the dovetailed replica I made was approximately 6″ long and 1-1/2″ wide, with a 1-1/4″ cutting iron. I also used Indian rosewood, rather than mahogany, for the infill. If I can find some pictures of it I might put it up here on the site sometime in the future. In the meantime though, check out the original.

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