Gerd Fritsche Norris A1 Style Panel Plane

Gerd Fritsche is a modern maker of traditional dovetailed infill planes working from his shop in Bavaria, Germany. He currently makes a range of about half a dozen styles of infill plane, each one following closely to the Norris style of numbering. Gerd even makes kits so you can build and customise your own plane to your liking.

Infill planes in the range include the A1 panel and jointing planes, the A7 shoulder plane, the A11 box mitre plane and the A6, A12 and A13 parallel sided smoothing planes. Each one is meticulously hand dovetailed from steel or naval brass in much the same way as the original makers produced them in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

This reproduction Norris A1 infill panel plane is 14-1/2″ long and 2-3/4″ wide, with a 2-3/8″ wide D2 cutting iron which has been cryogenically treated and hardened to 61RC. The cutter is adjusted with a Norris style double-thread adjuster and the mouth, which can be seen in the photos, is quite tight.

The infill is Brazilian rosewood and the plane weighs in at 3.8kg.

To check out more infill planes from this new maker, just go to the Gerd Fritsche Traditional Handplanes website.

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