How to Make Traditional Side-Escapement Planes

Knowing how to create molding planes for your projects puts you in a small minority of people who understand this process. While little information exists about the creation of side-escapement planes, you can learn how to create planes with the right training. Escapement planes require knowledge of how to make hollows and rounds from a single billet. Using hollows and rounds together, you can create sophisticated molding planes that can be used to shape and cut wood. Hollows and rounds are the portion of the wood that the blade sits inside. The billet is the metal used in the hollows and rounds.

Things You'll Need

• Iron plates
• 2-foot board, 2 feet 4 inches long.
• 8-ounce brass hammer
• Rubber mallet

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Instructions

1. • 1

     Place the blade of the iron plate alongside the wooden block on the 2-inch side of the 2-foot board.

   • 2

     Using a brass hammer, slowly start hammering the plate into the wood. Since the plate has a blade on the end of it, you are essentially chiseling a hole into the wood. Start at about a 15-degree angle and then even out the iron plate so that it lies flush with the side of the wood toward the end. When finished, the iron plate creates a groove inside the wooden block.

   • 3

     Sharpen the plates by tapping the iron plate backward with a rubber mallet to remove it from the wooden block.