Miter Plane

A number of years ago, I came upon the work of a plane maker, Bill Carter. Bill has been making handplanes based on traditional English planes for the better part of four decades. Every plane he makes is built by hand and is created in his garden shed.

Now, I have a bit of a confession. Unbeknownst to my wife, I started stashing away money so that I could buy one of Bill’s little planes. So, a few years ago I purchased one of Bill’s miniature boxwood smoothers. And what a plane it is. The workmanship is unreal.

Unfortunately, that boxwood smoother made me long for one of Bill’s signature miniature miter planes, but they carry a robust price tag (worth the price, in my opinion). However, Bill, being the gentleman he is, has posted videos of his entire planemaking process on his website. So, I decided to try my hand at building a couple and you can see the results here.

If you’ve never seen an English miter plane before, you’ll notice a few things about it. First, the bed angle is low — usually between 17°-25°. Second, it’s a fine-tuning plane and takes a thin shaving — really excelling on hard, dense woods and end grain. And while they can be wood-bodied, most are metal. So, in this step-by-step plan I will walk you through an overview of Bill’s process for making one of these little beauties.

Product Recommendations

We don't have any links to project supplies and hardware for this particular project yet, but here are some other products that might be of interest to you. (We may receive commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.)