Shop-Made Hand Planes
With a few simple tools and step-by-step techniques, you can make a pair of heirloom-quality planes.
This shop-made smoothing plane holds to a grand tradition. With a hefty iron and a wedge to hold it in place, it performs like a classic antique plane but can easily be made in your own shop. The beauty of making your own hand plane is that you customize it for your tastes and style of woodworking. The shape of the plane and the angle of the iron can be adapted to specific tasks. And, as the plane takes thin shavings, you realize your efforts are rewarded. As an extra bonus, you’ll find plans to build a miter plane for fine-tuning miter joints. Whether you build one plane or both, you’re sure to get a lot of enjoyment out of building and using your own planes.
SELECT YOUR PLAN PACKAGE
What You Get:
- 14 printable (digital) pages of detailed step-by-step instructions
- More than 50 full-color photos, illustrations and exploded views
- Shop-tested tips and techniques ensure your success
- Materials list
- Retail sources for hardware and supplies
Product Recommendations
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Similar Woodsmith Plans
Imperial Plans
The United States Customary System of Units (USCS or USC), more commonly referred to as the English or Imperial system, is the standard set of units for our plans. It uses inches and feet for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are in the United States, and it is the one we have traditionally offered on this website.
Metric Plans
The International System of Units (SI), more commonly referred to as the metric system, is the alternative set of units that we have available for some of our plans. It uses millimeters, centimeters, and meters for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are outside the United States. These plans are provided by our business partner, Australian Woodsmith, and are based on the original Woodsmith plan. However, dimensions and other elements of the plan may vary between the metric and standard versions. Be sure to double-check the plan before building.
Premium Plans
All of the information that you need to build our plans can be found in the standard plan. However, if you want even more granular detail to make your job easier, you should consider our premium plans. These come with additional shop diagrams that we drew when creating the prototypes. Shop drawings are not available for every plan.