My first hand made plane

Pretty slick (no pun intended), Gary. Can’t wait to read the blog.

How was it to cut the joints for the sole to the body?

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Very nice. That is some pretty fancy joinery on the sole. I will be looking forward to hearing how that was done in the blog. Nice work.

-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT

Wow, looks great and you’ve piqued my interest in that cumaru!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Unbelievable work. Data on the hardness scale is very interesting. How is it done and is data available for other woods like Burma Teak, Oak etc. Eagerly waiting for your blog.
Sharad

-- “If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they have never tried a new thing in their life”.-Albert Einstein

great looking plane gary ! they build a lot of decks and docks with cumaru around here , its a bit hard on the equipment though

You can check out the hardness of various wood here:

Flooring wood
http://www.countyfloors.com/about_janka.html

Others
http://www.sizes.com/units/janka.htm

This guy sells cumaru on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/EXOTIC-WOOD-LUMBER-CUMARU_W0QQitemZ140203169160

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX

Great lookin’ plane Gary. I hope the blog shows how to do the joinery on the sole, it looks great.

-- make it safe & keep the rubber side down.

Looks like it’s going to be a user and a keeper…

What are the dimensions – and which wood is the steel and which the bronze? Also, did you forge that iron last night? Smiley goes here.

Where did the iron come from? I can wait for the blog if I have to…

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

Beautiful job, Gary – the dovetailed sole is fantastic. Are you taking orders?

-- "No Board Left Behind"

The wood selection makes for a beautiful plane. It’s got a vaguely sportscar-ish look to my eye.

The iron is interesting. It looks like a very thick iron with no chip breaker. If that’s the case, PLEASE tell me the source!

Gary, you certainly are giving ECE a run for the money. Nicely joined sole and a beautiful plane. Can’t wait for the blog.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over two decades.

Looking forward to the blog as well.

Tell us about the iron.

That’s awesome, Gary!

Thanks for the Janka scale info, very interesting.

-- Happy woodworking!

This is a nice plane.

You simply just couldn’t go out and buy a Lie-Nielsen or Veritas could you? Up to now they have been pretty much the benchmark plane series. Now it appears as if they are going to have trouble matching up to the Kemper line.

I like your choice of woods and thanks for info on the cumaru. I have always called it brazillian teak since I am dealing with leftover flooring and this is the term that flooring manufacturers have given it. But cumaru is the proper name.

A blog on this construction would be interesting. I would love to see the woodworking on the sole as well.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Do you ever make anything that doesn’t look great? Nevermind…, retracting the dumb question.