Holtey improved pattern mitre plane, Norris and Spiers style. But with an adjuster
Lever cap for improved pattern mitre plane
Improved pattern Mitre plane showing bun
improved pattern mitre plane with adjuster, rear view
showing adjuster in it’s recess
About 18 months ago a friend asked me to make a part for his rifle. An end cap for the hand guard on his Lee Enfield. Since it was getting a bit embarrassing I thought I should get it out the way. It was a good time as I have been distracted by family problems.
Never is anything as easy as it first appears. Makes me wonder how the originals were made, especially as this was pre-first world war. I usually make more than one of anything just in case something goes wrong and as you can see I choose to make a pattern in brass.
With this out the way I am now back on the No 984. I still have the lever cap area to finish and new pictures will be posted shortly.
Happy New Year to all my readers and thank you for all your best wishes received.
If you are looking for a nice tool calendar for next year have a look at this one: http://www.toolengraver.com/881-2/
Profits go to Woodnet Forum Christmas Fund.
I have obtained some very exotic woods over the past few years but undoubtedly at ‘the top of the tree’ would be Zitan (pterocarpus santalinus), a much coveted wood by the Chinese. There is some more information on my website .
It has always been my intention to fill some of my small low angle planes with this very rare and valuable wood. I think this wood is unknown to most Westerners. I really want to use this in some very special editions. Normally the cost of materials is a small percentage of the price of a plane compared to the labour cost but these planes will have to be at a premium. In the scale of things it would be justifiable to use this extravagant material.
These planes will be rare as I only have a small amount of this wood and I have more chance of winning the lottery than obtaining more (even allowing for the fact I don’t buy lottery tickets!).
These are two very good examples of the oriflame colouring that Zitan is known for. Once exposed to the light and atmosphere it will go dark and in some cases black.
For some time I have been looking for a simple copying lathe just to turn the buns on my No 98 series planes. I have not been able to find anything suitable. So I decided to buy a standard lathe and purchased a second hand Wadkin BZL woodturning lathe. I then tried to find a copying attachment, which just led to more dead ends.
As it happened my brother made one of his visits from France and he is always looking for a little job in my workshop. So it seemed to be a good idea set him with the task of making this tool.
Until this lathe came along all my wood working was done on my Harrison M250 engineering lathe. Which is a bit drastic just for turning wood. Up until I got this lathe all my buns were turned from scratch with just a template reference, so I was getting desperate for a system of repeatability.
Harrison M250 lathe
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A purfling cutter that I designed myself many years ago. It is in stainless steel and gunmetal with rosewood handle. Note the handle rotates and can be locked by twisting.
Looking back I offered this tool at a ridulously low price and got little interest at the time. Now I am NOT interested in making it again.
The person who commissioned this plane is no longer with us and I am not sure who owns this plane now. I did not stamp my name on it as it was not my design. With the wedge on runners it works well and is comfortable to use. Now I have dug the photo out it looks better than I remember and there could be possibilies with this design.
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