I've wanted to try making a "kerfing plane" or "rebate saw-plane" for a while, since I mostly use hand tools and do not have a bandsaw for resawing. There are some really gorgeous designs out there and I would love to make a real one someday. But, lately I feel like all of my projects are taking forever so I decided to try something a lot simpler.
I had some extra card scraper stock recently that was 5" long so I decided to try making some "fixed size" kerfing planes as just a test. The blade is about 5 TPI / 6 PPI. It's made out of a DFM toolworks card scraper. It could probably go coarser than that and I will probably experiment with that if I ever make more blades. The bodies are drilled out to match the blade so the same blade can work on multiple bodies. I have a 1/4" (oak) and 3/8" (maple) body made, the 1/2" body will be done next.
The nice thing about this setup is that that making a new body is just a block of wood with a rabbet in it and 3 holes drilled. The block only needs 1 true face and edge and can otherwise be scrap. It cannot lose its setting and the fence can't go out of parallel. The main thing I am noticing is that it's not as comfortable to push as a plane or saw handle would be, but that's expected for this level of simplicity. I am sure that more weight and length would help but for the smaller parts I do it seems adequate. You also can't use a 3/8" body to cut a 3/8" rabbet because the kerf will be on the wrong side of your mark.
I have only tried the 1/4" and 3/8" on SYP scraps and that worked pretty well. I'll post pictures of the results once I try it on hardwoods, I am planning on making some boxes out of cherry stock I have so that will be either the 1/4" or 3/8" plane getting used.
I had some extra card scraper stock recently that was 5" long so I decided to try making some "fixed size" kerfing planes as just a test. The blade is about 5 TPI / 6 PPI. It's made out of a DFM toolworks card scraper. It could probably go coarser than that and I will probably experiment with that if I ever make more blades. The bodies are drilled out to match the blade so the same blade can work on multiple bodies. I have a 1/4" (oak) and 3/8" (maple) body made, the 1/2" body will be done next.
The nice thing about this setup is that that making a new body is just a block of wood with a rabbet in it and 3 holes drilled. The block only needs 1 true face and edge and can otherwise be scrap. It cannot lose its setting and the fence can't go out of parallel. The main thing I am noticing is that it's not as comfortable to push as a plane or saw handle would be, but that's expected for this level of simplicity. I am sure that more weight and length would help but for the smaller parts I do it seems adequate. You also can't use a 3/8" body to cut a 3/8" rabbet because the kerf will be on the wrong side of your mark.
I have only tried the 1/4" and 3/8" on SYP scraps and that worked pretty well. I'll post pictures of the results once I try it on hardwoods, I am planning on making some boxes out of cherry stock I have so that will be either the 1/4" or 3/8" plane getting used.
