Sunday, April 13, 2014

New Smaller Smoother In Action

If you subscribe to my Youtube channel then this is old news but if you don't then I wanted to show a little video of a new smaller version of my favorite smoother in action. This little guy is so much fun.

It is about 5/16" shorter than the standard size with a 1-1/2" blade and 5-13/16" long. Oh and the iron is bedded at 57.5˚.

My thinking behind the design was to have something that excelled at clean up in an area that had lots of reversing grain which limited different directions of attack you could take. Those big planes are frustrating in these situations. Heck a No.4 is way too big much less a No. 4 1/2.

I frankly was inspired by those really amazing infill planes that Sauer & Steiner make and of course Raney's (Daed Toolworks) infills as well. Maybe that's why I decided to make it out of solid persimmon. Get some all ebony going on.

Enjoy!


7 comments:

  1. The plane sounds amazing, really crisp. clean.

    The quality on your video leaves a bit to be desired.
    Subscribed to your channel none the less.

    Hope to see more from you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Robert,

      You are right. The video quality is bad. It must have uploaded at a low resolution. I will try to fix that.

      Delete
    2. I uploaded the video again in a higher resolution so try it now. Thanks for letting me know!

      Delete
    3. FYI, I think the bigger problem with the video is the auto-exposure in the camera and your lighting. Exposure on you and the plane are generally OK, but the board's high-glare doesn't play well with the bright doors and lamp in the immediate background. Details, even in the 720p version, are obscured because the board is mostly blown-out in the video from the lighting. Global light levels in the scene never really change, but little movements (e.g. the plane and your hands moving around just before the 0:30 mark) block the flood of background light. As a result, the camera gets confused and the exposure swings around, sometimes wildly.

      You may want to play with making some short clips (15-30 sec) from various camera angles and likewise experimenting with your lighting to see what works best for what you're trying to show.

      All that aside, that's a beautiful plane, Caleb. Cheers!

      Delete
    4. J.,

      I am sure you are right. I pretty much never plan these little videos out but just shoot them on the fly. I may get a better set up soon. We will see.

      Delete
  2. Caleb,
    What was your experience with persimmon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve,

      It is pretty nice to work. I seem to think that it won't wear as well as the beech. That is just kinda weird because I am so used to it wearing so well when used as boxing but then again that is the end grain of the persimmon not the long grain fibers.

      Whatever the case I have some apple and pear drying at the moment so I look forward to working those as well. The pear just looks really nice so I can't wait but I must, ugh.

      Delete