Interview with plane maker Steve Knight - Fine Woodworking

 
Smoothing plane. Before he sent them out, Steve tuned his planes to take the fluffiest shavings.
Photo: Steve Knight
It has been at least five years since I first saw one of Steve Knight's wooden handplanes. I've always found them attractive and the word on the forums was that they worked great--and that's the real test of a plane. I always had it in the back of my mind to buy a plane from him, just to support him. But then I started making my own and I never got around to it. So, I felt a bit guilty when I went to his website recently and discovered that Steve no longer sells wooden handplanes, at least not completed ones. He does sell kits for wooden planes: a smoother, a pocket plane (bevel down), a jack, a jointer, and a scrub. I gave Steve a call and asked him to send me one of the kits--a smoother with a 55 degree frog--for review. I'll write a separate blog about it. (I am really excited about the prospect of making and using the plane. My job doesn't suck!)
When I was on the phone with Steve, he and I got to talking about his experience as a plane maker and the story was interesting. I've always wondered how hard it would be to make a living as a "boutique" tool maker. There are a lot of guys out there now who are making saws, infills, or chisels for sale. I think that's cool. I've also noticed that many of those guys owed a lot of their success to internet forums. It was on an internet forum that I first heard of Steve, and Mike Wenzloff, and Chester Toolworks, and Blue Spruce, and Ron Breese, and many others. So, I decided to interview Steve and share his story with you. Here's what I learned. Enjoy.

Panel raising plane in curly maple. Steve Knight achieved a high level of craftsmanship in his planes. He used the Krenov method of plane making, even on traditional ones like this panel plane.
FWW: What was the first tool you made? Why did you make it?
SK: I think it was a smoother. My hands were really suffering from all of the sanding I did making furniture. I had heard about hand planes, so I bought a No. 4 smoother from Patrick Leach. Mind you, I couldn't even use a plane at that time, and I don't know if I ever got that No. 4 working. But I did want more planes. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford them, so I had the idea to begin making them. It was a struggle and for a while none of the planes I made worked. I had a boxful of non-working planes. I made those early planes out of red oak, I think, and glued on an ebony sole to combat wear. I then gave up on woodworking for about a year. I didn't get back into it until a friend asked to use my shop. I let him, in exchange for cleaning it. My shop, which is small, was so stuffed that it took him about two weeks to clean it! With the shop clean, I started making planes again. This time something clicked and I was off. Those first curly shavings really hooked me. Still, it was a struggle. I was not an accurate woodworker and my planes weren't square. It took a lot of effort to get the bugs out and to get the planes working. I was learning to build planes, tune them, and sharpen the blades all at once.
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Finally, I have a motorized plane

This is a hand plane? Not exactly. It's a Super Surfacer, which surfaces wood with a fixed blade, but on a much larger scale. And a motor drives a belt to feed wood through the blade rather than you feeding the blade over the wood.
Photo: Matt Kenney
When it comes to preparing a surface for finishing, nothing beats a hand plane. It's way faster than sanding and can leave a perfect, glass smooth surface. (And don't forget that hand planing is far more pleasant that sanding--no dust, no noise.) That's why I've heard over and over that there's no power tool that's the equal of a plane for surface prep. In a way that's true. There is no commonly available power tool that's up to the job, at least not here in the States. But in Japan, there is one. It's an odd machine that's looks to be the offspring of a drum sander and giant hand plane. They're commonly called super surfacers. How do they work? Well, there is a gigantic and extremely sharp fixed blade. A belt feeds a piece of wood past the blade and the blade takes a whispy full-width and full-length shaving. That's right a full-width and full-length shaving off any board that fits into the machine! And like a plane it leaves a great surface.
I'd seen one on video before, but had never seen one in person until last week. One of the editors at Fine Homebuilding is retiring and moving back to California. He was lightening his tool load and offered up a Hitachi FA-700 Super Surfacer to whoever would get it out of his garage. I jumped at the chance and now it's in my garage. As you can see from the photos, it needs some cleaning and tuning, but it runs and I can't wait to see the first shaving come flying out the top. The blade is about 10 in. wide! Once I get it working properly, I'll shoot some video and post it. (I'll be the guy jumping around excited as a 5 year old.)
In the meantime, check out this YouTube video of a Super Surfacer at work.

On a side note, this machine and another one made by Makita were tested and reviewed in Fine Woodworking #38 by one of our former editors, Paul Bertorelli.

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Just Plane Trivia: Why Do They Call It a Frog?

It kind of does look like that thing on top of a handplane, doesn't it?
It's safe to say that in the six-plus years I've been roaming the sawdusty halls of Fine Woodworking, I have read and copyedited dozens of articles about handplanes.
But until last week, it never occurred to me to ask this question:
Why the heck is that nifty doohickey that supports the blade assembly on a handplane called a "frog?" If you stare at it long enough, it kind of looks like a frog. Could this be why?
I put it to my esteemed colleagues.
At first, my question was met with deafening silence. This is unusual around here, especially with Matt Kenney in the room.
Then the responses started to trickle in.
"It keeps the blade from hopping around," said Tom McKenna.
The always helpful Ed Pirnik replied: (To be read in a "Cliff Claven" voice) "Well, ya see there, ahh, Liz, back in Roman times, they, ahh, used the oil secreted by the ahhh, acanthus frog to lubricate the simple plane irons they were usin' back then. And, err, so  over time, it became, ahh, known as a 'frog.'"
"It's because it's in the throat of the plane," Matt said.
Obviously, it was time to go outside the office for answers.
"I'll bet [Chris] Gochnour will know. He is a huge Stanley buff," said Asa Christiana. But the Goch said he didn't know.
Matt asked Deneb Puchalski of Lie-Nielsen, who said he thinks it harkens back to the definition of "frog" as a depression imprinted in the upper surface of a brick. "This describes in some ways the function of a frog in a plane," he said. "There may be a connection. Anyway, we call the bedding point for the frog the 'lily pad,' just because."
 "Because it vaguely resembles a crouched frog.....really....I'm  not kidding!" said Rollie Johnson. Since this is what I had originally thought, I was going to go with Rollie's answer. It made sense, and it made me feel smart. Everybody wins.
But then Mark Schofield chimed in, having consulted Ernie Conover. And here is what Ernie said:
"I had somehow thought  that it was because a Bailey frog looks like a frog. I looked through a lot of books to get a definitive answer. The most exact, and convincing, reason is found in Rodger K. Smith's Patented Transitional & Metallic planes in America 1827 -1927." He sent along a copy of the page.
I'm going to paraphrase the book because it does go on. It says the first inventor to use the term "frog" in reference to the handplane was Justus A. Traut, who worked for the Stanley Rule & Level Company in the late 1800s. Apparently Traut and his co-workers started calling the thing a frog because it is just behind the throat—and harkened back to the saying "I've got a frog in my throat." Stanley didn't start using the term publicly in their documents for many years.
As much as I hate to admit it, that wiseacre Matt Kenney appears to have been right.
Drat.
Now on to my next question: Why do they call it a mill bastard file?




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How to Build and Use a Plane Stop for Narrow Parts

How to Build and Use a Plane Stop for Narrow Parts - Fine Woodworking
In this video Quick Cut, Fine Woodworking art director Michael Pekovich demonstrates how to build and use a simple plane stock for narrow workpieces.
Build a Plane Stop for Narrow Workpieces



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