A Stoopid Simple (and cheep!) Toothing Plane, part 1

While prepping for my upcoming visit to the Kansas City Woodworking Guild to teach a class based on Roubo’s Plate 286 I was casting about for my inventory of toothing planes.  I can find three of them, but the other half-dozen are MIA.  If you happen to know where I put them, please let me know.

In lieu of finding my remaining stash of planes I revived an old homemade tool idea from the mists of the distant past.  A word of caution: this will take almost five full minutes to make it with a cost of zero, so don’t say didn’t warn you.  You will need 1) a block of scrap wood, 2) a hacksaw blade, and 3) a pair of metal shears.

Step 1 – Find a block of scrap wood.  Cut it to about 6 inches long.

Step 2 – Find a hacksaw blade, and cut off a piece equal to the width of the block.

Step 3 – at abut the center of the block, on the side of the block mark the depth of the blade body to the base of the teeth.

Step 4 – Using a saw (in my case I used my band saw) cut a kerf to the depth you marked in Step 3.

Step 5 – Ram it home.  if necessary add a small shim of paper to the kerf to make sure the blade fits tightly.  Adjust the blade so that the teeth tips are exposed about 1/16″.

You now have an inelegant but functional toothing plane, a necessary tool for dealing with sawn veneer marquetry.

Step 6 – I will cover this in Part 2.