A Female For The Dovetail Plane

In a sliding dovetail joint, the two elements, male and female, slide into one another. The resulting joint is very strong and is most often used when vertical and horizontal parts must resist pulling forces (for example, shelves in a bookcase).

The traditional way to make this joint requires three tools: a saw, a chisel, and a router plane. Another option is to use dedicated planes, but while there are many choices for the male element, specialized planes for the female part of the joint are rare. Japanese tools, however, include the Ari-Kake-Shakuri-Kanna for this purpose, a grooving plane that requires a separate angled fence.

Since this joint is usually cut across the grain, it is necessary to score the wood fibers beforehand. The plane used for cutting the female element is similar to a dado plane, but with an angled sole and a skewed blade.

Finally, I decided to make one myself, and here is the result:

FDT stands for “Female Dovetail,” and 6 refers to the blade width (6 mm). The blade is skewed at 20°, and the sole is inclined at 78°, the same as the male cutting plane. The blade is bedded at 50°. It has an adjustable depth stop and a double spur for cross-grain cuts. The body is made of beech, with mahogany used for the sole and wedges.

The body construction is quite simple. I cut a rabbet for the 6 mm bottom section, then cut recesses for the blade and wedges, and glued a piece of mahogany to the bottom.

I planed the sole to 78°, ensuring it matched the male element.

The most critical part of the work is achieving the exact alignment between the angled sole, the skewed blade, and the wedge. For the blade, I used an old plane iron; for the nickers, I used a 10 mm spade bit, ground to shape.

Finally, the side is closed with a piece of beech, which forms the slots for the blade and wedges. The finish is shellac and wax.

The plane is able to cut grooves whose minimum width must be larger than the blade width; in practice, however, it is better if this difference is at least 3–4 mm.

The cut is made in two passes (or more, if the dovetail is larger), with the final pass made in the opposite direction.

Here is the test in action:

First, cut the male part and mark two parallel lines at a distance corresponding to the narrow end of the dovetail. This is the only marking required.

The angled fence keeps the plane in the correct position:

The cut begins:

  A couple of minutes are enough for the first groove.

The second cut is made in the opposite direction. The depth stop brings the plane to the desired depth.

 

At this point, the router plane has very little work left to do.

Here is the completed groove...

 ....and the finished joint!

In this case, I used beech wood; it will be interesting to see how the plane performs on harder woods. The tool can certainly be improved with a higher-quality blade. I have made only a few cuts so far, but I have learned that it is better to keep the groove slightly narrower (about 1 mm less) and then fine-tune the fit by taking a few more passes on the male part—plane passes, of course!

Dovetail Plane

Some time ago I purchased a German old plane set, all in good conditions, except one clearly lacking of some pieces. It had two holes on the upper side as well as two others on the lateral face. 

Someone added a self-made metal fence; a nicker for cutting cross grain and the angled sole indicated it as a dovetail plane

It remained for some time on the shelf, until I decided for its functional as well as aesthetic recovery. On the upper side was the mark "Paul Kuhn-Leipzig" on the heel the number "106".

So I wrote to Wolfgang Jordan, author of the excellent website

 http://www.holzwerken.de/ 
here is possible to find a lot of info about European continental old woodworking tools.

Magically I received the info I needed: just a dovetail plane and unlike most dovetail planes it had an adjustable depth stop (very useful however). Wolfgang sent a picture from a 1911 catalog he has.

 Grathobel is the German translation of dovetail plane; the n° 106 (on the bottom left in the draft) is indicated as dovetail plane with double wooden fence and nicker.

More usefully, Wolfgang sent me some pics of another fully equipped n° 106  coming from a private collection.

Bingo! Now I had all info for restoring the plane.The business sole side showed a substantial wear and I replaced it with a Wild Olive wood insert, cut so that the end grain was exposed.

For the purpose I chamfered the sole edge and created a groove at table saw for the wood insert tongue and groove joint. 

 
Of course were very few chances to find the original plane hardware, so I had to adapt that I found. I used brass knobs for reproducing similar original nuts: I had to bore and  thread them. From window hardware scraps I created brass slotted plates for holding the bolt heads.

I utilized Ash wood for the fences; the sole fence defines the dovetail height, while the lateral fence acts as a depth stop and determines the width (see draws)

The final result satisfied me, from aesthetic point of view as well as the functional one.

The plane cuts without hesitation and with a clean result along the grain as well as across the grain.  A workhorse which immediately impressed me and, I am sure, will be one of my best tools.  Pics of the plane restored follow:

Here a shot of dovetail cut in a beech piece and a short video of the plane at work.

Italian Planemakers

The planemaker must have been a very common trade, mainly in the XIXth century, then it gradually disappeared in the first half of XXth century,  while woodworking machines increased their diffusion. United States, United Kingdom, France and Holland are countries where the industrial plane production is well evidenced by the high number of planes it is possible to find still nowadays and detailed info about planemakers, available  thanks to collectors too.

But, who were the Italian planemakers?

Often, Italian woodworkers, mainly in the South of Italy, used to make themselves wooden tools or, if they purchased them, these came from France and Germany. I would be able to tell about several English or American planemakers as well as someone  German, but if you asked me about Italian ones, I think would have some difficult.

Guido Masoero helped me in this search. He is descendent from a family of wooden tool makers, mainly planes. His grandfather, Antonio Masoero (1872-1964) founded the U.M.A.T. (Utensili Masoero Antonio Torino), may be in the first years of XXth century. 
The factory was in Turin and the tradition continued by his sons Luigi and Eugenio.
 Unfortunately, a bomb destroyed forever the factory in july 1943 and only a 1934 price list survived in Guido's hands. His uncle, Eugenio, continued to build planes until 80's. Here are the last planes he made for fun.

 

This 1934 catalogue Guido kindly shared, has 15 pages and a complete plane set is listed as well as some saw, workbenches and other few tools.

Many bench planes have an unusual method to set iron and chipbreaker. This is not screwed to iron but it is  placed between the wedge and plane abutements.

I could not say if there are advantages or disadvantages by using this configuration, even because I did not try this system before.
Together with common ones, there are several special planes which captured my attention; is the case of a panel raiser plane with handle and three blades: the first one is for rebating, the second is the nicker and the third one task is to form the moulding along the inner edges. Never seen one like this. Fantastico!

How much was such a beauty cost in 1934? The price was variable in reference to wood used (leccio=holm oak, pomo=apple) and the blade mounted into.
D.V.C.= Double iron with short screw
D.V.L. =Double iron with long screw 
In 1934 the Lira had the best purchase power between WWI and WWII. With 30 lire it was possible to purchase a shoes pair. A bread piece cost 1.50 lire. So our plane today would cost about 50-80 Euro, a realistic (cheap too) price. 

Turning the catalogue pages, other special models don't lack, as a tonguing and grooving plane, like that I showed in the previous post.

To be noticed is the open construction, simply to realize but that requires to pay attention to right blade insertion in order to maintain the correct geometries.
This brief U.M.A.T. tour finish with a gelosie plane (dado plane). The "gelosie" are  timber blinds with elements inserted in grooves cutting in the stiles. 

This grooves are cut across the grain (in oblique direction) and the plane needs nickers for scoring the wood before the blade cutting.
The groove width was variable between 8 and 12 mm.

 I thank you Guido Masoero for giving me the opportunity of telling about the U.M.A.T. history and sharing these images from his catalogue. The U.M.A.T. planes were well built, as well as the British or  American wooden first choice planes. 
Guido Masoero wrote this history in his heart and the love for woodworking never left him. He is a well-known wood turner and has a net site where you can admire his more recent works:
http://www.tornituradiguido.net/web/ultimi.htm 

Download the complete U.M.A.T. plane catalogue (6,95 MB)

Listino U.M.A.T. 1934 (pdf)

Tonguing and Grooving: Double Job, One Plane

The Tonguing and Grooving was a common way of joining boards; in fact we can find many tools dedicated to this job. Is the case of this "combination" plane coming from UK.

 It's marked "MOORE LIVERPOOL", Planemaker  working between 1824 and 1870. It has the feature of having two blades, one for the tongue and another for cutting the groove, just turning the plane in the opposite direction. The fence is in the middle of plane body; in this way the cut will be always to the same distance from edge. This plane cuts in the center on 3/4" thick boards, but others were for different thickness. 

The plane needed some care, mainly in the mouth area where I preferred to close a little bit the opening, restoring the correct geometries. Moreover I had to substitute one wedge for which I used a cherry scrap. After the blades have been sharpened, the plane restarted to produce shavings with a good precision, unexpected for a such old tool.