I have a thing for combination planes, which is likely no surprise to anyone who knows me. I recently acquired this plane, which I believe to be a shop made plane. It came out of the UK, and the design aesthetic reminds me a lot of a LEWIN plane.
The plane seems to be made from steel and aluminum. The rear handle and rear bed appear to be aluminum with the remainder being steel.
The main body looks to be made from two pieces of steel angle welded or riveted together. It’s then shaped, and has various other pieces added on to it from there.
The parts are pretty well made, and thought out pretty well, for the most part. The depth stop, depth of cut adjuster, and lever cap are all pretty nicely functional.
When I sharpened it up and put it to use, though, I noticed that the fence could be larger. It’s not a bad length, but the height is a little too short. It was difficult to get a good registration on the work piece when first starting out.
With the height of the fence, you only really have about 1/4″ of fence on the work piece. Perhaps this could be remedied by adding an auxiliary wooden fence on to it, after drilling a couple mounting holes. In this picture, you can also see that most of the fence related parts are welded together, leading me to think it’s individual made rather than mass manufactured.
After a quick sharpening and knocking the rust off the face of the fence, it certainly gets the job done, though. Here I’m using the only iron I have for it to cut a groove down a SPF 2×4 scrap.
I do find the shape of the tote a little awkward in use, however. It’s a little too tall and a little too thin for my liking. Perhaps an additional layer of aluminum on both sides would have helped here. I just wish it was overall a little wider in both cross section and front to back.
Despite the few quirks of it, and not having any additional irons that fit (that I’m aware of yet), it is a pretty cool plane. I like how well it’s made, if it’s not a manufactured plane. It certainly works, and whoever made it was hopefully proud of it. I’m a fan!
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