Workshop view
I have been fascinated with antique handplanes, and people making modern reproductions of and new takes on them, for years. I have a modest collection of planes, and am taking early steps into making some of my own. Plow planes of all types, wooden planes, and infill planes are my favorites.

Here I collect notes from my projects, document in-progress planes, and offer drawings and measurements of some of the antique planes in my collection.

Featured Planes

Brass Infill Rabbet Plane
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Brass Infill Rabbet Plane

A.W. Gibbs • 2025

Mini infill rabbet plane with dovetailed brass/steel and rosewood infill. Created as an exercise in replicating a particular antique plane. The original had a cast shell; this one is dovetailed. Other than that, and the choice of metal for the sides of this iteration, it is as dimensionally close to the original as could be achieved.

Spiers Ayr No.7A panel plane on bench
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No. 7 Smoothing Plane

Spiers (Ayr) • c. 1890s

Dovetailed shell, rosewood infill

Parallel THOS. IBBOTSON iron. SPIERS-AYR staped upside down on the lever cap.*

Sole
9"
Iron
2 1/8"
Pitch
50°
S-06 Smoothing Plane
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S-06 Smoothing Plane

A.W. Gibbs • 2026

This was my first effort at a curved-side infill smoothing plane. It is modeled closely on an old Spiers infill smoother in my collection. Many hours went into closely measuring the plane and modeling the metal parts in CAD so I could outsource rough cutting of the metal to a laser to jump start my process. Some modifications were made intentionally: the lever cap pin is removable (and thus has visible screw heads instead a pin peened flush) and I used a single 3/16" O1 iron rather than the double-iron arrangement on the original. Many other deviations I'm sure were introduced unintentionally.