This is my take on the Stanley no 9 Cabinet Maker's Block Plane. Made from 01 tool steel, brass, and hempwood. It was a lot of work, but a fantastic education in plane making.

A playlist for all of the videos can be found here:    • Stanley No 9  

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Website: www.ericmeyermaker.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/eric.meyer.maker
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The Stanley no 9 known as a "Cabinet Maker's Block Plane" as well as a "Piano Maker's Plane" was a plane that was developed in the 1860s. Despite its name it was not really a block plane in the way that we think of block planes today. The no 9 was Stanley's version of the infill miter planes that were coming out of New York and England. The no 9 had a 2" blade and an overall size comparable to the no 4 smoothing plane. It was much larger than a typical block plane. The purpose of the no 9 was to take fine shavings on both face and end grain. Additionally, it could be used on its side as a shooting plane.

Stanley ceased production of the no 9 in the mid 1900s. Lie-Neilsen produced their own version for a time in the early 2000s, but those have ceased production as well. To get one now you have to pay collector prices. I was not interested in paying collector prices for a tool so I decided to pay an equivalent amount of money in raw materials and new tools to build one myself.

I will be making some changes as I build my version. Both the Stanley and Lie-Neilsen versions were cast iron. I do not have the ability to cast metal so I will be making mine out of flat bar stock. Primarily O1 tool steel. Second, again because I do not have the ability to cast, I will be assembling mine with dovetail joinery like a traditional English mitre (miter if you are in the US) planes. The overall size has stayed the same, but I have made the side walls on mine thicker than the original. Primarily this was to add a bit of weight. The last major change I have made is that mine will include wooden infills. From the examples I have seen, so far, Stanley's version did not use wooden infills. A few from Lie-Neilsen did and I liked the way those looked so that is what I want to do on mine. There will be other deviations from the original as I solve construction problems as I go.




#handtools #miterplane #tooltrain2022