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This was a fairly quick project that I wanted to share in case anyone else is interested in this kind of thing. I’ve been wanting to make an edge tool for a while, and as I was planing the back braces on my first guitar build I realized that a smaller plane would be really nice. Looking them up I found the Ibex planes and some others but then I came across some threads and videos about making them, which is my kryptonite. This one is based on a youtube video by Stephen Boone, he goes through the whole process. Once you get the stuff you don’t already have it’s pretty quick. Heat treating, tempering and then sharpening the blade was great fun, everything else was kind of eyeballed but it seems to have worked out. The shape and size are of course totally customizable, this one will probably get trimmed and finished a bit more, but overall size at the moment is about 2-1/4” long x 1-1/8” high. Blade is ½ x 1/8”.

nice project

nicely done - where did you get the knurled screw? How wide is the mouth with the blade installed? Bevel up or down? Will you make one with radius on the sole?

you can find knurled screws in the specialty hardware section at home depot
also you can just do a search it is a common part.
amazon and ebay will also have them search knurled screw with the thread size

Bevel down, its at 45 degrees on this one. I made the mouth 9/16" wide thinking I might want a little room for side to side adjustment. The opening is 3/16" front to back - with blade installed there's about 1/64" clearance to the blade. It looks tight to me but in a few trial runs it didn't seem too close. In the Stephen Boone video he seems to do fine tuning on the opening after assembly. I haven't done a lot with it yet but it seems okay so far but will adjust as needed. And yes, the next one will probably have a radius.

John's correct! I got the brass thumbscrew from Amazon - five for $12 delivered. They're available from various supply houses too.

thanks - looks great

Pretty cool.

Hmmm....I will admit to having purchased the HF set of 3 mini planes just to try them out. I use the mini block plane quite a bit after tuning it up.

I think I'll make a wood body and use the screw/frog/blade out of the "scraper plane". Good use for a couple of the small bits of hardwood laying around. Neat.

Nice little plane!