New Planes in Solid Lignum Vitae

To date I've been making most of my planes with a Lignum Vitae sole. From now on I'm going to be making the high angle smoother, 9" smoother and jack plane from solid Lignum and I've just completed a batch. It is a wonderful wood, very oily, extremely hard wearing and very heavy, the perfect plane making wood. It's also very attractive in a manly way.

Here are the high angled smoothers. I made a batch of 4 for the European Woodworking Show to see how they went down, I sold them all and came away with back orders.

The 9" smoothers are longer wider and quite a bit heavier, although they may not appear so in the photos. The one in the front has a touch of sapwood which I always try to include if possible.

The jack planes have a real weight to them and feel great in the hand.

All the blanks are made from quarter sawn timber to minimise movement in service, I also like the look. This one was bang on the quarter.

The reversing grain picks up through the planer although it responds well to machine sanding, that is until it clogs the abrasive, which doesn't take long!

All the planes are now branded with my stainless steel name badge. There are so many curves on my planes there weren't too many options as to where this could go. Although the Lignum costs more to buy, I'll be holding the prices (for now!).