#2 (¼”) Round Moulding Plane

[MrRick]

 

Introduction

I enjoy doing most of my wood working projects with hand tools. I feel that I've become adept roughing stock with handsaws and squaring all four sides by hand planing. I've also become much better at joinery over the years with my favorite being handcut dovetails.

One area that has intrigued me is creating mouldings with hollow and round moulding planes. Pursuing this has taken me down the road of making moulding planes. It has been a delightful pursuit. In addition, I make the blades or cutters and go through the whole heat treatment process.

The Beginning

 I started by cutting two finished blanks out of Spalted Maple. These two blanks make the complete body of the plane.
 
 The first one (Part A) was milled to 5/8" thick x 3-1/8" high x 10" long and is the main body and left side in one piece.
 
 The second (Part B) was milled to 3/8" thick x 1-9/16" high x 10" long and is the right side that is laminated to the first piece.
 
 This plane will be a No. 2 ( 1/4")  Round Moulding Plane.
 
 In Fig.1, it's mating plane, a 1/4" Hollow Moulding Plane sits on the right. It was used to make the 1/4" round groove as shown for the new plane on the left. When done this will make a matching set of 1/4” Round and Hollow Moulding Planes. See the closeup of the new plane's bottom in Fig 2.

 

 

Mortising the Escapement Area
 
Now it's time to mortise the escapement area for the blade's bed, cheek, throat, mouth, etc.
 I made this jig, see Fig 3 below, that I use for locating the bed angle at 50° and the wedge face at 60° on Part A. The jig has an adjustment screw that allows me to fine tune the mouth opening for Blade and Wedge. I can explain further how I use this jig if anyone is interested.

 

 

Once I have the jigs placed where I want them (see Fig 4), I clamp them down on Part A to the bench and scribe the mortise cavity to be cut.
 

Initially I cut the mortise cavity boundaries using my chisels (see Fig 5) Then I use my Lee Valley Veritas Large Router plane to excavate the cavity as shown in Fig 6 and 7.

 

 

Here in Fig 8,  I’m refining the mouth with the router plane. 

 

 

Fig 9 shows how I’ve clamped it to the bench while mortising.

 

 

Laminating and Shaping

Next in Fig 10,  I laminated the Right Side (Part B) to Main Body (Part A).  I then started chamfer detailing . In Fig 11 - 13,  I am chamfering along the top edges and bottom edge of the Right Side (Part B). In Fig 14 & 15, I have done Stopped Chamfers for the front and back corners.

 

 

 

The Wedge
 

Next I shape the wedge Per Fig 16. As mentioned earlier the bed angle is at 50° and the wedge face at 60° on Part A. The wedge will be a 10° angle and is approx 6” long. Making the angle slightly larger initially then fine tuning  to fit the mortised area is advisable. Detail A shows the curvature required for the shaving to climb up and out as you are planing.

Fig 16

 

Per Fig 17, this is the notch, Detail B, for assisting in wedge removal.

 

 

Blade
 

This is the complete 1/4” round blade per Fig 18. I didn’t go into detail here with the whole process of shaping, heat treating, honing, etc. Again if anyone is interested and has questions please let me know.
 

Fig 18

 

Finishing
 

To start I coated all the plane body (except the bed) and the wedge with two coats of  50/50 cut Tung oil. Per fig 19. I let this cure for one week.
 

Fig 19

 

Then I brush coated with two coats of Shellac and allowed to dry overnight. The actual sole is left only with the tung oil coating.
After this,  I French polished with shellac to make the grain “pop” per Fig 20.
 

Fig 20

 

Finally per fig 21, I coated and buffed eveything with wood butter except the bed and bottom of the wedge.
 

Here’s the completed 1/4” Round Moulding Plane per Fig 21 and Fig 22.

Fig 21

 

Fig 22

 

Thanks for Looking!

Cheers!
MrRick

 

[MrRick]

Oh!...BTW!

 

[John Morris]

Absolutely beautiful Rick. A whole lot of experience and skill and refinement going into these tools, from where I'm sitting you can see me glowing with envy.  I have so much I want to do in woodworking and this is one of them right there, I hope you are still around when I build my first plane, I mean, around The Patriot Woodworker, not around in the morbid sense of course!

[MrRick]

Thanks John. I'm not going anywhere but where is everyone? It's like no one has seen my post. 

[John Morris]

Just now, MrRick said:

Thanks John. I'm not going anywhere but where is everyone? It's like no one has seen my post. 

It gets slow sometimes around here Rick. Somedays it's a raucous party and otherdays folks peek in and out. Tuesday doldrums  

 

[Grandpadave52]

On 9/30/2025 at 6:56 PM, MrRick said:

Thanks John. I'm not going anywhere but where is everyone? It's like no one has seen my post. 

I'm late getting here Rick. Still in R&R mode from surgery on Monday.

 

Your work is beyond amazing and very inspirational. Please keep posting and sharing with us; greatly appreciated. This time of year, folks often get busy completing outside projects ahead of the winter months.

[John Morris]

3 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Still in R&R mode from surgery on Monday.

Howya doing Gramps?

[Grandpadave52]

Just now, John Morris said:

Howya doing Gramps?

Blessed beyond measure John. Pathology results came back negative today so God is good. Each day is a little better. Thank-you for asking.