Cheap Scrub Plane

Here’s an example of a really cheap scrub plane. I made it with a $5 old hybrid I picked up from an antique store. The hardest part of this was grinding the iron into a concave shape using a (you guessed it) grinder. I had some trouble getting mine evenly ground, but it worked great after I sharpened it up on my stone. I did have to widen the hole in the bottom up so it didn’t get all clogged up.

Here’s a pic of it in use on a slab of maple.

scrub plane in use

Here’s the iron after I ground it with a grinder and sharpened it up on a stone.

angled iron

And here’s the mouth I opened up with a chisel so shavings don’t get stuck.

base of plane

One of these days, I’m going to pick up a weightier plane for a few bucks to make another one with more mass.

Troy Kitch @troykitch