Miter Plane

A number of years ago, I came upon the work of a plane maker, Bill Carter. Bill has been making handplanes based on traditional English planes for the better part of four decades. Every plane he makes is built by hand and is created in his garden shed.

MINI PLANES. Now, I have a bit of a confession. Unbeknownst to my wife, I started stashing away money so that I could buy one of Bill’s little planes. So, a few years ago I purchased one of Bill’s miniature boxwood smoothers. And what a plane it is. The workmanship is unreal.

Unfortunately, that boxwood smoother made me long for one of Bill’s signature miniature miter planes, but they carry a robust price tag (worth the price, in my opinion). However, Bill, being the gentleman he is, has posted videos of his entire plane-making process on his website (see page 49). So, I decided to try my hand at building a couple and you can see the results here.

If you’ve never seen an English miter plane before, you’ll notice a few things about it. First, the bed angle is low — usually between 17°-25°. Second, it’s a fine-tuning plane and takes a thin shaving — really excelling