62 Infill Style Planes: Why are they good?
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This article is from the Woodworking FAQ Collection 1, by multiple authors.
62 Infill Style Planes: Why are they good?
Several aspects of thier construction are important. They have a
thick (3/16") parallel or "gauged" iron, which does not change
size as it's consumed like the tapered irons in wooden planes.
The iron is firmly bedded on a heavy endgrain wood block along
its entire length. This, along with the metal sole gives the
combined advantages of wood and metal planes: the iron is firmly
bedded and the mouth is not prone to wear. Their mouths are very
tight. On a smoother they hover between 7 and 9 thousandths. On
a mitre plane, they are even tighter. They have a screw-lever
hold down made of a massive block of gunmetal (a type of bronze)
that can apply great force across the entire width of the blade.
They are usually bedded slightly steeper than the "common" pitch
(45 deg) found on the Bailey pattern planes. Most infills
measure between 47 and 47.5 degrees. This is more suitable for
figured hardwoods.
They were designed and built as premium tools. Made to strict
tolerances, often each blade was custom fit to a plane. The
mouth is extremely tight. They are made to take only the finest
of shavings. Another advantage they possess is their massiveness.
This decreases the likelihood of the plane deflecting when
encountering difficult grain or when used on an extremely hard
wood.
All of these design features combined, yield a plane that does
exactly what a plane should: hold the blade firmly at the proper
angle and allow it to clearly shear a layer of wood off with no
tearout. Not only do they excel with highly figured wood, they
leave a better surface on ordinary woods as well. This
difference is visable to the untrained eye. With a Bailey style
smoother, there is always some micro-tearout. The surface,
although better than sanding or scraping, looks somewhat fuzzy.
With an infill smoother, the surface of the wood actually shines,
you are looking at a perfectly flat plane of wood, where the
fibers are neatly sheared and the pores are left open. This
results in greater depth when the wood is finished.
Note however, that not all infill planes are equal. Models with
later production dates can be sloppily made. The key
descriminating factor is the tightness of the mouth. Later
planes have wider mouths, and sometimes previous owners have
opened narrow mouths with a file. This kills the user value of
such a plane. I would avoid any smoother with a mouth much over
9 thou. For mitre and shoulder planes, the mouth needs to be
even tighter.
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