I have written about mouldingplanes before in this blog. It is definately one of my favourite tools. A while back I made a mouldingplane to make new doormouldings for an old house. I took some pictures to show the process.
I looked at an old plane and copied the angles for the blade.
Then roughed out the opening.
This is how the blade goes.
Be carefull to drill those holes straight.
The blade and the wedge is fitted.
A kind of primitive way to copy the profile. But it works.
I start shaping the profile of the plane.
I cut it with different types of gouges.
The plane with the blade I am using. Now I can draw the profile on the blade.
I use a Dremel, files, sandpaper and wetstones to shape the blade. I can also use a grindstone, but it is easily wasted.
You can see the difference between the actual profile and the blade.
It is important that the blade follow the profile of the plane properly. If you have an old mouldingplane that you want to use, this is the first thing you should check.
The plane is ready to use.
To the right is the old doormoulding. To the left is the testpiece made with the new plane.