Dips and curves

The last adjustment to my design for this plane was to curve the inside of the front bun for some extra finger clearance when removing shavings. This was a big improvement. However, as I was looking at some examples of coffin-shaped smoothers from Norris, Sauer, and Anderson, the little dip right behind the front bun got me thinking. This would allow even more clearance, plus it would add a nice decorative touch. So I did some rough sketches on paper, then refined this in Corel Draw. I also did a little photo editing to check the design in "real time" so to speak. To get the design just right, I even scanned the plane itself to work out the details. This worked nicely. Next posts I'll be showing how I cut the shape out. This will require some special techniques since the plane is assembled.