Legacy Planeworks officially opened its doors on Tuesday and began selling kits that allow a home woodworker with no metalworking experience to build an English-style shoulder plane with naval brass sides, a steel sole and an exotic wood infill.
The company currently offers two sizes of shoulder planes , 3 cm wide and 3/10 cm wide , with prices starting at And two more infill kits are on the drawing board: a chariot plane and a Norris-style A6 smoothing plane with a mechanical blade adjuster, says Marty Sivar, one of the owners of the company.
Sivar claims that the kits have been in development since many months and that the parts are so well-machined, you can snap the dovetails into place as soon as you take them out of the box.
Sivar stated today that we wanted to offer a more refined kit. Not something that you would have to spend hours preparing the parts and cleaning them up.
All the metal components are included in the kits, including the bits to drill the wood. The home planemaker will need a ball pien hammer, a steel plate (or anvil) and a handful of files to complete the project, Sivar says. Legacy Planeworks also sells all the files required for planemaking on its web site: legacyplanes.com.
Some woodworkers might remember the kits that were sold by Shepherd Tool, a Canadian company run by two partners outside Toronto. After Shepherds early success with its first Spiers-style smoothing plane kits, the company ran into some rocky times and shuttered its doors in early 2006 with a crowd of angry customers who were upset about a variety of problems, from not being able to get technical questions answered, kits that were missing parts, and credit cards that were charged with merchandise never shipped.
Sivar was one those unhappy customers of Shepherd. He said that he and Ernie Barber had set out to ensure that Legacy Planeworks was everything Shepherd Tool wasn’t.
Sivar states that the company’s website will not sell you any kits unless they have more than two available. Every order will be shipped within two to three days after it is placed. Sivar also stated that Legacy has many kits in stock and is ready to ship them immediately. One of these kits is currently being reviewed by Sivar.
Every kit has a money-back guarantee and includes a 52-page instruction manual that includes many step photos that will walk the planemaker through the process. Sivar states that the manual took a lot of time to create and has gone through numerous revisions to ensure it is as accurate and foolproof as possible.
I think our customers will be very satisfied from the minute they open the box, Sivar says.
Sivar has experience both as a woodworker and a metalworker. Sivar started his career in machinist before moving into the military. After a short stint as a corporate pilot, Sivar completed some marketing and management training and went to work for a petro-chemical company, where he is now an area manager and nearing retirement. Barber works in law enforcement and is an accomplished woodworker and carver who specializes in 18th-century furniture.
Sivar states that all components of the plane will be professionally manufactured by other metalworking firms to Legacy’s specifications. This will allow Sivar and Barber time to work with existing customers and develop future products.
Personally, Im quite pleased to see someone getting back into this business. I have built several Shepherd kits, including a few smoothing planes and a shoulder, shoulder, and panel planes. Despite some glitches, my kits had missing parts too. However, the experience was enjoyable and you can learn a lot about plane mechanics from building one of these tools.
Legacy started with just the shoulder-plane kit, which I find very encouraging. This kit was my easiest and it will give potential planemakers a taste of the process.
In the coming weeks, Ill post photos of the new kit and my progress building it.
Christopher Schwarz
Recommendations for Product
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. Although we may be compensated for sales made through our links, these products have been carefully chosen for their utility and quality.
