New Handplane from Knight Toolworks

I received a really nice gift this year: a fine new coffin smoothing plane from Knight Toolworks. Unlike many planes, this one comes fully tuned and ready to use without any adjustment. It even ships with the shavings inside to prove it. When I took it out of the box, I stopped long enough to read about its care and feeding (this is my first "woodie") and to take a picture.

Then I took it right down to the shop and put it to use on my current project. I did manage to jar the blade loose, which led to an impromptu session of "how do you adjust this thing?", but after a few rounds of tapping the strike plate, tapping the blade, tapping the frog, testing the cut, I got it right back in working order. And it stays adjusted much better than my Miller's Falls (which I'm still trying to get adjusted so my thumb can't force the blade out of true while I'm using it).

In the picture above, you can seed the box bottom I'm working on in the foreground and the coffin smoothing plane in the background. Those frothy shavings were all made by me after adjusting the plane and putting it back to work. It took me a little while to get used to the lighter body and different shape of the wooden plane, but there can be no doubt: this is now the nicest and most functional hand plane in my shop.