- Quartersawn American Beech Plane Billets -

September 19, 2015: This round of billets is now sold out. I am actively searching for a log to have sawn and dried, but can give no estimate of when that will be ready. If you are interested in future billets, please subscribe to my blog for emailed updates.

Quartersawn American beech (Fagus grandifolia) has long been sought out as a premium plane-making wood. Not only are its properties ideal for wooden planes (those traits are best explained by Bill Clark and Larry Williams of Old Street Tool, Inc.), but it works wonderfully with hand tools and can have a figure that rivals the beauty of most any other wood.

Despite these desirable attributes and its widespread growth across the eastern United States, American beech can be difficult to find in any form, let alone one suitable for planemaking. I had the good fortune of coming across a small stash of it recently, and am offering some of it here.

This beech has been kiln dried to a moisture content of 10% - 15%. You would be well advised to let your billet(s) acclimate in your shop for a month or two until it reaches an equilibrium moisture content. If you do not have a moisture meter, use a scale to monitor the weight over time.

Billets are roughsawn, and will need to be planed and trimmed to final size. There may be some minor spalting and/or insect holes, but the wood is guaranteed to be structurally sound.

Each billet includes material for a wedge; the handled jack plane billet also comes with a blank for the handle. Dimensions for the billets, wedges, and handle are shown in the table below.

I have a limited supply of this beech on hand, but am working on developing it as a reliable source if demand warrants it. If you need a special size, please contact me with your request. My current supply is roughsawn to 2 1/2" thick, so I can only supply billets for blades up to about 1 3/4" wide at this time.

All billets are guaranteed to be free of both visible and internal structural defects. Should you find any defects as you work on your plane, contact me for a free replacement.

*All dimensions are given in the format W x H x L, where W is the dimension of the face showing flatsawn grain and H is the dimension of face showing quartersawn grain. All billets are sawn so that the side of the plane will show quartersawn figure.

Plane Billet	Dimensions*	Wedge Dimensions*	Handle Dimensions*
3/4" molding	7/8" x 4" x 11"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	n/a
7/8" molding	1" x 4" x 11"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	n/a
1 1/8" molding	1 1/4" x 4" x 11"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	n/a
1 3/8" molding	1 1/2" x 4" x 11"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	n/a
1 5/8" molding	1 3/4" x 4" x 11"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	n/a
1 7/8" molding	2" x 4" x 11"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	n/a
Small smoother	2 1/2" x 3" x 7 1/4"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	n/a
15" Handled Jack	2 1/2" x 3" x 16"	3/4" x 2" x 7"	1 1/8" x 6" x 6"

Accessories & Related Items

• Quartersawn American beech saw handle blanks

Wood planemaking resources:

• Lie-Nielsen: Lie-Nielsen is a great source for tapered molding plane iron blanks. They also sell a range of bench plane irons and chip breakers. In addition, they make and sell several planemaker's floats.
  
  
• Hock Tools: Hock Tools sells a range of plane irons and chipbreakers.
  
  
• Old Street Tool, Inc.: Larry Williams' Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes is the definitive reference for making molding planes.
  
  
• Red Rose Reproductions: Dan Schwank makes and sells a variety of molding planes. If you are interested in making your own spill plane, he sells his blades and/or plans for doing so.
  
  
• Voigt Planes: Steve Voigt makes and sells traditional double iron planes. His blog has some useful planemaking posts, with yet more to come.
  
  
• David Weaver: David Weaver put together a 20+ part series on making a double iron try plane. This YouTube video is the first one in the series.
  
  
• Caleb James: Caleb James makes traditional wooden planes, and has posted several of his plane plans and drawings (free for personal use).
  
  
• John M. Whelan: John Whelan's book, Making Traditional Wooden Planes is the definitive reference for making traditional abutment-style planes.
  
  
• Matthew Sheldon Bickford: Once you have made your molding planes, Matthew Bickford's Mouldings in Practice is an excellent resource for actually using them. Matthew also makes traditional molding planes under the M.S. Bickford stamp.