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The Marples/Sellers transitional Plane. These are all the rage at the moment. . .
Stanley in the US made their version which never really appeared as a popular type in the UK. However Marples in the UK came out with their transitional Plane sometime in the 1950's. It became the 'school plane', as the lighter weight was thought more suitable for boys who were doing woodwork class.

Knocked up over a very intensive weekend. A wooden plane that utilises the Bailey frog and it's adjustment. In the manner that Bill Carter uses old Brass saw backs for his planes I guess it's a form of recycling unwanted Stanley/Record plane parts.
My version is a little different in that it features a Rosewood sole and the sides are formed from a Cherry and Walnut laminate. 2 x 2 mm Cherry and 3 x 0.5 mm Walnut makes the side walls at 5.5 mm's. It helps to keep the whole plane looking slimline without compromising on strength.
The rest of the Plane is from quarter sawn Cherry, the domed palm pad from Indian Rosewood.
At just 12.5" long it's a small light 'nippy' Jack Plane. The finish is still rather soft but I did try it out on a few timber types before it was introduced to the varnish. These are lightweight planes. They excel at working soft and medium density hardwoods. So it proved when I tried it on Walnut, Sapele, figured Maple and some Cherry. Sellers refers to the shavings as 'shooting out', he isn't wrong. They were landing on the floor 2 ft ahead! . . . . OK, some of them were.
You can work these planes fast (as with most other wooden planes), slick over the timber they are less tiring to use. The one disadvantage I see with them is that you don't have the mass that seems to help when dealing with hard cranky timber. I did briefly try it on some Bubinga, it worked perfectly well but that particular Bubinga happened to be well behaved straight grain stuff.
There you have it. There is no one single plane that is 'the best', there are certain planes that are more suited to the task at hand. This transitional is the most comfortable plane that I've ever used (I've tried a few). Don't underestimate that domed palmpad at the front. Marples got that right.

That looks like a piece of sculpture.
Low centre of gravity, relatively light, I'm sure it's a pleasure to use.
I'm sure you'll enjoy it for many years to come.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Nice job, Michael, really neat looking plane. I'm envious.

I assume that the walnut veneers are glued up with the grain alternating, so that the center laminate runs the same direction as the outside cherry?

All the veneers have the grain running in the same direction. I canted the centre of the Walnut veneer a little. The chances of any individual grains lining up is a big fat zero. Perhaps not as strong as plywood proper but I very much doubt that it needs to be. I suspect it's much stronger (and less prone to cracking) than solid sides at say 8 mm's thick (or thereabouts) - which is what the original Marples Plane seems to be.
Even though I've known about the both the Stanley and Marples transitionals for a very long time I've very much ignored them. I guess I thought they were neither a true wooden Plane or a metal bodied plane, neither one or the other. I've made over 30 Planes over the years, from English style cut from the solid, horn handled continental to own designed laminate planes. Perhaps I need to work with it more but it seems to be the most comfortable Plane I've ever used, given that we aren't dealing with very gnarly timber.
My Plane making website, which I've failed to add to in many, many years. It's long overdue a revamp. Perhaps I'll include the making of a transitional.

http://linuxplane.awardspace.com/index.html

Very nice, Michael. Looks as good as a well made guitar.

Michael

VERY nice - from concept through execution. How is the frog bedded - an angled flat spot on the wood? A pair of shelves? I have a 2' Stanley level with the notched rectangle logo that I believe to be WWII era and it has stamped in largish letters at one end:

GENUINE CHERRY
Best Wood For Levels

So you have picked a good wood to make that thing out of. Have you ever tried taking a Stanley transitional and making a new block for it? A friend has 3 and uses them regularly - he made the blocks out of cherry and maple. I have a 30" version that I have often thought of doing that to.

Ed

It's the normal Stanley Bailey frog but I chopped the legs off! It sits flat with two wood screws as the fixings - so the bottom 1 inch or so of the blade is bedded onto wood, the rest onto the metal frog with the adjuster. I suppose you could keep the whole frog and rebate those 'legs' or find another method to accommodate them. The frog I used wasn't the best, it's a late one with lots of backlash. I'll swap it out when I come across a decent one. In fact I'll need two because I just may make a shorter 9" smoother type. I did think of buying a new Quangsheng blade, chipbreaker and lever cap but to be honest the original Stanley bits seem to work well enough (apart from that frog). Any rusty old Stanley will do provided the blade isn't badly pitted.
Stanley transitional Planes are pretty rare this side of the pond. I've never seen one in the flesh let alone tried one.

Mmmmm.... tool porn.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Beautiful! I love the concept of making a transitional plane from old frogs and parts. It dawned on me that I could do something similar but mount the frog on an angled bed and have a high angle plane. I would rarely use it for my work but maybe a dedicated plane for shooting the seams on troublesome grained back sets. Let us know when you have your plane making site updated!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

That's fantastic, Michael.

I have two DVD's and a book on making Krenov style wooden planes. I'm looking forward to taking a crack at it in a few weeks when the semester's done. My big hesitation with wooden planes is adjusting them. Your approach solves all that.

Cool idea. I have the guts of a Stanley #8 that had a cracked sole. Hmmmmmm

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Actually I had the same hesitation about adjustment, but wanted a plane to work the dishing of a Solera. I bought a 6" woody, sanded the sole double convex on a radius dish, cambered the blade to about right and went to work.
After a few trial runs I was actually really surprised how easy it was.
If you have the patience to build a guitar, I'm sure you would look back saying I cant believe I thought it was so difficult!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Vy nice M. Once you get the hang of making Krenov style planes. You can make them any size or configuration to do a particular task .

Although mine isn't a Krenov style Plane, it's a Marples style Plane. , just to be pedantic.
Anyway, I have a No.4 Record Ebay special on it's way. I'm either going to go smaller with the new Plane - 9 " or longer -18".
Not that I need any more Planes but I can't help myself. Planes are my thing, saws not so much, chisels are very low on the list I'm afraid.