Traditional dovetailed infill planes

Infill planes taken to a new level.


  • A13 Boxwood Infill Plane - Link to Gallery page.
  • Maker of traditional dovetailed infill
    hand planes since 1988.
Although now championing my new 98 series I continue to make infill planes based on the Norris, Mathieson and Spiers patterns. Please take some time to visit my Gallery or Planes pages to see examples of my work.
I must emphasize that I do not make 'reproduction antiques' – my designs, although firmly based on traditional infill patterns, incorporate subtle modifications to achieve the standards of design and finish for which I have become known. My aim is simply to make the finest hand planes money can buy.

The A7 Spiers pattern Dovetailed Shoulder Plane.


Group of Spiers pattern Infill Shoulder planes.

These pictures show some Spiers Pattern Shoulder planes which I made recently, a very elegant pattern and my favourite of all the shoulder planes. I have just two of these planes left - one with Boxwood Infill and one
with Ebony. As I have no plans to make Shoulder planes again this really is a last chance to buy a Shoulder plane of this quality, please contact me if you are interested.

Spiers pattern Shoulder planes with Boxwood and Ebony Infills.
Whether working with wood or metal I like to produce crisp and precise corners and joints and this is especially true of bi-metal dovetails, the picture below shows detail of the Spiers Shoulder plane dovetails.

Machining produces metal parts to the required tolerance for dovetails of this quality but of course the peining can only be done by hand, a laborious and painstaking process requiring a level of skill to keep the true form and detail.

I am often surprised at the poor quality of dovetails offered by other makers. In the case of steel on steel, like the original counterparts, one can get away with being a bit sloppy but it seems pointless to use bi-metals unless you can achieve a really tidy job.

Spiers pattern Shoulder plane - Detail of Dovetailing.