I'm working on a smoothing plane using traditional construction. It is mostly a test piece since I haven't done this style before. I am about to the point where I need to do the final shaping on the wedge and I'm running into something I'm not totally sure about.
I have the mouth all done and the body all shaped. There is a facet on the bottom part of the abutment that widens out to the widest point of the mouth, I've labeled that facet (A). If I wanted the wedge to follow this same pattern and create a similar break (B) flush with (A), it would basically be tapering to a very fragile point, because it is narrowing both towards the sides and towards the mouth opening. I can't imagine a really fine point like that surviving very long for hard use in the real world. I am also not sure that area of the throat is precisely cut enough to even get it gapless down there.
My current plan is to leave the throat of the plane as is and blunt the wedge like shown in the 2nd picture. There won't be a total continuity with the shape of the abutments but it will hopefully still direct shavings into the center of the mouth area. Is there anything wrong with this or should I consider other options first?
It's a lot less work to make a wedge blunter than pointier so I thought I would ask before I committed to the idea too much.
EDIT: Attached picture of plane for those interested. It is just out of a small cherry turning blank I had sitting around.
I have the mouth all done and the body all shaped. There is a facet on the bottom part of the abutment that widens out to the widest point of the mouth, I've labeled that facet (A). If I wanted the wedge to follow this same pattern and create a similar break (B) flush with (A), it would basically be tapering to a very fragile point, because it is narrowing both towards the sides and towards the mouth opening. I can't imagine a really fine point like that surviving very long for hard use in the real world. I am also not sure that area of the throat is precisely cut enough to even get it gapless down there.
My current plan is to leave the throat of the plane as is and blunt the wedge like shown in the 2nd picture. There won't be a total continuity with the shape of the abutments but it will hopefully still direct shavings into the center of the mouth area. Is there anything wrong with this or should I consider other options first?
It's a lot less work to make a wedge blunter than pointier so I thought I would ask before I committed to the idea too much.
EDIT: Attached picture of plane for those interested. It is just out of a small cherry turning blank I had sitting around.