Hand tools have always held a great fascination for me as they do for other woodworkers. 16 years ago I decided to leave my engineering job and pursue woodworking as a full time occupation. As my work progressed toward the creation of finer pieces I found hand tools coming into play as a way of refining wood surfaces to a level I was never able to achieve with abrasives. I became a hand plane enthusiast, and began amassing a collection of planes, new and old. Using planes in my everyday work process has allowed me to conduct a study of these simple machines and has given me an in depth look at what makes them work and what makes some work better than others. This process eventually led me to infill planes. Every woodworker will at some time run into some woods that simply can not be adequately planed with standard bench planes. These highly figured and otherwise hard to plane woods require a different tool as hand planes go. With great mass, tighter mouth openings, and steeper pitched irons, properly crafted and fettled infill planes can handle the surfacing of these materials with ease. When you combine great visual features with high performance you have tools of great appeal. Infill planes intrigued me in such a way that I not only needed to possess and use them, I needed to design and create them.
