The Art of Toolmaking
Karl Holtey, Holtey Planes, Scotland, UK
Milling metal and routing wood are not too dissimilar. You use cutters to remove waste, whilst jigs and work-holding attachments allow repetition and accuracy. You don’t need to be a good woodworker to make great planes, but you do need to be a great metal worker to make good planes.
As with woodwork, the smaller the components, the greater the need for precision, and planemaker Karl Holtey loves all this.
Fine detailed metalwork which is milled in complex shapes, running batches of components or hand polishing and detailing small pieces of metal are Karl’s sweet moments in his nicely fitted out and immaculate workshop.
Was there a lightbulb moment when he decided to make planes professionally? ‘My interest was to build miniature steam locomotives and also to be a gun-maker, so I was building a workshop for this – then I saw a photo in a book of a private collection of exceptional Norris planes, and I was hooked.’
Whilst his earlier planes were mostly based on classic British infill planes, his 98 plane series highlights, to
