Bridge City HP-8 Mini Block Plane

The HP-8 is an excellent small block plane, with an adjustable mouth and adjustable depth skids. The skids turn this small block plane into a high precision thickness plane. It is capable of thicknessing small pieces of wood to within 0.025mm. The design of the HP-8 allows you to make workpieces of a size that are virtually impossible to produce easily by any other method. The HP-8 ‘Mini’ Block is perfect for small plane work like musical instrument making, preparing Kumiko for Shoji screens, or anywhere you need an accurately dimensioned small component. The widest piece you can plane is 28.5mm and the maximum thickness 22mm.

The plane body begins life as a solid billet of aircraft-grade aluminium; CNC milling and anodising produce a precision plane with a beautiful, smooth finish. The depth skids are also anodised aluminium and will give you years of service. The A2 plane iron is 26mm wide and 2.5mm thick; bedded bevel up at 12° and with a bevel angle of 30° gives an effective cutting angle of 42°. The blade is 60-62 HRC with the back optically lapped, so further flattening of the back of the blade is not required or recommended.

The plane body is about 94mm long and 33mm wide.