syeates

Never sharpen or remove a blade in open-toed shoes, sandals or bare feet. A blade falling accidentally will likely not cut through leather but can do serious damage to an exposed foot. I've been lucky and had a near miss with a heavy plane blade and chip breaker falling when I inverted an old wooden plane body and just missed my bare toes. i shudder to think what might have happened.

Why not drill and thread the front wood piece and add a 1/4 thumbscrew instead of the clamp?

So simple and so elegant. Bravo!

Great idea. Are the metal pieces the self centering mechanism? Does it act like a parallell rule? I'm assuming the two metal pieces are bolted to the center of the slotted piece so when it's opened they two sides stay paralell and the slot template stays in the middle. What is the fence-like wood strip I see in the center front and why is it needed?
Thanks.