Toted Smoother Update

HI Folks
Been busy working on the toted smoother. Bit of a special one, this. African Blackwood, Philly dovetailed brass sole, 6mm thick iron and a norris adjuster. Kind of a Philly A5.
The sole and stock were dovetailed and glued together and the throat chopped. The mouth was cut through and lots of truing up followed. Then it was tote time.
I love making totes - to see a handle appear from a plank of wood is an exciting thing. After mucho sanding and smoothing I routed out the recess for the adjuster mechanism. Then I mortised the stock to take the handle - a precision job.
With the handle fitted snuggly I could concentrate on shaping the body. With the outline marked in white pencil I carefully removed the majority of the waste before using a disc sander to take it to final size. Then plenty of scraping and sanding (by the way, brass scrapes quite well!). Chamfers were applied with files and scraper and a couple coats of shellac were applied to start off the finish.
I opened the mouth so the plane would cut (I always make the mouth too small for the blade to project, then open them to suit the planes purpose) and then turned my attention to the screw cap. The rough shape was arrived at on the mill then I spent some time refining that with files. After drilling and tapping I was ready to take some shavings - an exciting step!
I'm real pleased with the planes progress and the next step is the fitting of the norris adjuster, my first. I'll be back with some more pics soon.
Cheers
Philly