Coming soon!! "IBEX" round brass planes (Ibex)
Ibex hand planes are iconic, high-end mini bronze finger and thumb planes designed for luthiers and fine woodworkers to carve instrument tops, shape guitar braces, and handle detailed curved or flat woodwork.
Description
Ibex hand planes are iconic, high-end mini bronze finger and thumb planes designed for luthiers and fine woodworkers to carve instrument tops, shape guitar braces, and handle detailed curved or flat woodwork
History
Ibex hand planes were designed by Irving Sloane, a self-taught luthier, writer, and craftsman who grew up an orphan on the Lower East Side of New York and spent years traveling the world in the Merchant Marines. His primary career was in advertising, working as a designer of product packaging and record album covers, but he taught himself metalworking and jewellery making, which led him to design and make woodworking tools — especially planes — sold under the IBEX brand.
Sloane is best known in the lutherie world as an author; his book Classical Guitar Construction became a foundational text that many guitar makers credit as the first book that shaped their craft. Alongside his tool line, he also wrote a children's book called The Silver Cart.
Description of the planes
Ibex hand planes (particularly the finger/thumb planes and violin makers' planes) are aimed squarely at instrument makers:
- Material: Made in the USA from polished silicon bronze, giving the tools a durable, jewellery-like finish that feels good in the hand.
- Design: The small size and curved/rounded base are suited to carving and scalloping instrument bracing, and to carving tops and backs on archtop instruments. A larger 90mm convex model is designed for carving archtop guitars, cellos, and basses, and this palm plane features an adjustable mouth to fine-tune shaving thickness — useful for figured woods.
- Blades: The blades are chrome-vanadium steel, hardened to Rockwell 60–62, keeping them thin yet very hard-wearing. They're supplied standard with a smooth edge, with toothed blades sold separately.
- Adjustment: A thumbscrew allows quick, easy adjustment of blade exit and removal for resharpening.
- Applications: Beyond violin making, guitar makers have adopted these thumb planes too, since they suit many guitar-building processes — a tool tradition that thumb planes have served violin makers with for centuries.
Shipping
Our warehouse is based in Nelson, New Zealand, and all transactions are charged in New Zealand dollars.
Shipping within New Zealand is charged at NZD $15 (non-rural) or NZD $17 (rural), including GST, for most products (some exceptions apply). This excludes Great Barrier Island, Waiheke Island, the Chatham Islands, D'Urville Island, and Stewart Island.
All items from a single order will be shipped together. If multiple orders are placed on the same day, by the same person, to the same delivery address, we will do our best to combine them into one shipment, unless otherwise instructed.
If you have any questions, please contact us directly at sales@piranhatools.co.nz.