Frank,

You wrote:

> I have been thinking to build a miter plane for shooting (chuting). 
> ... 
> I wonder if a wood plane has enough mass to do its job, or is 
> this a better idea in metal only, if only because of the mass?
> If I do build it in wood, what wood should I choose?  Ipe is heavy
> and cheap and available in construction sizes....... 

I made a Krenov-style plane using Jatoba (a.k.a. "Brazilian Cherry") and a Hock
iron, and I'm quite happy with it. Like Ipe, Jatoba is widely used for flooring,
which means it should be widely available. Specific gravity of Jatoba is 0.91,
so it's pretty heavy. It's an oily wood, so it is good to use acetone when
preparing surfaces for gluing.

> ... I do want it to be a skew design, but with a perpendicular blade, like
> the really fancy LN types....This only means that the ramp for the blade 
> is a bit of a weird, rotated bird.

As an alternative to making a plane with a skewed iron, you may want to consider
making a shooting board with a ramp. That way a non-skewed plane iron encounters
the wood at a skewed angle. This is what mine looks like:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q3y0yk2093uxocx/ShootingBoard.jpg?dl=0

You can still make a plane to use with the shooting board, or you can use it
with a plane you already own. My Krenov-style plane with flat sides works fine
with my ramped shooting board, although I often reach for a low-angle plane from
Lee Valley instead. An advantage of making a Krenov-style plane is that you can
make it whatever shape you want.

Cheers,
Chuck Taylor
north of Seattle USA