Replies

1. 
   eddiefromAustralia | Aug 06, 2003 02:24pm | #1

   Well, wooden thoughts,

   I have all blades dead flat (use a diamond stone so little option here) and you need to have the final smoothing passes done with the blade set fairly fine and absolutely parallel to the sole.  If it's kicked one way or the other, even very slightly, the corner of the blade will dig out a track that will be visible.

   I do this as I use any plane to joint with for smaller sized work (less than 1m long)

   If you want to put a slight curve on the blade, concentrate more on honing the corners than the centre, only talking less than 1/64" here or thereabouts as being the final amount of 'out of straightness'

   Whatever works is fine.

   Cheers,

   eddie

2. 
   RMillard | Aug 07, 2003 03:38am | #2

   I follow the time honored method of having the blade sharpened to a curve. This curve is so slight that I’m able to take a nearly full width shaving and yet leave no step between adjacent passes.Beveling the coners tends to tear the wood and leave visible marks. To make this curve, I first hone the blade dead flat on a medium coarse stone, and then with the fine stone ( or in my case 1500-2000 grit paper) I concentrate more pressure at the outer edges of the blade. This is, at first a kind of trial and error process, but you will quickly gain a feel for it and it becomes second nature. While I have not tried and probably couldn’t measure this curve, I would say the center stands no more than .003-.005 higher than the edges. On highly polished surfaces , particularly those in the raking light you can see the passes left by the plane,as a slight ripple effect, so you should try to make the strokes from end to end and parallel. For the period reproductions I make this is a highly desirable characteristic. Also, while I may be making more out of this than necessary planed wood seems to have better depth and more brilliance, than wood that has been scraped or heavily sanded. I just completed my first piece in curly maple, and the planed solid wood looks better than the veneered drawer fronts which had to be scraped and sanded.

                                                   Rob Millard

3. 
   Alan | Aug 07, 2003 03:47am | #3

   W___,

   I hone the iron for my smoothing planes with a little arc--I stress little.  With an iron with a bit of a curve my planes leave very gentle undulations, without hard edges that need attention from a scraper or sandpaper.  You can feel the undulations--but just barely.  They aren't the vertical-sided trench left by an iron that's straight across, or straight across with only the corners rounded a bit.

   In use I set the iron so that only the middle part cuts.  Even though the arc is extremely small, the iron is still easy to set by eye or by feel.  The shaving is, as you said, one that tapers away to nothing at the edges.

   BTW, a few top-end cabinet manufacturers now use hand planes--not for smoothing or dimensioning, they have big machines that do that--but only to make those gentle undulations.  They are the mark of hand work and are much prized these days.

   I wouldn't think of trying to make perfectly flat the things I make.  Machines make things perfectly flat; I do not attempt or aspire to have my work indistinguishable from things made by machine.

   Alan

1. 
   wundernaloud | Aug 07, 2003 08:39am | #4

   Thanks for the response, validation is always a good thing .Educateing the customer can be exhausting. In all of my reading I haven't seen any mention of scalopping the blade exept in the tuning of the scrub plane blade . but the slight convexity of a smoothing blade makes sense. I've noticed that when tuning some of the wooden planes I've made that when the sole has a certain convexity to it the shavings taper out nicely but a flat sole is what is said to be sought after. Planeing with parallel strokes from end to end also makes sense but on long wide surfaces the task seems daunting any suggestions on approaching this. Or is it as I would expect, practice and perserverance.

   I just installed the new style chip breakers from LN on my 2" AND 2 3/8 inch  planes and they have made abit of a difference. But of course when I had the planes apart I couldnt help but keen the edges there in could lie the improvement.

   Thanks

1. 
   Alan | Aug 08, 2003 02:55am | #5

   Woodenthoughts,

   As Rob wrote, the surface left by planing, at least to me, is greatly superior to those made by sanding and better than scraping.  So for me planing is worth the effort.

   However, I find that not all that much effort is needed.  After all, the majority of the work is done before I pick up my smoother.  After my scrub plane, jack and jointer the stock is dimensioned and flat.  The smoother's only real chore is to remove the ridges and whatever other marks left by my jointer.  Set to take an extremely fine cut little muscle is needed to plane end to end; and generally only two or three swipes is necessary.  The only thing I have to remember is to plane uphill into the rising grain.  With a sharp iron and a fine cut I usually have few problems.  I use a scraper only if I get some unavoidable tear out from a spot of especially incorrigible grain.

   Besides, I like planing.  It's a treat to the eyes, ears and touch making those nearly transparent shavings, with the plane whispering sweet nothings....Oops.  There I go; waxing poetically again...

   Alan

1. 
   dlwheel | Aug 09, 2003 08:40am | #6

   for my planes i've found this ritual to work for me:

   1. Flatten the blade on 800/1000 water stone... no compromise... has to be flat

   2. Hollow grind at 25 degrees on the Tormak

   3. Set blade in a Veritas jig and "carefully" (by pulling BACK toward yourself), apply pressure at the end of one side of the blade and give it 6 strokes; do the same for the other side; now come in a bit toward the middle and give it 4 strokes and for the other side; finally give the middle 2 strokes (this is all on a 1000/1200 waterstone).

   4. You should have a wire edge which you will now get rid of on a 6000/8000 water stone.

   5. finally you finish with 3 strokes on the 6000/8000 in the same manner as point 3.

   Believe it or not this will give you a very small curve and seems to work well for me.

4. 
   Crunk | Aug 09, 2003 03:30pm | #7

   All my work is done exclusively with hand tools.  I grind a small camber on all my plane irons, except the one I use for jointing edges.  I can't imagine setting and keeping a plane iron virtually dead square in the mouth - or enough to keep from leaving plane tracks.  Plane irons can also move a little during use, and it would be just my luck that mine would shift and leave a huge nick on the last pass with the smoother.

   The very slightly undulating surface left by a smoother with a (barely) cambered iron is, in fact, evidence of the use of hand tools and is acceptable and desirable.  Scraping after the smoother, while often necessary, mitigates the undulations a bit.

   There is a difference between grinding a camber to an iron and simply dubbing over the corners.  A lot of guys simply dub over the corners and that is certainly acceptable and prevents plane tracks.

   Obviously, there are exceptions but I believe that the vast majority of serious hand tool woodworkers camber their smoother (and other) plane irons.

   My philosophy has always been that the last thing I wanted to do was to build a project with hand tools and have all the surfaces look as if they went through an industrial drum sander.  I think a trip to a quality antique dealer and some time spent examining the merchandise will help you regain your perspective on period surfaces.