I recently got into hand planes. I have read the hand plane book. I have a #6 which easily cuts through a dried 1 x 1 pine with nice thin curles of wood. The #5 wont even cut a small part of it. When I go to plane, it cuts just the smallest shaving (<1/3″) still attached to the wood. The shaving is thin and doesn’t appear to be cracking like there isn’t support for the blade or I am using it as a scub plane. I have lapped the bottom, made sure the blade is well supported by the frog (and in the right place) and that the chip breaker is well supporting the blade. The blades on the 5 and 6 are shappened with the scarey sharp method and appears to work very well on the 6. Why am I having such problems with the #5? I wonder if the shaving is getting jammed between the blade/chip breaker and the throat. Is the blade ground incorrectly so the profile is too wide and there is too little space for the wood to go through. It doesn’t seem like there is chatter – it is like I begin to plane and hit a brick wall. The #6 cuts well enough that I can do it with one hand.
Thanks for the help – Tom
Replies
Two things to check.
Is your iron bent?
Is the frog backed so far that the raised receiver that aligns the frog is standing proud of the bed?
I'm sure there's more and you may be on the right track looking at the cap iron. I believe cap irons cause far more problems than they solve.
Tom, chip breaker should be honed to correspond to the flat face of the iron.
Check with a bright light for any light leakage at that juncture. Also, keep the chip breaker as close to the bevel as possible to reduce'chatter' Steinmetz.
It sounds like the iron is sharp, so the answer lies in the plane - (if yo sharpened your #6 blade properly I'm willing to assume you did a fair enough job on the #5)
First, back off the frog to open the throat. you can close it up later after it works and is tuned up.
Set the chipbreaker about 1/16" back from the blade edge. You can close it up later as well if you choose.
Check the sole for flatness with a straightedge (with the blade installed and locked). If its really bad, the blade sticks out too far before you get a shaving, and it can jam on some boards.
Sight down the sole and set the blade to just stick out a hair. Centre it in the mouth, and make sure it is even across the sole.
That's the basic setup. try planing a few boards and see the results. Let us knwo what happens, and maybe we can pinpoint the problem.
Cheers,
The older I get, the better I was....
I agree- but I would focus first on the position and condition of the chip breaker. I think that's the money shot.Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
Just wanted to let you know the conclusion. It appears that the angle of the frog was slightly greater than the angle of the rear part of the throat. When the frog was "flush" with the throat the blade was at the wrong angle and the throat was closed to much. Wood must have been getting stuck. I moved the frog back so that the angle was the same (the top and bottom of the blade is supported but there is the slightist bit of unsupported area where the frog meets the throat). The plane now cuts very nicely and takes nice thin slices. I would like another one and convert it to a scrub plane as I dont think I can afford a #40.
Thanks for the help.
Tom
Good news- glad you get it sorted out.Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
I'm glad your problem is solved. Did you see the David Charlesworth article in FWW No. 172, Oct. 2004, called "Handplane Tune-up"? If not you might find some of the hints there of use to make the planes even better. I also found his video on plane blade sharpening to be really useful. I had been too vigerous in honing the bevel and so was having
to regrind more often. On his first sharpening after grinding just the faintest line of mirror finish appears on the bevel. I would guess that he gets 8 to 10 honings before he has to regrind. When a plane is working well it is a joy.
Rod
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