I’m almost embarrased to admit this, but I learned about planes over 20 years ago and what I learned has either been forgotten or went in one ear and out the other.
Lately I’ve noticed that I have the tendency to use the same 14″ jack plane for just about everything. Yesterday, I had to plane a small glued up piece, a 10″ hexagon of maple and just made an absolute mess of it with my just sharpened plane. PROBLEM: severe chatter at the start of the cut leaving deep scallops. Balance of cut is fine. I’ll also admit to having crappy planes (Stanley), but I’ve got them tuned up as best I can. Does blade/throat positioning have a bearing on this and do I need to reposition for certain types of work. As I recall, it is currently set for figured woods.
QUESTION: Which plane is best for what type of work? Very fundamental, but I haven’t seen any article that laid it all out neatly. Or is it not so neat?
Dave
Replies
Dave,
You ask a simple question that could take hours or days to answer. Rather than trying to give too brief explanations and opinions, I'll refer you to Garrett Hack's The Handplane Book. It is well written and beautifully illustrated. In addition to descriptions he also gives detailed technical information along with tips on tuning, sharpening and using. The two books by David Charlesworth, Furniture Making Techniques, volumes one and two, also give some good descriptions of planes, their tuning and use from the viewpoint of a very experienced and capable practitioner. Also useful is Planecraft by Hampton and Clifford; it's available through Lie-Nielsen and Woodcraft--and perhaps some others.
Alan
Like a major-league hitter who's in a hitting slump, you need someone to stand back and watch what you're doing to see what you're doing wrong. So many little things go into it. Any one of them probably won't cause much problem - but they all add up.
A TRULY sharp blade, proper position of the frog & breaker, absence of wood chips under the breaker, breaker true and flat where it contacts the blade, small throat, shallow cut, blade square to the sole, clean sole, flat sole, hold the plane askew to the direction of movement, firm grip. When everything's right, you can plane anything with any plane in the shop.
Rich
Rich, yours was the answer I was afraid of . . . . Only I can figure out what I'm doing is wrong. I thought maybe there was some magic answer . . . .Ah, well, if none of you have a magic wand for me, it's back to basics. If I'm lucky maybe my frog just slipped or maybe bad technique. Guess I'll have to pour over that 1-1/2 foot stack of FWW's. Thanks to all.
Dave
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