I have been working on my workbench top today to try and flatten it again.  I just moved 1400 kilometers further south and the top did not fair to well.  I let it sit in my shop for several months to adjust to its new enviroment.  I was going to level it with my router but decided to go at it with my planes.  My little fellow was sleeping and hand tools don’t make the noise that power tools do.  I figured I would post some pictures for those who are just getting started with handplanes.

I first started with a Stanley #40 Scrub plane and removed the high spots.  To find the high spots I use a pair of winding sticks that I made out of to pieces of hardwood that I had laying around.  I work at a 45 degree angle to the stock so the tear out is reduced.  I also skew the plane a few degrees to lower the effective pitch this spreads the cut over a wider area of the iron, so less force is needed to push the plane over the surface.  The scrub plane a has a 3″ radius blade that is designed to removed stock quickly.  The shavings are very rough and look as if they have been torn form the surface.  This is all right because the next step will remove all the rough marks.  You can also use a #5 Jack plane with a radius blade but I prefer the scrub because it has a narrower width and that makes it easier to push and remove stock faster. 

I then move over to a Stanley #8 Jointer plane.  I work at a 45 degree angle to the work surface.  I also skew the plane a little but not as much as the scrub plane.  The jointer will produce a very flat surface because it will not follow the bumps and hollows like a smaller jack or smoother would.  I sometimes us a #6 Fore plane on smaller projects but prefer my bigger jointers for most work.  Once I get the surface down to level I go straight across the grain for a few passes to ensure it is flat form side to side also.  The blade in a jointer is sharpened perfectly straight across.  It will leave marks form the sharp edges of the blade.

Once flat I then move to my Stanley #4 1/2 or #4 Smoother or my Steve Knight smoother.  I will set the blade to take a very fine cut and set the mouth so you can barely see light shining through.  I will run the plane with the grain and skew the blade slightly to help reduce tearout in some of the hardwoods I use.  The blade in my smoother is sharpened so that the blade has the corners very slightly knocked off, this helps in elimating track marks.

I hope this helps someone in the ventures into hand planing.  I have attached several picture of the planes and the shavings they make and the tracks they leave.  There is also a picture of the three different shavings together (one the left is smoother, middle is jointer, and right is scrub) and the shop floor after it was all done. 

There is a lot more to planing than just pushing it across a piece of wood.  You have to know how to sharpen, tune and hold a plane to get the results you dream off.