I’m a total newcomer– but I thought I’d share my first few weeks of planing experiences.
When I was working on my last (and first ever) project, dining room wainscoting, I bought a cheap jack plane. I wasn’t sure how it worked but I thought I would need it at some point and they were on sale. Hand plane 1, Me 0. I fussed with it a bit but couldn’t figure it out. I kept tearing up the wood.
Three months later and I’m starting to work on my 2nd project, a maple workbench. This is an ambitious project. I don’t have the benefit of a power jointer or a power planer. I wish I could spare the space and money, because hand planing is tiresome– but a good workout. I’m jointing the boards on a band saw, then hand planing them to smooth and flat. 4 sides per board is quite a lot of hand planing experience rolled into one project, especially if you’ve never touched a plane before.
First thing I did was buy the Christopher Schwartz book on Handplanes, and discovered a few things I was doing wrong right away. Honing is essential. I was using the stock edge out of the box on the jack plane– The second edge is what will save tearout. Then of course– I was working the board lengthwise with a jack plane. Not its intended purpose!
I’d bought two other new planes since then– a Veritas #7 jointer (couldn’t afford the LN), but I did go for the LN #4 smoothing plane, best decision of the whole process.
I had many boards that bowed, or rough cut from my bandsaw, and my first instinct was to grab for the jointer plane. Wrong instinct! First, I put a 25 degree second edge on the jointer plane. I should have gone steeper. There are also 2 set screws on the Veritas that keeps the chatter down. I hadn’t tightned them. Plus, again– I grabbed for the wrong plane first.
The first plane I should have grabbed is a fore plane or (in my situation) a jack plane. Unfortunately, my jack is a cheap model with a loose handle. Lie-Neilson will be getting more business soon. Work the high spots down with the jack plane, across the board– but with the grain. Working on a slight diagonal can help avoid tearout. The strokes are short. The jack plane’s blade is extended just slightly below the iron, the I test on a piece of scrap. You can take pretty deep cuts with it, but you have to muscle them through the cut. I’ve found it to be easier to use a shallower cut, which of course, takes longer.
The rather unfortunate problem I’ve struggled with most is locking the board down. I have the old rickety bench installed in 1940. It shakes and wobbles, and it’s about 6 inches deep and sits 42 inches off the ground, which means if I overshoot with the plane, I punch the cement wall with my knuckles (ouch!), and I’m planing at my rib cage. But you go with what ya got, right?
I remove most of the material (high points, band saw edge roughness, scrapes etc.) with the jack plane, and only then go for the jointer plane. I haven’t been spending much time with the jointer, it’s a bear of a plane to use, especially on such a small bench. I just use it enough so that the remaining rough spots are smoothed, and I’m not sure I have the blade honed right, I’m getting significant streaking in the wood, so there’s probably a burr on the blade. Also, I’m wondering if I simply work better with Baily-style planes. At any rate, I move quickly to the smoothing plane.
I splurged and bought the LN #4, and I’m glad I did. I’ve never used a tool this fine before. I bought the 50 degree frog, and put a 35 degree bevel on the blade using a honing guide and three waterstones (1000/4000/8000). It pulls up the thinnest of shavings and leaves the work glass smooth. I’m amazed by what this tool does.
I’m moving more quickly through the sides now, still bloodying my knuckles ever few hours, but I’m ending up with what looks like a piece of furniture, instead of the gouged roughness of my first attempts.
Replies
Glad to see you' ve been bitten by the plane bug too. It takes a little while to get a feel for using a plane, but it's a real pleasure once it all comes together. I have both a jointer and planer, but still use hand planes quite a bit. I just surfaced a tabletop (22: wide by 60"long...too wide to put through the planer) with the LN #5 jack and it was very satisfying. I took very thin shavings to I didn't have to drive the plane through the wood as hard and I didn't mind the extra time at all. Used a LV#7 to smooth out the uneven places and a smoother after that. By the way, I jointed the edges on my jointer, but used the plane afterwards to remove any fuzz left by the jointer blade. Now you can barely see the seam.
Keep up the good work.
Jimi
reel,
you make me ill.
i've been fiddle faddling around in the hand plane world for about a year now and don't have near the success you're deservedly experiencing.
your story is inspiring. i am currently studying finck's book on making wooden planes and, as with so many of lifes sweet pleasures, the going is slow. not complaining, just slow. thanks very much for posting and please share a picture of your bench when done.
eef
eef
David Finck's book is a great place to begin making planes for yourself. The first few will be test beds. Most likely you will take that blade out of #1 and refit it to the upgrade. Once you have the concepts down, your imagination is the limit. I have a dozen planes with different bed angles on the shelf. If I want a steep pitch.. put the blade in and go. Back to 45 in a flash, lock it down and go. Wooden planes that fit your hands take a little time to master. Once you have the one that feels good to you its just great.
I might add: Finck's blades are great. I have the upmost respect for his blades. If you want to go a little less on the bucks, try a blade from Ron Hock from Craftsman studios. They have good prices and its a nice start. Not to be repeating myself.. I like the high carbon blades. I don't generally work exotic woods from distant lands. I do work some hard curly maple and some wild grain walnut on a regular schedule with my wooden planes fitted with Hock's HC blades and I get good results. At least I think so?? I am having fun and the sales are up to boot.
Hang in there and run some tests.
dan
Well, the easiest way I can describe the experience is that i'm peeling an onion with the jack plane. I'm peeling the skin off the wood. Not a deep cut, more of a skim. I leave the diagonal ridges left by the jack for the jointer plane, but the jointer plane has been prone to tearout, which I clean up with the smoothing plane, then a few passes with a hand scraper to finish. I just wish my jack plane didn't have a loose handle. It's really annoying.
Glad to hear you're purchasing the best tools you can. Better to have fewer, better tools than a lot of poor, unserviceable ones. You can do 98% of all your planing with a jack, jointer and smoother.
Great story Reel, sorry for the bloody knuckles though, are you sure you can't move the bench a bit? I am having a hard time figuring out how you hit your knuckles but don't hit your plane on the wall. Probably very obvious... but I think I would fix that problem somehow. Maybe a sheet of foam on the wall for now?
Handle, I am sure you have removed the handle (tote) from the plane with the center screw. It may have been made a bit short and the screw can't tighten far enough, or the hole was not tapped deep enough. If you can't retap the threads or don't have a tap you could make a shim. Slice a thin piece of maple and trace the handle profile on it, drill the matching hole and give that a test run. If it works, glue it on the bottom and finish it off. I have seen several old planes with bit of cardboard used as wedges, could never figure why they did not use a slice of wood can you?
Nice thing about the LV Jointer is the Low Angle blade. I have a LV Jack with the same setup and have three blades for it, ground to different angles. Saves me time to just switch a blade out to get a steeper cut if needed. It works well on just about anything but highly figured bubinga. Try some different angles on the blade and you will find a sweet spot. I use this plane to flatten panels over 15" wide, my limit on the thickness planer.
The plane I use the most... A LN low angle block plane. Fits in my hand and easy to make small adjustments, trim dovetails, add a bevel etc. You might consider that next for your growing family...
AZMO
I have about a dozen or so hand planes which I used to think was adequate especially since I never use about eight of them.
I use my little low angled block plane far more than any of the others for fitting, scribing and knocking edges off. I just refurbished an old Stanley 4 and it cuts sweet and I'm sure I'll find a use for it someday. I also have a 5 that I use for flattening once in a while.
I try (key word "try") to work more in the style of Sam Maloof. He worked with a lot of shapes and not a lot of flat surfaces. I can say that I've seen him use a hand plane. His favorite tools were the band saw and the "Surform".
I do respect ones skilled in the use of hand planes and it is very enjoyable to cut a long thin ribbon of hardwood with a hand plane. It's the art of flatness.
Bret
Reel,
Too bad you bought the LV #7. I started with an old Stanley #7 which took me three days to put in top shape. I used it for years. Then I got a LN #8. Best decision of my life (except for convincing my wife to marry me). Sell your jointer, save up for the LN and get the BIG ONE. It is surprisingly light and agile. I use it for smoothing small parts for boxes as well as jointing two boards at the same time.
I hope you have made yourself a few shooting boards. Those make your planes sing!!!!! start with a square board, and then make one for mitres and finally a donkey's ear. It changes your life. You will never again rely on a table saw for square.
Now, you will be needing
- LN adj mouth low angle block plane
- LN skew block plane (which rabbets on one side)
- LN Large router plane
- LN small shoulder plane
- LN beading tool
- LN dovetail and carcass saw
- Stanley #45
- Stanley #78 (not really necessary if you have a 45, but what the hay.
- Half set of Hollows and Rounds. Larry Williams puts out a great set. If you want to go cheap, then LV has some nice imports.
There are more, of course.
Have fun. YOu are on a roll.
Mel
I like your list of 'planes to get'.. However, I can live on one meal every few days but I do not think my old dog would put up with it. I have only a few planes, NOT good ones, but they do the job if I am careful AND keep them honed...
If I made my list of wanted planes, it would be a quality Plow Plane with outriger that would work left or right side and at least 1000 different profiles AND a shooting board that had a opening to take a matching profile to prevent any tear-out.
WG,
Glad you liked my list of planes. As usual, I wasn't serious. Just having fun. I could make a longer list. That is easy. Making a short list is difficult. Derek always focusses on Lee Valley planes. I focus on Lie Nielsen, just to add some "balance" to Knots. We don't want to be all leaning on same side of the boat. Of course, I find LV and LN to both be of excellent quality. I am also a believer that skill is far more important than the tools you use. That's why I keep bringing up the great furniture makers of past centuries who turned out better furniture than we do now, and all they had were old wood planes. As you know, I really enjoy woodworking. Like Boss Crunk, I also enjoy popping baloons that are filled with hot air. Unlike Boss Crunk, I try to do it in a fun way.
Enjoy,
Mel
Clark & Williams
Clark & Williams (http://www.planemaker.com/products.html) - one of each, please.
After I win the lottery, that is. ;-)
95% of all problems associated with hand plane use are related to sharpening technique or using the tool out of context for which it was designed. The #7 LV jointer should be an awesome tool if the iron is well honed and it is set up properly. You may want to seek out someone in your area that is well versed in the use of hand planes and get some hands on help. Getting this kind of help could really expedite your getting a lot more enjoyment from your hand planes. When getting hands on help you can learn things in a few minutes that would take quite a long time to sort out on your own.
Ron Brese
http://www.breseplane.com
Micheal,
Great post - easy and enjoyable to read.
Unless you are very tall, 42" is a very tall bench to be handplaning on. I'm about 5'-9" and work on a 36" tall bench which I find a little tall. 32" would be nice. Having a higher bench makes it harder to keep the plane down on the work to prevent chatter. It also makes you work a lot harder. I think you would be amazed at how much easier it is to plane on a lower bench. If you don't want to make a new bench or lower yours, consider building a platform you can stand on while planing.
I think that the streaking you are finding is from a nicked blade.
Just wanted to point out that the set screws on the Veritas are there to keep the blade centered, not to prevent chatter. I bring them to bear against the iron, then back one out half a turn. You should not need to touch them ever again.
Chris,
You're absolutely right, it's a PIA to plane at that height. But this is only temporary until I get the base done. So I'm forging ahead. I've tried blocks, but the blocks move under my feet. It's not easy, but there is a real sense of accomplishment to taking burned, rough, uneven stock and work it into something beautiful.
Once the base is completed, I'll have a stable work surface to help finish the bench.
The streaking was a nick on the leading sole of the #7. I must have nicked it on the concrete wall. I cleaned it up with some sandpaper.
Thanks for the clear-up on the set screws. Every little piece of information helps.
Michael
OK, you've got my interest now. All this romantic talk about hand planes is drawing me in. I'm a career woodworker coming from the production side of the craft but I am committed to learning hand techniques, sometimes by necessity.
I don't know what you have to do to properly tune your hand planes. I have an old (I think pre-WWII but don't know how to tell) Stanley #4 that I recently acquired and was in need of some TLC. This may be all wrong but I re-ground the cutting iron and when doing so I put a very very slight convex shape on it and then got it as sharp as I know how with a ceramic wet stone.
I used it today to clean up a slab of maple burl which won't fit through my planer. I am making stool seats. The little smoothing plane made short work of the 2' x 5' slab, cutting very thin, long ribbons from the surface of the burl with very little chip out of the grain. I wasn't getting ribbons the full 2" width of the iron due to the slight convex but I didn't get any ridges or gouges from the edge of the iron either.
I was really impressed with how the grain popped with the smooth cutting hand planed surface and feel the finish is superior to what I would have gotten with my finishing planer. With the help of winding sticks, I was able to get it quite flat as well. I also was using a Stanley #5 to help with the flattening and with the perfectly flat iron it was cutting wider ribbons but was much harder to push It might need a little more work on the wet stone.
My arms are a little sore but might be from the three hours of racquetball I played earlier this evening and not from using the planes.
Maple is not the most ideal species to plane as you have grain running everywhere. You're problems with #7 may stem from the low angle on a difficult wood. I would think a steeper angle might serve you better there. I definitely agree with Ron about sharpening and honing as it is critical. With that said I never strive for perfection with an angle or a honed edge with the theory once it's sharp... it's sharp.... put it to work.
You definitely need to have a rack free table.. and one low enough for comfort. Why don';t you use the blocks you mentioned and attach a ply platform on top of several in lieu of just trying to balance on a few blocks which is unstable?
I started with hand planes in 1972 as I didn't have much else. Today I mainly use machines but... on every project there is a a need for a block.. shoulder and occassionally a bench plane. I am currently working on a small crochet-lamp talbe so just for fun... I decided to use hand planes for the top just to see if I still have the knack.
Sure enough the top was flat in about 45 minutes. Can't say I can attribute that to the brand of my hand plane but... I can assure you the blades were sharp. I can also assure that I was planing with the grain as I glued them all up that way. This is QSWO for this top and it is now flat and ready.
I suppose I can atrribute it to past experience.. sharp blades on my #4.. #5.. #7 planing with the grain. I doubt anyone would give my trusty $29.. $39.. $89 respectively ANANT'S much credit but they performed admirably. I do have a $40 Hock blade ( I splurged) on the # 5 but the other two are stock blades. So again.. sharp and with the grain is critical IMO.. more so than the brand name and quality as quality is just not really there on my hand planes but they work fine when I concentrate on end results.. Quality hand planes are great but.. I take pride in getting er done with less. ha.. ha...
Good luck...
Regarding shooting boards, I agree that they should be an essential part of the shop. The right-angle board is used both to true the squareness of boards, and to trim pieces to precisely the same length. Both are essential for various types of projects, but most apparent for box making.
I constructed mine so the face (what you butt the work piece against) can be shimmed to form a perfect 90° A miter attachment to the primary jig does the same two functions for mitered pieces (true the angle and trim to precise length).
So it's basically an L shaped length of wood at 90 degrees?
When used to trim -- presumably endgrain? -- would you plane down to when you start taking a slice off the end of the shooting board-- that's how you know you're at the proper length?
If anyone has a link-- I'd like to investigate this further, as it sounds like something that can save me a lot of time.
Yes, it's used to trim the end grain. If you do a search on the main page, you'll find several articles with designs. The basic design is a flat, rectangular board with a cross-piece (the "fence") set at 90° at the end. The plane runs on its side, along one side in what amounts to a shallow, wide rabbet, perpendicular to the fence. Often, the rabbet is actually formed by face-laminating a thin board (1/4" or so) on top of the primary base, the top board being just thick enough to keep the corner of the plane iron below the surface.
When I'm doing something that requires corresponding pieces of exactly the same length, I'll usually "finish" cut 1/64" proud, and then do the real finish cuts on the shooting board.
Michael,
You got a GREAT attitude. You will have a lot of fun with woodworking. Just don't take things (except safety) too seriously. Everyone does things differently and THEY ARE ALL RIGHT! You just gotta find what works for you.
Glad you are interested in shooting boards. Do a search on "shooting boards" in FWW, and you will find a host of articles which you should scan (read quickly). You can find an infinity of articles on shooting boards on the Internet. Just search on Google. Go to Derek Cohen's website and read his article on shooting boards. Derek takes everything regarding tools to the N-th degree. He is a very nice and very capable "Galoot", and he admits it. Look that word up. David Charlesworth has a video on shooting boards wihch is good. Chris Schwartz has written about them (and everything else). Go to You-Tube and type in "shooting boards" and you can see them at work.
What does a shooting board do? The simplest shooting board most people make is for shooting small to medium sized pieces straight and making the sides square to each other. If you are making jewelry boxes, and you saw the four sides of the box on your table saw, then you put each on the shooting board, and use a suitable hand plane, and you will get the four edges of each board DEAD SQUARE TO EACH OTHER. It only takes a few seconds per side. NO JOKE. This is a sweet tool that you make yourself from MDF or plywood. Once you shoot (plane a square end on a board with a shooting board, you will be hooked. IT will be the last tool you would want to part with.
On a shooting board, you have a "track" that your plane runs along;. The plane is on its side as it moves. Hard to describe. Easy to understand once you see photos or video.
THen there are "boxes" with mitred corners. You can make a "Donkey's Ear" shooting board to get those 45 deg angles DEAD ACCURATE.
Then there are picture frame type pieces, which have a 45 deg cut. There is a third type of shooting board which shoots those DEAD ACCURATELY.
My suggestion is that you do some preliminary readyng, and then make a simple flat shooting board of the first type. You will learn a lot of lessons when you make the first one and try to use it. You can make it in an hour. After you learn some lessons, you will probably want to make a second based on the lessons that you learned, and it will only take you a half hour, if that. Later you can make one with a sloped board, and you can make the second two types of boards, and it will be easy because you will have a feel for it.
If you have any friends with a shooting board, use it before making yours. If you belong to a Woodworking Club, you can ceartainly fine one to try out.
If you get confused after reading lots of stuff, write me a message, and I will give you the specifics on the ones I made. I am not saying they are the "Best", just that they work for me. They are not my design. It would be near impossible to design a new type of shooting board. They have all been made thousands of times.
BUT THE FIRST THING TO DO, RIGHT NOW, is to make a bench hook for smoothing with your planes, and for flattening with your planes. Make a small one, a medium and a big one. A small one might just be a piece of 1/2 " plywood with a piece of wood (the hook) glued and screwed to the bottom of one end, and a low (1/4") fence glued and screwed to the far end (the top). You just put your piece to be planed on this thing, and hang the "hook" over the side of your work table, or in the vice of your bench, and put your piece of wood on the board with one of the board's ends next to the fence, and plane away.
Look up "Bench hook" on the FWW website search engine.
HAVE FUN. You don't need many planes. One will do most things for you. Two will suffice for years. The list I gave you was just for fun.
Write back anytime. I am glad to help others who are transfixed by hand tools. I am far from an expert, but I am very happy to pass on what I have learned.
Mel
I agree! I made a shooting board long ago.. Worked 'sort of'' then I made a copy of Derek Cohen's sloped shooting board. What a difference! I felt so stupid I was not smart enought the think of that on my own.
See:
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Setting%20Up%20and%20Using%20a%20Shooting%20Board4.html
Michael,
I forgot to mention it before, but you should let your legs do most of the work, not your arms. Put the front of the plane on the board and, holding it in place, walk forward letting the plane move along the surface. It' takes a lot less effort this way and produces more consistent results.
Jim
You don't need a huge bench to plane effectively but you do need a sturdy one. Traditional japanese woodworkers just took a hardwood beam and leaned it against the wall and used that as their bench. They would drive nails into the top surface of the beam to act as a stop. Just place the piece to be planed on top of the beam and slide it against the nails to hold it in place and plane downhill. This might be an easy temporary bench while you build your permanent one. Toshio Odate wrote a book about japanese woodworking that you can look at on amazon for free and on page 6 there is a picture of such a bench. I too know the frustrations of trying to plane on a rickety old bench and a solid stable surface makes a huge difference.
Updates--
Looked at a bunch of shooting board videos. It would appear if I use MDF, I'll need to glue a strip of wood along the guide end. It looks like the plane will slightly groove part of the edge of the shooting board, and from my reading on the subject, that is to be expected. This is all new to me, but I think it may help with trimming the length of the tenons. I did buy the edge guide when I purchased the LV #7-- speaking of which--
I finally made some progress with the #7:
Taking heed from what you guys wrote, I found a mistake in my honing guide calibration. 38mm past the edge of the guide actually translates to a 30 degree bevel, not a 35 degree bevel as I'd thought. So I shortened the length of the blade off the guide to 32mm which produced a steeper pitch. I re-oiled and tightened it up and it started performing better right away. Slower strokes reduced tearout. It was my best night yet with the LV #7.
If I had it to do over again, I would have stuck with all Lie-Nielsen Bailey style planes. The bevel down design has better balance in my hands (of course they would-- they cost more), and the fit and finish of the LN feels better to my inexperienced hands. Fingers crossed-- my #5 LN should arrive today-- replacing the uncomfortable and loose handled Buck Brothers model. Though I shouldn't complain-- the cheap jack plane has served me well so far.
The plan is to finish planing the legs, feet and top braces today, stretchers tomorrow, and begin cutting tenons and mortises this weekend to put this all together. Once I have a base built, I can put a make-shift top on the bench and have a surface that's stable enough to finish the project.
Reeltime1, Have been reading your posts, and am glad you are making progress. I have been trying to use the planes more often my self. Its nice to see the little tips, and tricks from the others here, mine aren’t the best but I am learning to make them work, like you I’ll just keep at it. Good Luck!. garyowen
Sounds as if you are on your way Reel. I had a gut feeling the angle was too low for maple on the #7 as it shouldn't react any different than the #5 or #4 using the steeper angle. Many go to a York pitch on a bevel down for what I call squirrelly grain. ha.. ha...
Good luck...
Reel , try the bandsaw for the tenons.
Tom
I learned to use a jackplane as a boy in 9th grade shop class. (1950) We started out squaring up a 3 by 5 by 3/4 sanding block with a hand saw , trysquare and jackplane. It took some of us weeks to get one that would pass the teacher's test but I thank that teacher every time I pick up a plane. I now have about 100 planes and use them all the time. Stay with it and practice, practice, practice. Tuning and sharpening are two things you must learn before you can be successful. I find the old Stanleys very satisfying to use an as you say, it's good exercise. Hang in there. Sounds like you are making good progress.
Been a little slower going the last week or two-- my job gets busy for me around this time of year. I though you all might like to read an update on my bench project.
I got all of my boards smoothed and straight-- and realized when I held a square up to the corners, I've got more planing to do. Not too bad, but the square doesn't lie.
Fortunately, my LN #5 arrived last week to help with the process. And it is a marvelous plane. It obviously does well with deep cuts, but it also is capable of very fine shavings. And the handle doesn't rattle.. and the sole doesn't have a flange that cuts off circulation to my fingers... A marked improvement over the Buck Brothers model.
I drilled out two mortises-- I posted in Joinery, too, and suffered blowout on the bottom of the pedistal. My once-smooth bottom now chipped. Drat. But it is on the bottom so I'm not driving myself crazy over it. I'm working on a way to chisel the holes square without the nasty blowout in the future.
Comedy time (or time to weep, depending on your perspective).. As I'm chiseling out the mortise-- my new #5 got rattled off the old rickety bench-- crashing to the floor. I dinged the corner. It adds character, right?
I've decided to wedge the tenons and drawbore pin them. I'm hoping this will make for nice tight joints. I found walnut dowels that should stand out nicely against the maple. I really like the look.
Every day is presenting a new set of problems, but it's been fun to find solutions as well.
I'm definitely a slow bench builder at this point, but it suits my temperment.
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