Hello,
I would like to know how people who mainly use hand tools prepare they stock.
Last month I got some oak that is about 35 mm thick and it has to be 20 mm thick at the finished stage. So there is around 15 mm of wood to be removed (more than 1/2 of inch).
It is a ton of material to be removed so my strategy would be:
Stanley 78 converted as scrub plane (Paul Sellers style)
Foreplane Stanley #5 with cambered iron (again to be able to remove a lot of material quickly)
Tryplane Stanley #7 to flatten the boards
Smoothing plane Stanley #4 or #4 1/2 to finish
I do not have access to any machines for now and I know this would be job for the thicknesser.
However I need to find solution to work with hand planes only for a few boards I need to prepare.
Thanks.
Replies
There is the question of how it was sawn and dried. If quartersawn and air dried you're probably good. If it's flatsawn and kiln dried perhaps not. The beauty of a planer is that stock is removed from both sides as you flip the board between passes. This removes case hardening (if present) evenly from both faces as the board gets slim. This is not the usual practice with handplanes, but neither is removing 1/2" of oak as a lead in to a project.
In theory, best practice would be to take 1/4" off each face as a starting point, let the board re-acclimate, then flatten a face and bring the other parallel... but that's a LOT of oak.
If you can spare a foot of that board you could find a bandsaw and take the 1/2" off one face in a blink to see what it does. (one thing it will do is leave you with a 1/2" thick board instead of a pile of shavings)
I would not put in that time and effort without testing it first. The best part of the board to test is in the middle, not one end or the other... if your cutting list will allow it. There was a blog recently about testing a board for movement but I cannot find it or recall the author... anyone remember?
MJ
Were you thinking about the Mar 15 2024 article by Amanda Russell entitled “Predicting wood movement before resawing”?
Thanks! that's the one... a blog post:
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2024/03/15/predicting-wood-movement-before-resawing
Sounds good except a 78 is not a good choice due to the narrow width and ergonomics. I wouldn't want to scrub a 60" long board that way!!
I suggest you buy a cheap plane and converted to a scrub plane.
+1 for rwe2156. I had a need a few years ago to hog off a lot of material from a board I couldn't work on my jointer and planer. I found an old "transitional" Stanley plane that wasn't in bad shape, with a clean iron. I ground an 8" radius camber on the iron and went to work across the grain with it. Worked like a charm. Now I wasn't working oak in fairness. I think I paid about $10 for the plane at a flea market.
You didn't say how long the boards were but if you've got a sharp rip saw I would go this way. I've done it a few times just for practice and it's also very good exercise. I wouldn't worry about how smooth a finish you get as you will still have to it plane it to final thickness. Take a little off each side.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/project-guides/hand-tools/handwork-resawing-by-hand-pavlak
If you’re doing it all with hand tools, have you considered making a kerfing plane and resawing with a rip saw? Never used one myself but maybe others in the forum can share their experience.
Perhaps foolishly, acquiring the notion that I should at least try to resaw and dress large thick planks by hand, I bought a plough plane that also takes a kerfing sawblade, a large western style rip saw and a very large Japanese ryobi. I already had many hand planes.
After wasting a lot of time, effort and wood I did manage to get to the skill level that allows a thick plank to become two thinner ones that also are flat, square and evenly thick.
This small success was where I abandoned the notion since the process still took forever, it was very boring and I was unlikely, as an amateur woodworker getting on a bit, to ever get fast enough at it before I died of exhaustion with no furniture made. :-)
And of course, the real reason for giving up the hand prep was my knowledge that a planer-thicknesser of 3hp
and a tablesaw of similar power, sitting there in the shed all the time, could do it in a matter of minutes rather than days.
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Some practices become, if not redundant, unnecessary. Prepping tree trunks into planks for furniture with hand tools may be fine as a full-time lifestyle choice thing but if your prime motive is making furniture, there's a lot to be said for avoiding long hours of very tedious prep-work.
You can still have the pleasure of acquiring many hand tool skills and resultant effects on the furniture without spending several days pushing a plane or resawing a plank not-too-well.
But each to his own.
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An alternative for getting thick tough planks to size and ready-for-furniture size is to use an adz.
We have several pieces of oak furniture made by one of the apprentices of The Mouse Man (Robert Thompson) of Thirsk. The apprentice was Albert Jeffries, who had a workshop in Thirk too, where everyone used the old-fashioned stock prep methods, including the adz, to thickness planks.
The resultant furniture parts, even smaller parts, are remarkably accurate in their dimensions but leave every surface composed of multiple very shallow scoops. It's a very attractive surface, both to look at and to feel.
One could go to Albert Jeffries workshop and stand on a gallery above to watch the blokes swinging the large shallow adz between their legs as they stood on or over a part. Apparently it took many hours to perfect the technique so that the swings could be accurate enough to produce the evenly thicknessed and fully-dimensioned planks.
Some good advice here…
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2012/07/26/how-to-surface-a-large-slab
Obviously, this is physically demanding. The author’s comments regarding work height are helpful.
For 8 or so years, I didn’t have a bandsaw or thicknesses. It was quite a lot of work. If you are watching Paul Sellers, then they is how I would suggest doing it. When I lacked the machines, I would often have my local lumber yard for like $50 do the thickness it for me. Other times, I kept think thicker than desired because it was too much work. For me, the bandsaw and a thicknesses with appropriate dust collection was a welcomed relief. Also, to this day, I start with S3S from the local lumber yard. I can do it all by hand but it takes a lot of time and as a hobby my time is limited and I’d rather work on the fun stuff rather than the donkey work if possible.
wooden jack plane, wooden try plane, smoother.
Taking 15 mm off of hardwood is not typically what you'd do working by hand. you may get stuck at various points resawing to bookmatch or use 8/4 timber, but having to get 15mm of thickness off isn't even fast with a lunchbox planer.
To do the work, though, would depend on the wood. if it is narrow enough to be resawn, it's right around the amount to be removed that is becoming faster to remove by resawing with a frame saw.
Not much changes if you're working by hand, though - the first two planes being wooden and using the chipbreaker when needed will leave metal planes far behind in terms of productivity. the smoother after a try plane is a very brief bit of planing - try plane surfaces are better than machine planed surfaces, so smoothing is sort of a blink, and a metal plane with an adjuster is nice to have given that.
Using a metal five and a metal jointer in place of the wooden planes for the first two steps will wear you out, though.
I would personally resaw that thickness with a Japanese saw (assuming no power tools or limited budget) without hesitation. Maybe a 3/8”to 1/4” board which leaves you with 1/8” to 1/4” less the width of the kerf to plane. Take your time and it’s not too tedious and can be accurate. Keep checking the kerf as you cut to make sure it remains straight. Be prepared with some wedges to prevent blade pinching.
Having the lumber mill do it is a good idea also.
"I would like to know how people who mainly use hand tools prepare they stock.
Last month I got some oak that is about 35 mm thick and it has to be 20 mm thick at the finished stage. So there is around 15 mm of wood to be removed (more than 1/2 of inch)."
Firstly, you have not stated how long or wide is this board.
Whether a little or a lot, I would saw away the waste. It a little, use a hand saw. Frankly, I suspect that it is not a small amount, and you would be better off (unless a complete masochist like David, above ... teasing, David) ) to beg, borrow or steal a bandsaw.
Regards from Perth
Derek