As I was planing several large cherry panels this weekend it occurred to me how rarely folks talk about the smaller, yet very important, aspects of planing. For example, I am always amazed how different even superficially similar pieces of wood can be to plane. I had glued up panels from 5/4 stock that I had obtained from a variety of sources over many years time. As such, individual pieces had strikingly different planing characteristics — likely owing to different drying methods and practices, different ages, slight differences in subspecies or growing climates, figures, etc.
A blade setting that had my <!—-><!—-><!—->Stanley <!—-><!—-> 4 ½ singing on one panel or board was too rank or too fine on the next. Slight adjustments of the blade depth and lateral controls were routinely required as were different angles of attack, different pressures, different motions, different skews.
I remember way back as a beginning planer, coming away from articles on planing that seemed to suggest that if you tuned the plane well, you could sort of set it and forget it. So for what it’s worth, I thought I’d mention to those starting out with handplanes: don’t blame your plane or yourself if your success varies from board to board; flexibility is required and adjustments (even to other alternative planes- try that 4 with the high angle frog – or <gasp> scrapers – love my 80 on those sworls) are to be expected.
As I planed those panels, I was reminded how much engagement in terms of constant attention and attunement to feedback from the wood is involved in even planing tasks that, in the abstract, can seem rote. It’s one of the things I love about working with hand tools.
Edited 11/26/2007 3:10 pm ET by Samson
Replies
it's not uncommon to see those same variations in charactor popping up along the length of the same board... Figured elm is beautiful when it's finished, but getting it there by hand involves a fair bit of massochism tempered with a fair bit of "thran"...
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
it's not uncommon to see those same variations in charactor popping up along the length of the same board...
Oh yeah, I got some of that too with one particularly curly/quilted board that seemed to have a grain reversal every inch or so in any direction. And there were several boards with grain reversals on either side of cathedrals and the like. par for the course.
But, just to be clear, the 'character" I was getting at was also more than just figure: some boards feel more elastic/supple - others drier/more brittle - others denser - others can have a sort of case hardening from age (not actual case hardening, mind you, just an aged aspect to the surface that various frmt he inner wood), etc. And that stuff can happen on one board too, but my experience with cherry at least, is that single board variations are mostly figure related.
Thanks for the response, by the way. And you too, Napie.
Samson,
I have planed little compared to some of you lads, who have been at it for years. However, it seems like a lot of shoving the instrument to me, over the last 12 months or so! I am still playing (that is, trying different techniques and settings) to improve experience and therefore understanding. One major lesson so far seems to be this:
Heavy planes and high cutting angles (circa 60 degrees) allow just about any type of difficult surface grain to be planed with little or no tear out.
There are two bijou problemettes in using a 60 degree cutting angle: the plane is harder to push and the depth of cut cannot be thick. So I do use a lower angle when planing well-behaved planks. But a very heavy plane, although harder to start and move initially, keeps on trucking; and this seems to help the high resistance of that steep blade angle. Most of one's push is "along" with the plane itself providing the "down push".
Mind, my style of WW means that many of those difficult surfaces, such as the glued-up panels of varying grain that you mention, tend to begin fairly flat and even to begin with. If the parts making the glue-up are each carefully made and matched, there is no big ledge or bump to plane out of the resulting panel.
Of course, I am a sinner and use a planer/thicknesser and other machines to make the basic planks - no scrub-planing for moi! Also I go beyond the pale and employ biscuits to help align the glue-ups of large surfaces like tabletops. No one has tried to burn me on a bonty for it yet but I keeps an extinguisher close by.
Since I am therefore doing essentially smoothing with my planes, with maybe a little bit of flattening, it is not onerous to use a high angle jointer, try plane or smoother taking thin cuts at a high cutting angle.
This approach means that, although I do take note of and adapt to grain direction and nastiness to some degree, there is little need to alter the plane setting or be ultra careful about the direction of cut. I get no tear out of note - nothing that an minimal handsand (not even a scrape is required) will not remove after a few rubs. Usually there is no tear out at all, even with buggeroo wood from the awkward tree.
Using a lighter plane and/or a blade with a standard (or even York) pitch makes the achievement of a tearout-free surface a lot harder, with some seemingly unavoidable tears and much greater sensitivity to the direction of planing.
In other words, using that 60 degree cutting angle in a heavy plane (with close-shut mouth too) seems to make an enormous difference when planing awkward surfaces. You just have to get rather more sweaty in the process (perhaps go down the gym a bit to improve them deltoids and triceps). :-)
It seems an easy fix and I often wonder why such high angles are not more used in this day and age. I confess I find scraping and sanding tedious.
Lataxe
Lataxe,
The answer to your problems with hand planes is to get a large thickness sander. You can get a large thickness planer for less than you have paid for some of your planes.
Even better, hire an apprentice and let her do it. You should model yourself more after Richard Jones. You do the design, then supervise a fine crew. It will let you achieve your full potential.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Birch is another one that I've had a time with planing.
Birch eh..?? I canna say I've had any experience with it other than in sheet form... they seldom grow large enough to use as lumber here...
Sycamore can be another one to catch the unwairy without being too harsh if you get it wrong...Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
I agree, even with my L-N 4 ½ with the York pitch frog, there are constant minor adjustments that add to the “risk” of using hand tools. I find it far more fulfilling that feeding stock to the thickness planner. Not that I mind the planer when looking at a hundred BF of stock to rough down!
Sampson,
Interesting post.
I have found that people are much the same as your boards -
can't treat em all alike.
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
I think some of that may just be the species you were working with. I find cherry, fickle.
The rest of it, I agree 100%. While I don't like the way it sounds, there's a certain level of intimacy with the materials (not just the wood, but the steel blades also) that one is forced into with hand tools. They way that tree twisted to find light, the hill it grew on, the crappy job the sawyer did with an otherwise good tree. The thoughtless lumber yard guy who dried the wood too fast or too hot and caused that case hardening.
I tend not to make changes to my planes, but I think I change the way I use it and I certainly do switch to more favorable planes.
Adam
I find I cannot listen to the radio when I work because of exactly what you're talking about. Maybe with more experience, I'll be able to work on auto-pilot. But for now, even the simplest tasks require my full concentration.
I agree chery can be fickle, but I find similar fickleness in walnut and even hard maple at times. In fact, I find even poplar and pine can have their moments. Do you find a particular species to be particularly predictable and consistent?
By the way, while I've been trying to teach myself planing for over a decade as a determined hobbiest, I claim no mantle of expertise and am always willing to hear what works for others. To that end, a couple of (no doubt obvious) potential things to try for quilted grains or other tough figures I've gleaned the hard way:
- set you plane to take very light shavings and be patient.
- a scribble of bee's wax on the sole can help things along significantly
- adjust the frog to close the mouth (goes along with the light cuts)
-skewing -which works a treat in other situtations - is usually an invitation to tear out in figured areas as it effectively lowers the blade angle in a situation where higher is better
Everyone, please add to the list!
Edited 11/27/2007 10:23 pm ET by Samson
Sounds to me like you've spent your time well and learned a lot!I've tried changing down force. Sometimes less helps. I also work in silence. I find I can hear a grrr sound of reversing grain before I feel it in my hands.Yes, I find cherry, or the local black cherry where I live to be generally curly and be trickier to plane. Pine or weaker woods can give you fits. And I find S4S from home centers not always easy to work with in any species. The drying in combination with the planing seems to create problems I don't encounter frequently with rough lumber or air dried lumber from a proper lumber yard.Adam
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