My Planes are Finished; Well, Almost!

Today was the sixth and final day of the wooden bodied planemaking class with Scott Meek.  The class, held in Scott's basement workshop in Asheville, North Carolina, was a great learning device, not to mention a lot of fun!

Today we sharpened and honed one blade so we would know how to do it.  I already have learned to sharpen freehand on diamond plates so for me, this served more to get one blade prepared for a trial run with the new planes.

Here is the blade I honed, using a solution of Hone Rite on DMT's Diasharp diamond plates

Then we opened up the mouths of our plane bodies just so the blade would protrude through the base with enough room to spare for the desired shaving to pass through.

We spent additional time refining the shape of our plane bodies to fit our aesthetic objectives and also to fit out individual hands, given the differing ways we hold our planes.  They are our unique creations.  We didn't finish this part of the work and will further refine the fit and then the finish at home.

My 22 inch jointer plane, showing it rough shape; I'll refine it further after I put it to use

Finally, we put our planes to the acid test--taking shavings with each of them on the famous 2X6 Scott has taken to woodworking shows for years and that is now closer to a 2X2.  What a great thrill it is so see a wonderful full width shaving curl off the board and feel the mirror-like finish it leaves behind.

My Osage orange smoother, white oak jointer and teak jack planes

In addition to what I learned about planemaking, I got to use a Benchcrafted leg vise and plan to get and install one of these in my own woodshop.

Starting to Look Like Planes

In yesterday's class, we made the cross pins, against which the wedges will secure the blade in place, and cut the cheeks off the sides of the plane blocks; until now they had been whole blocks.  Then we cut the center block into two with the correct slopes to bed the plane blade at the desired angle.  My smoother is being crafted from Osage orange, a very hard and beautiful yellow wood.  Domestic varieties are also known as hedge apple and by other names.

I then marked the location for the crosspin, drilled holes through the body to accept it, and glued the cheeks back onto the center blocks.

The Osage orange smoother in clamps after the cheeks were re-glued to the center blocks

The clamps came off after a few hours.  I centered the crosspin between the checks, trimmed off the crosspins where they stood proud, and laid out the profile for the plane on one side.  Then it was off to the bandsaw to create the rough outline shown below.

After the clamps came off, the boxy plane body was sawn to rough shape

Next steps are to refine the body shape, hone the blade and fit the blade and the wedge to the plane body.

Norm

Day 2--Scott Meek Plane Class

We made great progress in constructing our planes today. Those blanks, like the Osage orange shown, that were glued with epoxy, came out of the clamps this morning.  We jointed the bottom and one reference edge, then planed the blanks to rough width.

Osage orange plane blank with applied sole in Ipe glued on

The Osage orange blank viewed from the end on; doesn't look like much does it?

 Then we cut the cheeks from the edges, leaving behind a center block to be further cut to accommodate a blade. 

The center sections of two planes marked and partially bandsawn, awaiting further work

We marked up the center blocks for a plane blade bed angle of 45 degrees, except for my Osage orange smoother, which will have a 50 degree bed angle.  We also marked the reverse slope, the shape of which is less critical, needing mainly enough room to get the fingers into the opening to remove stubborn shavings.  These cuts were made freehand (following a line) on the bandsaw.  The bedding angle cut was made on the table saw.

The forward slope was sanded on a belt sander, the bedding slope on a strip of sandpaper attached to a slab of marble.  We filed slight 90 degree bevels on the bottom of the bedding slope.

We measured and made crosspins (not shown) and rounded their tops.

Tomorrow we will drill the locations for the crosspins, install dowels in the front and back corners and glue the cheeks back onto the center blocks.  After allowing time for the glue to set up, we will begin the process of shaping the blanks into something more closely resembling the planes we will take home with us.

Norm

Making Wooden Planes

I'm in Asheville, North Carolina, this week, learning to make wooden planes from Scott Meek.  Yesterday was our first day, and it was a busy one,

Our first job was to choose the woods we wanted and to assemble the blanks. I'll be making three planes, a smoother from Osage orange with an applied sole of Ipe and a wedge and retaining rod of the same wood; a 12 inch jack plane from a nice block of teak and a 22 inch jointer of quartersawn white oak that will have an insert just in front of the blade to help with wear at this critical spot.  The jack and jointer will have wedges and retaining rods from bubinga.

Assembling the wood blanks

 One thing I learned is you don't have to have a 4X4 inch blank to make a plane body.  You can glue up two 2X4 inch boards to get the size needed for a jack or jointer.  Here is my jointer in clamps.  We used Titebond 3 glue for the oak, but an epoxy glue for the woods like teak, bubinga and Osage orange that have more natural oils and would resist normal glue.

Gluing up two white oak boards; squeeze-out is good!

The white oak boards clamped up

Teak blank for jack plane

After selecting our wood, we jointed a smooth edge for the bottom and also one side.  When glue-ups were called for we did those, rough cut our wedges to shape (we'll rasp and sand them later) and cut off the cheese so we can get to the interior.

More to come!

Norm

Handplanes Book Now Available in Europe

My recently-released book on handplanes--Choosing and Using Handplanes: All You Need to Know to Start Planing By Hand--is now available from Amazon in Europe.  It will be priced there in Euros or British pounds.

Front and back cover

If you are looking for information about handplanes and how to get started using them, this book is written for you.  I hope you will find it useful.

Norm

Preparing to Make Wooden Planes

Over the last few years, I've acquired a few wooden handplanes.  Several of them are older planes that I've not yet restored to working condition and they are basically sitting on the shelf for display.  But I also purchased a pair of planes--a smoothing plane and a 16" jack plane--from Scott Meek and I'm finding them really lovely to use.

Scott Meek jointer (rear) and smoothing planes

Scott offers plane-building classes in his Asheville, NC, workshop and in a few weeks I am scheduled for a week-long class to build three planes:

• A smoothing plane
• A jack plane
• A jointer plane

To get ready for the class, I've been reading and watching DVDs.  There are some good resources available.  In case you are interested in learning about making wooden planes, here's what I've found so far:

•  David Finck's Making & Mastering Wood Planes -- an excellent resource on making a Krenov-style smoothing plane; he also has a DVD set on making and using wooden planes
• John Whelan's Making Traditional Wooden Planes -- a brief description of how you can make not only a smoothing plane but also many other specialized types of planes
• David Perch and Robert Lee's Wooden Planes and How to Make Them -- similar to Whelan's book in that it covers many types of planes, but not the same ones as Whelan
• Scott Meek has a DVD set that shows his method for making Krenov-style planes

The books are mostly available from Amazon.com or Highland Woodworking.  Perch and Lee is sold by Lee Valley.  The Meek DVDs are available from Popular Woodworking.

Handplanes Book Now Sold at Highland Woodworking

I'm pleased to report that my recently-released book, Choosing and Using Handplanes: All You Need to Know to Get Started Planing by Hand, is now being sold by Highland Woodworking.  They are a fine family-owned and operated company that sells a wide array of tools and other resources for woodworkers at their Atlanta store and via the web.

If you are interested in purchasing the book from Highland Woodworking, here's the link.

If you do purchase the book, I hope you find it helpful and enjoyable.

Norm

New Book on Handplanes Released

My new book, Choosing and Using Handplanes, has just been released.  Intended for the beginning and newer handplane user, its 90 pages include nearly 100 color illustrations.  In this book, you will learn:

• The types of handplanes, names and functions
• The first planes you should get
• How to set up and adjust your planes
• How to sharpen your plane blades
• The kinds of sharpening stones
• The different bevels you’ll want on your blades
• How to hold your work for planing
• The body positions that work best
• How to determine the direction to plane boards
• How to plane cupped, bowed, and twisted boards
• How to plane end grain
• How to buy and restore old planes
• How to store and care for your planes
• Sources of new and used handplanes
• How to solve handplane problems

Choosing and Using Handplanes is now available from Amazon and CreateSpace.

If you are hankering to learn how to use handplanes, I think you'll find this a useful guide.

Norm

My Book on Handplanes

For the last several months, I've been writing and photographing a book on using handplanes in woodworking.  Titled Choosing and Using Handplanes, it describes the various types of handplanes, how to set them up and sharpen them, ways to hold work for planing and planing technique itself.  It also addresses caring for handplanes, buying and restoring old handplanes and how to diagnose and fix various problems encountered in planing.  The book should be completed in November in a paperback edition that will be sold on Amazon.com as well as on my web site and in a Kindle edition to follow soon after that.

A photo of the book's cover is shown here.  If you are new to handplaning, I think you will find this book a helpful resource for getting started.

Publishing the Handplanes Book

I continue to progress toward completion of my book, Choosing and Using Handplanes.  It has 74 pages now and will probably reach 80 by the time it is finished.  I still have a few photos to make and some appliances to construct.  I hope to have this all completed by mid-August.

That means it's time to start thinking about how I'll get the book published.  I could go for a traditional publisher, but I'm inclined to think that the self-publishing route would be better.  It think that offers the possibility of a lower price and wider distribution.

I do know that I'll be publishing it in full color, both the cover and inside.  That's important particularly for the photographs, which are important for conveying the information I want to share.

At the moment, I'm taking a hard look at publishing through CreateSpace, which will make the book available for purchase via Amazon.  I'll probably also produce a version for Kindle so it can be read on tablets.  That's what I did for my mystery novel, The Hero of Gucci Gulch, and it worked well.

I'll keep you posted on my progress and let you know when it is available.

For now, my offer stands to send a free copy (via email) to anyone who wants to review it.  Just write me at cobblermtnpress@gmail.com and I'll send the latest version by return email.  If you send me helpful comments, I'll also reference you in the acknowledgements!

Norm

An Update on the Handplanes Book

Since my last post, I've made considerable progress toward completing my book, Choosing and Using Handplanes.  The text is completely written, all of the figures are complete and most of some 80+ photos are inserted in their proper places.  I still need to complete the appendices on shooting board construction and build and document a few other appliances.

I have the book out for review with a few people who are knowledgeable about handplanes.  But, I would love to have additional readers.  If you would like to be one of them, send me your email address to cobblermtnpress@gmail.com and I'll send you a pdf version of the book in its present draft form.  Bear in mind, however, that it is about 3 mb in size.

I hope to have the book completely finished in a few weeks.  I am starting to look for a possible publisher.

Norm

Choosing and Using Handplanes

For a number of years now I've taught classes on handplanes at two northern Virginia Woodcraft stores.  My classes--Handplane Basics and Restoring Old Handplanes--are both fun to teach and educational, not only for my students but also for me.  I've learned a lot about handplanes since I started.  My beginning was a class at the Marc Adams School with Chris Schwarz and Tom Lie-Nielsen.  Following that, I studied a number of books on handplanes and became a user in my own shop.  But as much as anything, I've learned a lot from the questions posed by my students and my sometimes fumbling attempts to answer those I'd not anticipated.

As a result of this experience I've come to believe I have a good feel for what beginning handplane users want and need to know.  And while there are many good resources available, none of them seem quite right to meet the needs of my students.  So, I've decided to write a book of my own.

For now, the working title is Choosing and Using Handplanes.  The book will explain the types of planes and their uses in the woodshop, techniques for planing, setting and adjusting planes, sharpening and honing blades, buying and restoring old handplanes, and jigs and fixtures to use with handplanes, including holding devices and shooting boards.  It will also have a list of resources.  It  will make extensive use of photos, drawings and explanatory sidebars.

My plan is to publish it as an eBook through Amazon's Kindle.  I'm hoping to have it finished sometime this summer.  Already I have a first draft written, figures drafted and photos planned.  Most of the sidebars are completed.  What remains is to fill in the gaps and edit the text.   I will also need to build the jigs and fixtures I want to illustrate.  There's plenty of work to do yet, but I'm very excited about the project and find myself making progress on it every day.  Look here for information about my progress.

Norm

A Sharpening Station, At Last!

Many of my tools will benefit from regular sharpening.  This includes handplane blades, bench chisels, carving chisels and woodturning tools, all of which I use often.  It's well known among woodworkers that sharp tools are necessary to achieve the best work, while dull tools are inefficient at best and dangerous at worst.  My problem was that I had no regular place to sharpen my tools.  Instead, every time I wanted to sharpen my plane blades or chisels, I had to get out my stones and set them up on my workbench, then move them out of the way when I was finished with them.  My woodturning tools are sharpened on a heavy slow-speed grinder that was inconvenient to lift from under my workbench every time I wanted to do some turning.  I use a Koch sharpening system and Shapton stones for my carving chisels and, once again, it was stored in an inconvenient location.

The eventual outcome of all this inconvenient, of course, is that the job of honing gets put off until no small amount of resharpening will suffice to restore the tools to peak condition.  And it means that tools get used when they are dull, poor practice indeed, but one I'll admit to practicing.

Gluing up the drawer

The solution is a dedicated sharpening station, something I've yearned for over the years and even planned but never built.  Fortunately, my good friend and business partner Jeff Fleisher came up with some surplus property that provided a solution.  First was a slightly damaged cabinet with a wide drawer opening and double doors leading to a moveable shelf inside.  Then, a local restaurant was renovating and he snagged some thick Formica table tops for each of us.

With these two pieces in hand, my job became simple.  I attached rotating wheels, pin nailed the table top to the case and built a drawer to fit the opening just under the new tabletop.  Then I added drawer pulls and finished it all with a coat of shellac.

My sharpening tools

Even before the drawer was completed, however, I put the station in operation.  The tabletop measures 48 X 30 inches and is large enough for all my sharpening equipment--a Tormek T-7 water-cooled grinder, a Koch sharpening system for my carving chisels, a low-speed grinder and a tray with my Shapton stones at the ready.  My strop is hanging on one side.  Tormek accessories and other small tools are in the large drawer.  Water jugs (I have no water in the shop) and other large items are accessible through the double doors.  Being on wheels, the whole sharpening station can be easily rolled near the workbench when wanted there and then rolled back out of the way when the floor space is needed for assembly and the like.

The finished sharpening station

I feel certain that this improvement to my shop will greatly enhance the speed and quality of my woodworking.  If you don't have a sharpening station, consider building one similar to this.  If you can get hold of a surplus cabinet or tabletop, so much the better!

Norm

A New Name, A New Design

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll notice that I've renamed it and applied a new design.  Since I've come to call my basement shop the Cobbler Mountain Woodshop, it seemed right that this blog should bear the same name.  And, in view of the fact that I'm no longer a novice woodworker, a changing subtitle and design were in order as well.

Why Cobbler Mountain Woodshop?  Simply, because my home is situated at the foot of Little Cobbler Mountain in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, with Big Cobbler Mountain lying just behind it.  It's a lovely location, the mountain visible out the kitchen window on all but the foggiest of days.

The address for this blog is still the same as it was, normssawdustpile.blogspot.com.  Only the title has changed, though a search on Cobbler Mountain Woodshop will find it as well.

The photo beneath the title and the design are new as well.  I chose the photo--of my no. 4 Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane working a natural edge walnut coffee table--to reflect my growing use of hand tools.  It also represents the fact that I've been teaching hand plane use and restoration at northern Virginia Woodcraft stores for the last several years.

As I see it, these changes represent more than a design upgrade.  Instead, they reflect my evolution from a complete novice--which I was when this blog began--to a maturing woodworker with a number of increasingly complex projects under my belt.

I look forward to describing my woodworking adventures here and hope you'll join me for future installments.

Norm

Writing for Wood News Online

For over a year and a half now, I've been writing articles and, mostly, book reviews for Highland Woodworking's Wood News Online.  This has been a lot of fun for me, since it combines my twin loves of woodworking and writing.  But it has come at a price--I have not had the time to be a faithful contributor to this blog as a result.   I'll try to make up for that in the future.

In the meantime, it might be of interest to know some of the postings I've made to Wood News Online.  My first article  appeared in May 2012 and was called "Hand Planes: Unlocking the Mystery"; it was a review of techniques for using hand planes in woodworking.  This article draws on my experience in teaching handplane techniques at my local Woodcraft store.

This was followed by a series of book reviews.  You can find an index to the issues of Wood News Online at http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/wood-news-woodworking-magazine.aspx, which has links to all my book and DVD reviews.

In May 2013 I also published "Seven Steps to Peak Handplane Performance," which discusses setting and adjusting a handplane to get the best results from it.  This article also draws on my experience teaching restoring old handplanes at my local Woodcraft store.

Since the first article, I've published a review a month, sometimes about DVDs, but mostly about books.  A couple of reviews have dealt with woodturning but mostly they have been about woodworking techniques, with emphasis on hand tools.  Next month's review, which should be released the first week in January, will be about Marc Spagnuolo's new book Hybrid Woodworking.

I've really enjoyed doing this.  It's a good way to keep my woodworking reading regular.  I learn new techniques and skills through my reading.  And it gives me a chance to express myself in writing.  What could be better?

A Home for My Handplanes

Over the years, I've built up a fair-sized collection of handplanes.  I've got a block plane, nos. 3, 4, 4-1/2, 5-1/4, 6, 7-1/2, a chisel plane, a shoulder plane, a bevel-up smoother, a low-angle jack plane, a scrub plane, a router plane, an edge plane, and a skew rabbet plane, not to mention a couple of fix-up candidates.  Of course, since I teach using handplanes at Woodcraft, I can justify having them since I need to demonstrate them and let my students try them out.  And, I really enjoy using them in my various woodworking projects.

My handplane cabinet

But storing them has always been a bit of a problem.  For the last several years, I've kept them in plane socks and stored them in a cardboard box.  But the downsides of this are the inconvenience of pulling them out to use them and the weight of the box when carrying it to class.  Frankly, I began to fear the bottom of the box would tear out, putting my valuable collection at significant risk of damage.

That's when I decided I needed a better home for my planes, one where I could grab them easily when needed in my work.  And, frankly, where I could see and enjoy them.  So I decided to build myself a cabinet to house my collection.

The shelf you see in the photo is the result.  I built it out of poplar that I jointed and planed by machine.  I cut through dovetails for the corner joints and joined the shelves to the sides with sliding dovetail joints.  I added small slips of wood to the shelves to lift the plane blades off the shelves.  I finished the shelf with Watco dark walnut Danish oil and coated that with two coats of shellac.  I rabbeted the back (by hand, of course) to house a 1/4 inch plywood back.  The cabinet is hung with a French cleat screwed into the concrete blocks of my basement woodshop wall.

I'm happy with the result.  And, I'm glad to have the project finished.  It stayed on my workbench for far too long.  Now that my bench is clear, I have room to move on to other projects.  And, I've gotten my planes out of that box and out where I can see and use them.

Norm

Face-Planing Stop

I saw in Jim Tolpin's new book, The New Traditional Woodworker, p. 26, a picture of a face-planing stop I liked.  It featured a thin board about 4-5 inches wide and perhaps 1/4 inch thick with a hook attached to one end.  The hook he showed was held in a vise.  So I decided to make one.

I used a scrap piece of thin walnut I had laying around and screwed a piece of poplar to one end.  I made it long enough to reach two bench dogs for stability.  I can hang it over the end of the bench and hold it in place with a couple of bench dogs, as shown here, a bench hook, or hold it in a vise.  In any case, it offers good stability as a face- planing stop.  The thin profile lets me plane thin pieces.  Since it can be positioned anywhere on my bench (that is, if I ever cleaned it off!), it will accommodate boards of any length,

This only took a few minutes to build and already I have used it a number of times.  If you use hand planes, and I hope you do, this is a simple appliance that will pay dividends.

Norm

Building a New Workbench Top

The final glue-up.

After using a good, hard maple workbench at Jeff Headley's workshop, it became clear to me that I needed to upgrade my own workbench before I would be able to do the chiseling and planing I'd need to do to complete the Winchester style Chippendale desk I started in Jeff's class.  So I bought a copy of Chris Schwarz' book on workbenches and read it through, then decided that rather than building an entirely new bench, I could do quite well by building a new top and installing it on my current base, which is made of 2X4s laminated into 4X4s. 

Ready to plane.

I began by buying and acclimating 8-foot 8/4 hard maple boards.  With the help of a friend, I jointed and planed these, then ripped them to 3-inch widths.  This is the only time I have had trouble with my SawStop contractor's saw.  It ripped the first half dozen boards smoothly, but after that point it began to stall until it refused to cut at all.  I later discovered that the motor was overheating from the hard cutting.  It finished the job the next day with no hitches. 

After cutting the boards, I stood them on edge and glued them up in sets of three, then glued up those sets until I had a nearly complete bench top.  My plan was to attach a six-inch apron to the front of the bench.  Before doing that, I installed a Veritas twin-screw vise and front jaw to the apron to be sure it would fit.  Once that was working well, I disassembled the vise and completed the final glue-up.

Low-angle jack plane.

That's where things stand now.  What remains is to plane the bench top smooth and level, even up the ends of the bench (they are a bit uneven at present) and install the new top on the old base.  I'll use a Lie-Nielsen low-angle jack plane with a toothed blade to take the roughness off the top, then complete the job with a low-angle jointer and smoothing plane.

Norm

Learning to Plane - Part VI

There was so much information from this course on hand planing that it's been difficult for me to present it all here in a timely manner.  That's been complicated by the fact that I've been hustling to get my wood processed for the Winchester Chippendale Secretary class I'm taking next week.  That's done now and I have a short time to breathe so I can get back to the subject of hand planing.

Planing Rough Lumber

Continuing the discussion of reading boards and processing raw lumber, Chris Schwarz said that you want a flat benchtop so your boards won't flex downward in the middle while you're planing.  When the heart side of the wood is down toward the bench, plane the bark side by traversing first with a jack plane until the wind is out of the board.  Use a marking gauge to mark the finished thickness around the circumference of the board.  Then use the jointer plane, starting on the diagonal with the mouth of the plane fairly tight.  At first you will get inconsistent shavings because you are getting the tracks from the jack plane.  Eventually, as the boards is flattened, you will get full shavings.  Then you can either plane with the grain or switch to the smoothing plane.  With the jointer plane, start and finish with the strong part of the curved blade off the edge, rather than on the edge, so you don't create a bow.  For interior parts of your piece of furniture, you can often stop after the jointer plane has flattened them; there's no need for the smoothing plane.

Smoothing Plane

Chris smooth planes his furniture after it is glued up when possible.  His advice is to not smooth plane until you have to do so.  As with the other planes, he sets the blade depth by viewing down the sole of the plane and extends the blade until he sees a black line, then adjusts the blade so the curved part is in the center before retracting the blade to the correct depth. 

When planing, he starts partly off the end of the board.  He puts his entire upper body over the plane and uses his legs.  Smoothing plane shavings should be light and fluffy.  It may take several passes to clean up prior marks, though.

Finishing

Aniline dyes don't go well with planed surfaces and will blotch badly.  Pigments lay on top of the surface and work well.  For dyes, briefly rough the surface with 220 grit sandpaper.

Edges

Mark the true face and point to the edge to be trued.  A curved blade lets you cut down the high points.  Use your left hand as a fence.  Drag your fingertips and nails to avoid splinters.

Shooting Board

A shooting board is used to square the ends of boards.  Chris uses a straight edged blade for shooting.  Use a very sharp blade and set it up for a fine cut like a smoothing plane.  He miters the back corner with a chisel to avoid spelching (i.e., blowout).  He draws a line on the end of the board and then shoots until he hits the line, which is behind the miter.

Contest

At this point in the course, having learned about all we could and having set up our planes, we were challenged to square up a poplar board using only our planes.  The prize was a set of books and other items.  I didn't win, but I did learn a lot about using my planes.  I had the books already anyway. 

Scraping

We had time to get in a little extra information and demos on scraping.  We began with sharpening the card scraper.  Chris' method is, he says, the culmination of tests of numerous methods designed for not having much equipment.

You need to flatten both faces and remove the burr that is there.  File the edge at 90 degrees with a file; he mounts the card in the saw kerf in a block of wood.  Only file on the push stroke.  Then he sharpens the edge on stones, holding it at 90 degrees by pressing it against a block of wood.  He starts at 1000 grit, then goes to 4000 and sometimes 8000 grit for edge retention.  He then uses the ruler trick to sharpen the four faces.  Following this, he rubs the edges with a burnisher to push the metal upward and make it easier to turn.  Then he burnishes the end of each edge to turn a hook on each side.  The angle doesn't matter that much.  Use fairly firm downward pressure.  Use as many strokes as you need.  Use a good burnisher.  He does not like the one made by Crown.  The Veritas burnisher works well. 

When using the card scraper, you can either push or pull.  You should get small shavings when you do so, not dust.

Scraper Plane

You use a scraper plane to get a flat surface with any direction of the wood.  Flatten the back of the plane with 1000 grit.  Primary bevel is 45 degrees; secondary bevel is 50 degrees.  A hook on the blade is optional but easy to do.  Use a burnisher at the bevel, then raise it 5 degrees, then do it again.  Put the hook on the back side of the blade.  The Veritas burnisher put a quick hook on the Stanley no. 80 Chris was using for the demonstration.  He used the ruler trick on the back of the blade before putting on the hook.


Wrap Up

And that was the class--two days full of valuable information and hands on practice.  I learned more than I could absorb at the time, which is why I took such detailed notes.  If you get the chance to do this class, take it.  But if you can't get there, then these notes should help you get much of its value.

Happy woodworking!

Norm

Learning to Plane - Part V

Chris Schwarz argues that you need a dedicated area for plane sharpening.  After using your planes, dust them off and oil them with either Camilla or Jojoba oil.  The oils won't affect your finish.  In fact, Chris even applies the oil directly to difficult wood or knots to ease planing.  To wax the soles of his planes, Chris uses parafin.  It's essentially mineral spirits.  He waxes after every piece of wood.

Assessing the Wood

Before you plane, look at the end grain.  The bark side of the board is the side where the rings are convex, that is, toward the outside of the tree.  The heart side is where they are concave, or smaller in diameter.  Wood usually cups on the bark side and bows on the heart side.  You tend to get a smooth surface when you plane with the grain.  You can determine that by looking at the edge of the board.  If the grain is rising in one direction, that is the direction you want to plane.  It's like rubbing the fur on the back of a cat; you want to cut with the grain and not against it, which will lead to tearout.  You can also judge from the end grain.  On the heart side of the board, plane from the bottom of the cathedral pattern toward its top.  On the bark side, plane from the point of the cathedral to its bottom.  You would use the same methods to determine the direction for jointing and planing with power tools.  For quartersawn wood, you have to look at the edges; you can't tell from the end grain what direction you should plane.

Assuming the board is cupped, put the bark side down and plane the heart side first.  Once the heart side is flat, flip the board and you can plane without using shims.  When using an end vise, don't put a lot of pressure on the board; the vise can bend it.


Traversing with a Fore Plane

Open the mouth of the plane and use a wide radius (say 8 inches) on the blade.  Plane across the grain.  You can remove lots of wood quickly in this way.  Before traversing (which is what planing across the grain is called), knock off the rear edge of the board, usually with a block plane, to avoid spelching (tearout).

Set the plane on its edge across the board to confirm the existence of a hill.  To remove a hill in the center of the board, plane with the grain to create a slight valley, then traverse the board.  When Chris traverses, he pushes the plane across the board and then pulls it back in a very rapid motion.

Winding Sticks

I took my winding sticks from Philly Planes to the workshop and Chris used those to demonstrate their use.  However, he uses extruded aluminum strips from Home Depot and spray paints one of them black.  Twenty-four to thirty-six inches is a good length.  You can sight at several places on a long board, but you generally don't need to do so.  If you have wind (i.e., the board is twisted), it usually means that two opposite corners are high and you need to plane them.

There's more to tell.  I'll cover it next time.

Norm