Thread: Some very basic wood working questions

First - nice mallet

Sawing exactly to a line is something I have been discovering/enjoying recently.
I haven't sawn small pieces - like dovetails - but larger material with handsaws.
I have been making the line the edge of the kerf ... but if you wanted to cleanup with a chuting/shooting board you could leave a hair more than that.



I first came across planing down to a line when I starting finding out about squaring a board.
Having flattened a face and made square edges, then you mark the desired thickness off the face side, and then plane down the material to that line. It was a wonder to me to reach the line and have it feather off once you reached that mark.

I've found good links to this stuff a long time ago ... will try and recall them

Cheers,
Paul

Just to add a point to that ... for planing to thickness ... once you are down to/almost to the line all around the edge you can then take down the middle section without changing the edges ... and a straight-edge will tell you when you are all done.

Mike - tradition and common sense say to saw RHS, waste side, of the line (if you are right handed). How close you cut depends on what you are sawing. For dovetail tails, for e.g., where you intend to assemble 'off saw', you juuust take out the line ('split the line' as our old manual-training teacher used to put it). If you are wanting a finished, visible edge, leave enough that you can clean up to the line with a plane, or whatever your weapon of choice is. Depending on your skill & how sharp & well-set your saw is, you can go very close to a line & only need a few swipes with a plane to have a perfect surface, but if your saw is a bit cranky & leaves a very rough, wandering cut, it's better to stand off a mm or so & do a bit more planing.....

Identifying wood from a photograph is a very uncertain business. It looks like a Eucalypt from the way the surface has checked, but that only narrows us down to about 100 species that are red or red-ish. Agree it doesn't look like R. Red Gum because the checks are a too coarse for typical R.G., but I wouldn't take any bets. If you were sure it was a local wood (which I guess you can't be, since you don't know where it came from), that would be your best start in narrowing it down, since there is a limited number of E. species in any one locality...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Mike - tradition and common sense say to saw RHS, waste side, of the line (if you are right handed). How close you cut depends on what you are sawing. For dovetail tails, for e.g., where you intend to assemble 'off saw', you juuust take out the line ('split the line' as our old manual-training teacher used to put it). If you are wanting a finished, visible edge, leave enough that you can clean up to the line with a plane, or whatever your weapon of choice is. Depending on your skill & how sharp & well-set your saw is, you can go very close to a line & only need a few swipes with a plane to have a perfect surface, but if your saw is a bit cranky & leaves a very rough, wandering cut, it's better to stand off a mm or so & do a bit more planing.....

Identifying wood from a photograph is a very uncertain business. It looks like a Eucalypt from the way the surface has checked, but that only narrows us down to about 100 species that are red or red-ish. Agree it doesn't look like R. Red Gum because the checks are a too coarse for typical R.G., but I wouldn't take any bets. If you were sure it was a local wood (which I guess you can't be, since you don't know where it came from), that would be your best start in narrowing it down, since there is a limited number of E. species in any one locality...

Cheers,

Thanks Ian,
That clears up the line issue! I was always in two minds on what to do.
I'm beginning to understand that once you have lost the origional source of wood it can be a tough job to identify it unless it is something very unique, thanks for your effort anyways.

Mike.

Paul Sellers might help you out ... see this from the 19:00 minute mark.

(It's all worth watching)

Originally Posted by code4pay

3. Probably not the right forum thread but I have some timber that I found down the back of our yard from memory I got it from the tip. ...Here is a mallet head I made from it.

Hey, if you made a hand tool with it, this IS the right forum

Originally Posted by code4pay

...my other planes have a primary bevel of 30 degrees what angel should I micro bevel?.

You probably need a Guardian Angel - but seriously, for bevel down planes the norm is 25° primary and 30° secondary/micro. You don't have to have a micro bevel, but it makes life easier. Just raise the angle another 2° or so, to avoid having to polish the whole bevel.

Originally Posted by code4pay

2. I have been putting a micro bevel of 30 degrees on my block planes that have a primary bevel of 25 Degrees...

You should be flexible with your bevel angles on bevel up planes, as the micro-bevel sets the EP of the plane. So if your block plane has a 20° bed and a 30° micro bevel, your EP is 50°, which is starting to get into higher pitches. If your block plane has a 12° bed, your EP is 42°.

If you want to plane a lot of end grain (on wood that's not too hard) then a lower primary and micro bevels would be better. For example, if the steel in your iron is good enough to hold an edge at 25° (micro bevel), in a 12° bed block plane, would give you an EP of just 37°.

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by pmcgee

Paul Sellers might help you out ... see this from the 19:00 minute mark.

(It's all worth watching)

He is very interesting. But his skill levels are on another planet to mine.

Thanks Vann!

Originally Posted by chook

He is very interesting. But his skill levels are on another planet to mine.

Another planet ... No way. I don't believe it for a second.
PS is very relatable, and covers this stuff nicely.
Pretty easily worked wood I think you'll find.
With a sharp saw (use a modern one even) and a sharp blade ... you'd do all that.
Cheers,
Paul

Originally Posted by code4pay

Hi All, So I have collected a few hand tools (some how I have ended up with 10 planes already how did that happen?) and started to use them in anger but have some simple questions.
1. When sawing or planing to a line, do I saw/plane on the waste side of the line leaving the line or do I remove the line. Seems if I plane or saw on the line I lose the line so have no reference?

Hi Mike
generally you always saw on the waste side of the line. How close to the line depnds on your skill level and the purpose of the cut

when docking to length I'll stay about 10-20mm away from the line and hold the work by hand
when cutting to length I'll be about 1mm on the waste side, use a bench hook and finish to the line with a shooting board
when cutting the shoulder of a housing joint, I'll use a chisel to remove a triangular trench on the line (the vertical wall of the trench is on the line and the rest of the "trench" is on the waste side), I'll clamp the piece and cut right to the line with a hand saw -- this takes a bit of practice -- but once mastered the saw's set will just kiss the line

mallet.jpg

nice looking mallot

Just watched the 30 odd minutes from the master ...... sorry what was this thread about again, some wood .. a mallet ?

What i did before i had power tools was, assuming the wood is dressed, mark your cut with a knife. This knife mark travels on both faces and edges.
saw lots of practice pieces then saw the board almost to the line. Then plane the sawn edge to the knife line.

Originally Posted by mrmoon

What i did before i had power tools was, assuming the wood is dressed, mark your cut with a knife. This knife mark travels on both faces and edges.
saw lots of practice pieces then saw the board almost to the line. Then plane the sawn edge to the knife line.

Yeah the question was more do you actually remove the knife line or should you still be able to see it.

Originally Posted by Ozziespur

Just watched the 30 odd minutes from the master ...... sorry what was this thread about again, some wood .. a mallet ?

Only 30 min, I've since worked through his blog, his you tube channel I'm up to hours!

Originally Posted by code4pay

Yeah the question was more do you actually remove the knife line or should you still be able to see it.

you should just be able to see the narrow polished surface which was the "good" side of the knife line and that surface should be in the same plane as the rest of the cut


getting to that position is the tricky part