Thread: cutting a groove in end grain

Sharpen it up and plane the end grain. Try it on some scrap to see how it works out. it will blow out the ends a bit so leave your board wide. you could plane in part way on the edge which would help as well and then finish after the ends are done.

I should add I have very little (i.e. no waste) to play with in this board and the edges of the groove will be visible. Hence my cautious approach.

How wide is the panel (ie how long is the groove)? If it is not too long/wide, I would be tempted to knife the edges of the groove, then use a chisel to make a divot on the waste side of that cut for a tenon saw to run in and then cut the sides of the groove with the saw. The make a chisel cut at the base of the waste on both sides to control the blow out and remove the waste - you could do that by chisel or using a router plane or your #45. I wouldn't risk using the #45 (or any plough plane) without preparing the side walls at least with a knife or preferably with a saw first.

For the end grain set the plane up as a scraper. This means grinding the blade to a steeper angle and losing metal which I not sure you would want although it is reversible. I've altered a couple of my planes.

Originally Posted by jmk89

How wide is the panel (ie how long is the groove)? If it is not too long/wide, I would be tempted to knife the edges of the groove, then use a chisel to make a divot on the waste side of that cut for a tenon saw to run in and then cut the sides of the groove with the saw. The make a chisel cut at the base of the waste on both sides to control the blow out and remove the waste - you could do that by chisel or using a router plane or your #45. I wouldn't risk using the #45 (or any plough plane) without preparing the side walls at least with a knife or preferably with a saw first.

The panel is small, about 120 x 250 mm (end grain on the short side).

That sounds like a good approach jmk. I agree with idea of edge preparation to ensure the saw stays in a straight line. Whatever I do it will be very carefully. I did think of a router plane but I think I would have to make a blade that was 4mm wide. I am pretty sure my smallest one is a 1/4 inch.

On router plane blades, you will need one that is narrow, but Veritas make them as do Lie Nielsen

Originally Posted by pampelmuse

I want to cut a 4mm wide groove into all the edges of a 12mm thick panel including at both ends into end grain What is the traditional (or modern) hand tool method to do so to leave a clean edge on the groove? I have a stanley 45 combination plane I am just getting familiar with. My experience in planing with the grain using this plane thus far is that it leaves very clean grooves in straight grained timber but in variable grain direction it can be a little trickier to achieve a neat finish. I can see now the attraction of the modern spinning router blade for gnarly timbers. I haven't experimented with end grain but I imagine with the blade bed angle as it is, it may not be the ideal tool for the job. I was thinking of using the 45 on the sides of the panel with the grain and then using the sides of the groove as a reference to guide a fine-toothed hand saw into the end grain, cutting along either side of the groove, followed by chiseling out the waste. This is my guess at the best approach. Does anyone else have suggestions or experience in this?

I want to avoid buying a special slot cutting or 4mm router bit for such a tiny job.

how did you go?
The traditional tool is a rebate plane fitted with a knicker to score the end grain. The panel would be over length and you'd effectively cut a wide tenon and trim the panel to length at the end.
Do the end grain first, and when you do the long grain you'll fix any blow out by planing it away.

I think Ian that you may have misconstrued my intent. I believe that the correct term for the cut I wanted to make is a slot not a groove. I wanted to cut it into the end grain of the panel rather than across the grain which I knew was what a knicker was used for. I had reasonable succcess with the approach of scoring the end grain, using a dovetail saw to cut down the sides and then used the #45 quite effectively into the end grain to remove the waste. Happy enough with the result though and impressed with the 45's performance.
The timber (apple box) is actually quite soft and sort of crumbly for eucalypt so planed easily but I did have more difficulty going with the grain as I found this particular timber chipped out along the edge of he groove a bit due to the figure. The panel was slightly over size though so I could plane most of the chipping out. No pics yet but I will have to show the finished box at some stage.

One issue with the #45 is that it has a movable guide fence but also has a fine adjusting screw to move set the fence very small amounts. This moves back and forth on two short slides but my plane has a bit of slop in this mechanism. I found if using the fine adjuster that the beginning and end of the grooves had very small alterations in distance of the groove from the face of the board depending if you were solely pressing the front or rear of the fence against the corresponding end of the workpiece. I had to correct this very subtle bend with a fine chisel to get the slot to fit the matching timber.