Thread: I think I broke my plane

I can't tell if your plane has a low bedding angle (~12 deg) with a 25 degree bevel on the blade (= 37 degree cutting angle) or is a standard bedding angle (45 degree).

Your "problem" is that you are trying to hand plane end grain. If can be done with a low angle bevel-up plane, but it's a lot of work.

as you discovered a ROS is much easier.

Couple of points; firstly in the 2nd picture you’re not showing a skewed cut, just planing in a different direction. A skewed cut has the plane at an angle like in the 2nd pic; but travelling along the board in the same direction as the first pic. That is what gives a slicing cut.

Secondly; that looks like a low angle smoothing plane. What angle is the blade ground at? For end grain Aussie hardwoods you need a higher angle, at least 50 degrees. There is a very good reason HNT Gordon makes his planes with a 60 degree bed angle…!

Some woods are just pigs… not very long ago I was doing a demo on how smoothing planes can reduce or even eliminate sanding and I was asked to show this on an endgrain chopping board like yours. Full of misplaced confidence I then discovered that beefwood endgrain will absolutely demolish a blade edge within in the first four inches… much to the mirth of many.

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Couple of points; firstly in the 2nd picture you’re not showing a skewed cut, just planing in a different direction. A skewed cut has the plane at an angle like in the 2nd pic; but travelling along the board in the same direction as the first pic. That is what gives a slicing cut.

Secondly; that looks like a low angle smoothing plane. What angle is the blade ground at? For end grain Aussie hardwoods you need a higher angle, at least 50 degrees. There is a very good reason HNT Gordon makes his planes with a 60 degree bed angle…!

Some woods are just pigs… not very long ago I was doing a demo on how smoothing planes can reduce or even eliminate sanding and I was asked to show this on an endgrain chopping board like yours. Full of misplaced confidence I then discovered that beefwood endgrain will absolutely demolish a blade edge within in the first four inches… much to the mirth of many.

Hi Ian and Chief, yes it is the low bed angle version.

Chief, on your first point, if I planed at an even steeper angle would that be a better skewed cut? Like in the image below? I'm not sure that first image isn't a skew cut though, it is at an angle


IMG_9398.jpg

Hi, what chieff meant is that a skew cut means that you skew the plane away from the direction you push.



You point the plane in direction of the blue arrow but push along the red arrow.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Cklett

Hi, what chieff meant is that a skew cut means that you skew the plane away from the direction you push.



You point the plane in direction of the blue arrow but push along the red arrow.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

Hi CKlett, thanks so much for replying. So planing like I indicated in my images is not a skew cut? At any angle to the work, it's not a skew cut? I'd like to see if that is the consensus from more people, it's not you guys, I just have trust issues.

Originally Posted by Cklett

Hi, what chieff meant is that a skew cut means that you skew the plane away from the direction you push.



You point the plane in direction of the blue arrow but push along the red arrow.

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

Yep, they're on the money.

Trust them. Except the way it is pictured the red arrow indicates a left hander holding the plane. A right hander would have the handle of the plane to the right of direction and the left hand on the knob to the left side of the centre of direction. This presents the blade at an angle to the fibres that are standing on end, thus slicing them like a knife cut, rather than pushing them at perpendicular.

When I started with "trust them" I meant it. I taught woodwork in schools for 45 years and we always taught skew planing on end grain.

(I also assume that everyone knows that the handle is above, or ahead of, the heel of the plane and the knob is above the toe, ie handle at back, knob in front)

Do you trust Matt Eastlea?

Go all the way to 19.35

OK, this has gone on long enough, I'm starting to feel bad for everyone who has put their time into this post. It is not what it seems. So firstly I humbly beg forgiveness for everyone who has been unwitting participants in this little ruse, hate on me if you like, but bear with me a little longer.

What have we established in this post?

This is not a skew cut:

IMG_9390 (1).jpg


and this is not a skew cut:

IMG_9391 (1).jpg

And this is not a skew cut:

IMG_9398.jpg

And every angle in between is not a skew cut. As Chief Tiff so eloquently put it, 'you're just planing in different directions'


Now have a look at the image below, this is a representation looking sideways at a plane on its ramp on a ramped shooting board shooting some endgrain. The plywood represents the ramp. The plane slides along the ramp in the direction of the blue arrow.


This is not a skew cut, nor is it a skew cut for any ramp angle, EVER. You're just planing from different directions.

IMG_9393 (1).jpg

The myth that a ramped shooting board adds a little skew action, or would if only the angle were a little greater has persisted for so long. It's part of a larger explanation given for what makes a ramped shooting board truly superior in some ways to a traditional board. (The main reason as I see it is the blade enters the work from a corner rather than across the whole face of the work - I like to think of it as analogous to a soft start on a router) The myth persists on this forum, on other forums around the world and in places on the internet. It freaks me out that something is wrong on the internet <smirk> I've tried over several posts over the years to discredit this and sometimes I've had some success. But I came upon this simple way of doing it, bringing you along with me and now that's it for me on this, I've done all I can to bring as many horses to the water as possible.

Once again apologies to everyone, and apologies to myself now that everyone thinks I don't know how to use a plane

Oh, one last thing, if someone wants to build a shooting board that gives a true skew cut with a standard plane, look at the image with the red arrow, build a wedge carriage that tilts the plane along the blue axis, then push the carriage along the red axis. Simple to do probably, no harder than converting a table saw into a lathe or some such jig



*edit. My tip for keeping this straight in your head is that the type of cut you do is only ever about what you do with the plane, it's all about the plane. You can come at the work from any direction you like, or orient the work any way you like, but so long as you only ever push the plane straight ahead, it is never a skew cut. As soon as you angle a plane and push it off-axis(the red axis in the image) you make a skew cut.

Serious bit of effort planing end grain like that, skewed or not. The blow out on the edges wouldn't have been fun.

This info is more for those wanting to sand in the future as you've already done the job... I would have attacked it with a belt sander. If really rough start with 40 grit and work up to 120. Wouldn't be a lot of work at all. And then finished off with an orbital. Not many people I've met in Aus understand belt sanders it appears and pooh pooh them pretty quickly. I grew up with them and stroke sanders... Very effective tools when you understand and learn to use them. The makitas are expensive to buy new but I've seen plenty in good shape on market place going cheap as they're not something anyone wants.

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

Serious bit of effort planing end grain like that, skewed or not. The blow out on the edges wouldn't have been fun.

This info is more for those wanting to sand in the future as you've already done the job... I would have attacked it with a belt sander. If really rough start with 40 grit and work up to 120. Wouldn't be a lot of work at all. And then finished off with an orbital. Not many people I've met in Aus understand belt sanders it appears and pooh pooh them pretty quickly. I grew up with them and stroke sanders... Very effective tools when you understand and learn to use them. The makitas are expensive to buy new but I've seen plenty in good shape on market place going cheap as they're not something anyone wants.

I liked my belt sander until it broke. I actually did 99% of the sanding with my drum sander then finished off with the ros