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Thread: Re: Finishing Grey Ironbark
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26th November 2012, 08:30 PM #1New Member
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Re: Finishing Grey Ironbark
<style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } --> </style> So I am somewhat of a sapling when it comes to wood working. About 6 months ago I purchased a #5 Groz plane from Carba-Tec. I thought I was gonna revolutionise my woodworking. I had a very vague memory of my grandfather using a hand plane to work a piece of wood. My grandfather was an old school carpenter, handsaws, brace&bits, bench-planes and bow saws where his tools of trade.
I jointed a 2.8x1m table top using a reverse-glue bit. This joinery was not perfect and resulted in approx 0.5mm steps in joints across the top. When it came to smoothing this step I pulled out my #5 plane. Since I bought it I realised that it needed some work, I upgraded the plane iron to a (approx)2.6mm iron, this was re-bevelled to 30o, the Groz chip breaker was ground flat to the new iron and re-bevelled to 30o. This was all done using a recently purchased Veritas MkII honing guide.
I tuned the plane so that there was a few hair's breadths between the new blade and the throat opening. I may not have tuned the plane correctly, I admit that, haven't been able to find a decent tutorial that explains it. My grandfather is long past and my father had no interest in tools.
I thought I had done everything well, followed all I had read about setting up/tuning a plane, but I am getting some wicked tear-out on the table top I am trying to smooth. It is VERY old(80 year salt-water seasoned) Grey Ironbark, I am going with the grain and still really bad tear out. I have the blade set to only take a tiny amount, prolly in the thousandths of a millimeter.
I guess the question is, have I tuned/sharpened/re-bevelled things wrong on this cheap plane or am I just expecting more then what can be expected when working with this ridiculously hard/brittle timber.
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26th November 2012 08:30 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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5th March 2013, 07:30 PM #2
Gday - I've just put togethera huge grey iron bark table, 3000mm x 900mm x 42 thick....since I'm no guru the thought a using a plane to flatten the surface was out of the question - so instead I built a router jig to do the job instead - how did you finish the top? Tung oil? Stain?
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6th March 2013, 06:44 AM #3
I'm the first to admit I know nothing about Ironbark, grey or otherwise. But European Oak certainly becomes very hard and brittle as it ages, almost like Case Hardening and can suffer the sort of tear out you describe until you get through the oxidised surface layer.
Dragonfly
No-one suspects the dragonfly!
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6th March 2013, 09:03 AM #4Skwair2rownd
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Try scraping.
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6th March 2013, 10:32 AM #5
That's why Terry Gordon makes the planes he does - 55 deg angle for difficult Aussie woods. In your case however, I think Artme's suggestion of scraping may be the only way to a good finish with hand tools.
HTH
Brett
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6th March 2013, 11:10 AM #6
The answers above all all good. This is typical grey ironbark behaviour, and it's very hard to stop the tear out.
I have made two benches using it for the bases and even with a sharp helical head jointer I was still having problems.
Scraping is probably your cheapest and best option although it will be hard work
Cheers, ian"The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.. it can't be done.
If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better"
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