Thread: hints/tips for hand planes

I'd say you've answered at least 60% of your questions with 'the blade is not sharp enough'. The rest is probably a combination of technique and set up of the plane.

Don't try to take too much off with each pass. If you have the blade extended too deep, it will require a lot of effort to push it along and you will get the blade digging in. Set the blade very fine. I usually start with it so it is bearly protruding at all. Make a pass and if you don't get a shaving, lower it very slightly, then make another pass. Keep going until you get a very fine shaving.

Don't worry too much about marks made by the edge of the plane, you can scrape or sand them off later. Get the plane setup and technique working properly, then you can muck about with rounded corners and so on later.

To plane a long board, one technique is to plane in short passes. I've seen it described as like an aeroplane taking off and landing. Start at one end and run the plane along for a comfortable length (so that you don't have to take a step) then lift it off while still moving it forward. Then step forward and bring it down again. Slightly overlap the passes. Check regularly for high spots and concentrate on these.

Most importantly, sharpen the blades. You should be able to get a good edge with the oilstone but maybe you could try scary sharp for something a bit more foolproof.

Eric

Just a few tips. And keep in mind that you are at the beginning of a long road where practice makes perfect. Most of us spend many, many years learning just the basics. Patience.

when I run the plane (whether it is the stanley or the other one), I push it forward and then it just stops, stucked in the wood, leaving a mark of course.

This sounds as if you are extending the blade too far (in which case, retract it!), but I suspect it may be a case where you are planing against the grain of the timber. Do you know how to tell grain direction? If not, sing out and I (or others) will describe this process).

Always project the blade only just enough for the task. The more timber you remove in a stroke, the rougher the finish and the greater the danger of tear out.

For really smooth cuts, also make sure that the mouth is closed up. Again, sing out if you want this explained.

how do you avoid this little marks coming probably from the edges of the blades?

This is typical of square-ground blades. What you can do is round off the corners of the blade. A more radical approach is to camber the blade slighly as you sharpen it. See David Charlesworth's sharpening videos for a detailed demo.

if the blade is sharp (and I mean sharper than what I have now), when you run the plane, should it shave the wood without applying strong pressure on the plane? or do you still need to apply a fair amount of pressure?

A really sharp blade cuts without much pressure at all - basically just the weight of the plane itself. If you are pushing hard/forcing the cut, then the blade is blunt. A test for a really sharp blade is that it will cleanly cut pine end grain (or that of any very soft timber). For face grain the harder, and especially the more interlocked timber, will also test the sharpness of the blade. But this is another story, for another time.

Regards from Perth

Derek

On the topic of planes does anyone know of a website that describes the physical differences and uses for each type and or #?

Thanks
J!

On the topic of planes does anyone know of a website that describes the physical differences and uses for each type and or #?

This one deals with Stanley planes only:

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

Enjoy

Derek

Cheers Derek, thats what I was looking for.

Whats the best brand of plane to use? I've looked at the Entwistle's and Cliftons etc online and while they look beautiful I have no idea if they are as nice to use as they are to look at.

All I have currently is a $60 bench plane from bunnings. (Yep, I know.)

J!

Whats the best brand of plane to use?

Go here:

http://www.holtey-planes.com/blades.htm

and

http://www.shepherdtool.com/

and

http://www.leevalley.com/

and

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/

...... just for starters

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Derek,

Thanks for your advices and since you are forcing me to sing out, i'll do it:

First the grain direction: i hae read some pages on the net but I can not figure out the direction. So it is either me being stupid or the websites not accurate enough. so if you don't mind explaining ?

Second: what do you mean by the mouth closed up ?

Third: a question I forgot to ask before. On top of the blade, there is this curved stell piece which I think is called the chip breaker (not exactly sure). It is attached to the blade with a screw. When I received the plane (the stanley one), this piece was aligned with the sharp edge of the blade. However on the muji, this piece was slightly back. So I readjusted it on the stanley and moved it backwards about 1mm-2mm. So is the role of this piece and how should it be adjusted ?

I don't think I extended the blade too much. it was almost at the same level than the sole.

I am sure that most of the problem come from the fact that the blade on the stanley is not sharp enough or at all. It is probably sharp enough to cut vegies but not wood
The muji is sharp enough for soft wood since it produce very thin shavings but I still need to apply some pressure.
But that might be necessary on the muji because the plane is much lighter than the stanley.

Well I guess that's all the questions I have at the moment but don't go to far, I might have plenty other ones

Thanks

Finding grain direction is a bit of an art. Depends on the timber. Sometimes it's obvious - you can see the fibres sticking up. Think of them like arrows, they are pointing the direction in which you want to plane. Some people wet the surface with some metho or thinners. This raises the grain and makes it easier to see. Other timbers you can only tell by looking at the direction of the growth rings and other factors.

Some timbers change grain direction - I was working on some blackbutt the other day in which the grain ran in both directions side by side. No matter which way I pushed the plane, it was cutting against the grain. You would need to reverse the direction of your cuts for timber like this, or look at some of the other techniques for handling curly grain. I wouldn't get too deep into that yet. You will get a feel for it once you've been into it for awhile, it's usually pretty obvious once you start cutting.

Your plane has an adjustable frog which is locked off with two screws under the blade and adjusted with a screw in front of the rear handle (tote). You wind this screw in or out with the two locking screws loosened off to adjust the 'width' of the mouth. All you are really doing is moving the blade closer to or further away from the front of the mouth. The closer the blade, the smaller the size of chip that will fit through and thus you control how deep the blade will 'bite'. The Muji does not have an adjustable mouth.

The chipbreaker should be set so that it is very close to the edge of the blade - no more than a millimetre. It's purpose is to force the chips up and away from the blade, causing them to break into sections, rather than coming off in a long sheet. This helps to prevent tearout.

Sharpen the blade properly and then give it a try, you will be amazed at the difference. The rest of the stuff being discussed is just details that will make incremental improvements along the way. You have to walk before you run.

Emistral,

One of the key things you need to do is to gain an idea of what 'sharp' really means. At hte Perth WWShow I had a go of one of Terry Gordons try planes just after he sharpened it and I had a close feel of the blade. (He let me take it out to have a go at setting it.)

It was only then that I realised that my idea of 'sharp' was not up to scratch. In order to sharpen, you need to know what sharp actually is. And forget hair shaving. The pine endgrain test is the best.

the grain direction

Adding to my friend Silents' excellent post, consider this:

If you take a board (that you intend to plane, of course) and look at one side of it, you will get a cross section of the way the grain in flowing. What you are looking for is the direction of the grain - is it (mostly) running at a slight angle, for example, either travelling upwards to one end of the board or the other.

Once you have this fixed, then you want to plane the top of the board towards the top of the rise (of the grain). In other words, so that you are planing up hill. You will dig in and tear out if you plane down hill (and under the grain - thereby lifting it).

Now Silent mentioned one other very important factor, this being that grain direction can run both ways, which is where things get tricky. I find cheap pine does this in large sections (but then this is easier to see and adjust for), while hardwoods like Jarrah and Karri do it in very small sections (which makes them harder to plane). You can usually see the change of direction in hardwood by looking from the top down (at the board face). What you are looking for is a fuzziness (technical term!), which indicates an island of interlocked grain. This usually is best scraped or sanded.

I think that you must just practice planing whatever scrap boards you have. This is such an addictive process - the making of shavings - and many woodworkers never progress from there!

As you learn about planes so you will discover that there are many different settings for different timbers (hard, soft, interlocked), different parts of timbers (such as face vs end grain vs cross grain), and treatments (scrub planes for thicknessing, jointer planes for levelling, smoothers for - yes you got it - smoothing, molding planes ....). For now just concentrate on smoothing and trimming accurately. It will come with practice. Then you will be amazed at what is possible (yesterday I resawed then jointed 3 metre long pine beams to 2-1/4" x 2-1/4" with my #5-1/2 and #7 in preparation for building a loft bed for my son).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Whats the best brand of plane to use?

(part 2)

Down to reality. The planes above are really expensive - and unnecessary. Nice to have, tho

Aim for old (vintage old, that is - pre WW2) Stanley planes. These can be tuned up to perform as good as you will ever need in softwood.

If you plan to work with Australian hardwoods then you should look at the HNT Gordon range. These are new planes, made in Oz, with high cutting angles, designed for this particular job. See http://www.hntgordon.com.au/

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi guys,

thanks for all these advices.
I'll start practising tonight and see how it goes
I started last week on srap wood but that was just to get an idea of the tool
I was not really looking at the grain
I will train to take some pictures of the boards to see if my idea of the direction of the grain is the same one as yours.

The stanley I bought is a No 5 which is not that new
I would say probably 20 years old maybe
The muji is new.

I like the direction this thread is taking! Thanks for all the advice too.

Norris Planes are awesome too aye! I couldnt justify spending that type of money on anything, let alone a plane at the moment. Not in a fit. But I can dream. So many new tools to drool over.

Is there any benefit to a wood bodied plane over a steel bodied plane, or vice versa? Is it aesthetics or a weight consideration for example?

Cheers again
J!

Originally Posted by derekcohen

If you take a board (that you intend to plane, of course) and look at one side of it, you will get a cross section of the way the grain in flowing.
Derek

Tch Tch! You clinical types.......
LONGITUDINAL, Derek, longitudinal.

Cheers,