Kudos to Lee Valley- Scrub Plane; and Shoulder plane question

After much debate and questioning, I finally broke down and purchased the new LV Scrub Plane and their medium shoulder plane. The planes arrived last week. I used the scrub this weekend to flatten two 8" x 6 foot long boards of Lyptus- a Eucalyptus hybrid with a density similar to hard maple. The scrub cut through the board like butter and I actually had to be cautious not to be too aggressive. What a great plane!

I also purchased the medium shoulder plane to clean up the long tenon shoulders of a headboard I'm making for my daughters new bed. I honed the blade with 800 and 4000 grit waterstones. The shoulder plane is very comfortable and looks great but I'm having problems with tearout on the outside long edge of the shoulders. I'm fairly confident in my honing skills but wonder if I need to use an 8000 grid stone for final polishing or if I need to make a steeper micro bevel. Any suggestions?

- Lyptus

Hi Lyptus

Yes, the new LV scrub is something else. I am preparing a review of scrub planes, and this should be ready in a couple of weeks.

With regard your shoulder plane, you have not given enough information. What timber are you using - hard or softwood (= softwood is harder to plane)? Are you getting the tearout on the endgrain (= blade not sharp enough), or are you getting chipout at the edge of the board (= edge is unsupported as you cut)? I sharpen plane blades to 8000. A jump from 800 to 4000 will give you an edge that is slightly serrated and moderately sharp.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek,

I am planing Lyptus which is like hard maple in density. I wish I could draw a picture on this forum to illustrate but the tearout is along the outside wide edge of the shoulder. I do support the ends of the shoulder but not the sides. So I suppose your saying my blade is not sharp enough, right?

If I add an 8000 grit stone to my arsenal should that be sufficient or are you suggesting I also need something between 800 and 4000?

- Lyptus

Hi Lyptus

Does this occur on other timber surfaces as well? That is, could it be the grain of this particular piece of timber?

In any event I think that you would notice a change in a blade sharpened to 8000, even 6000. Alternately, try a 1200 stone between the 800 and 4000 (the 800 is quite a coarse stone and will leave scratches).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Just to let you know - I too just purchased the LV scrub plane (with the A2 blade). Absolutely fantastic plane and good value too at $US99 + delivery ($US40 with other small bits on the order). The standard blade variety is $US79.00. I use it to quickly thickness glued up boards prior to putting them through my noisy 13" CT-330 thicknesser. SHWBO and my little one are very happy with the noise reduction.:)

Hi Lyptus,

From the post it sounds like you are planing the long shoulder's edge? The plane's side is layong on the tenon? And perhaps the tearout is at the end of the stroke as the blade leaves the board?

Because of time lags here, I am going to assume the above is what is occuring. There are a few ways to deal with that.

1) place the board flat upon a bench. Clamp a backing board where its end is in line with the shoulder of the tenon and is at least as thick as the board your are working on is..

That way when the plane exits the far edge of the tenon's shoulder, the shoulder's edge is protected against tearout.

2) using a sharp chisel, cut a light chamfer on the shoulder's back edge. That way the ebd fibers typically will not break as the plane passes the edge.