How to use a Hand Plane:My own discovery

[Tinker]

I have, within the past few years, tuned my old Stanley hand planes.  I don't use them much, but every once in awhile, a hand plane seems to be the simplest and best way to go.  i have a couple of smooth planes (not sure what # to cal them right off hand.  also an ancient Jack plane (same ID problem).  all of these I got back in the late 40's and early 50's when i was doing carpentry work.  In those days, we even used only hand saws for construction as power saws were just coming into wider use.

Up until when I pulled those old planes out of the gloom, I had never bought any new models until about 4 or 5 years ago, i bought a couple of Lie-Nielsens.  The first was the LN large scraper that has gotten quite a bit of use for final finishing work, often leaving pieces with no sanding required.  I like that.

The other was the low angle jack plane.  That one does not get a lot of use as i had always thought of it as a special use plane where i have to true up or chamfer end grains.  I have not needed it for truing up ends or edges since i got my ATF 55. 

today, i pulled out a piece of cherry stump end thatt I rescued from a clearing job a few years ago.  It was (is) only about 1-1/2 inches at one edge, tapering down to about 1" at tthe opposite edge.  Pretty rough as it was cut from the top of a stump where I had made a flush cut to ground after felling the tree and leaving the final cut just a little too high for my satisfaction. (Hey! I'm tthe one who has to run my mower over the top once a week.  Anyhow, when I cleaned up the job site I thought I could find a use for the thin piece and threw it on the truck, brought it home and tossed it in the barn to dry. (In hind site, I think I probably should have tried working on the thin piece right away while it was still green) About a year ago, I was making up a batch of lazy susans and thought that would be a good project to use the thin piece.  Being somewhat lazy, i tried truing the thickness by running it very carefully (1/8 turn or less per cut with my DW 733 (I think that's the ID #  >>> the older DW planer)  The first few cuts were fine, but finally, as I had sort of expected, the thing jammed in the planer.  (I am sure that some here will think it was kinda stupid >>> but remember >>> i was being lazy and also half expected that to happen. It was an experiment that sort of ended up the way I had forseen)

I tossed the piece back into a corner until today.  I recently bought a 18" FlatMaster and thought I would try it out to true up the rough/uneven piece of cherry.  A couple of passes and I decided I might finish it within the next 10 years if I sanded every day.  AH Ha!  The perfect projectt to try out the old handplanes.  I sharpened up the best of the Stanleys plus the ancient Record block plane.  As an afterthought, i decided to touchup the LN low angle jack at the same time.  Once all the planes had been touched up I started experimenting with the different planes.

I first tried the block plane as there were a lot of gouges from the chainsaw and I would be crossing all angles of grain direction.  That worked ok for a little while while the surface being contacted over any area of the piece was very small.  Once i had smoothed off tthe rough edges/ridges, I went to the Smooth plane.  I kept fiddeling with the depth of cut, but the more I got the piece evened up, the more problem i found at points where I was going directly across grain.  I kept thinning the cut, but still was getting more chatter the closer to full contact I was getting across the piece. 

I decided to tryy out the LN low angle plane.  At first, I found no improvement with tthe chatter.  I was cutting a little better where going at 90? to the grain, but i just could not eliminate the chatter.  It was then that I remembered the plane had an adjustable throat.  Even tho I had used the plane a few times, I had never tried adjusting the thoat except when I took it out of the box.  I had neverused a plane with this feature, even tho i have used hand planes for many years.  I had not used them a whole lot between the early 50's til around 2000.  I had never used a hand plane with an adjustable throat.  I had ony adjusted the depth of blade and placement of the chip deflecter to get the finest of cut. 

This round piece of stump end was something I had never tried planing before. As I remembered the adjustable throad feature, I decided this would be a great place to experiment.  The low angle plane is one with the blade bevel up, so there is no chip deflector to help.  I closed the throat opening just a tad, but not enough.  Having never used that feature, I just kept trying by closing ever so little until it seemed like there was no room for the shavings ( they were coming thin and short where going across grain at 90?)  Finally ,once I got the throat closed down and the blade adjust for a match to the opening, i found I could plane and get decent shavings with no chatter and without jarring my MFT 1080. 

I am surprised that I am able to do this type of planing on my MFT.  I do have a shelf across the bottom where I have added weight of tools and a couple of small cabinets that have added stability.

I am sure others here have had experience with adjustable throat hand planes.  This is really a first for me and a very pleasant surprise.  No matter, it will take quite a bit of work to get the wedge flat, so I will probably just play with it when I need to wear off steam.  But it can be done.  I just hope the piece doesn't split before i get it flattened.
Tinker

 

[James Watriss]

Well, there are a few factors at work...

The low angle jack is, at the heart of it, a big low angle block plane. Gettign it good and sharp will help with the end grain on the stump end. But if you want to do planing on face grain, I recommend you get a second blade, and regrind to a steeper angle. Most hand planes have the blades in at 45 degrees, and there are Lie-Nielsens that are bedded at 50 and 55, too. So, regrinding a different angle on teh LA Jack will approximate this kind of plane... and it can work surprisingly well.

Sharpening... I won't summarize the volumes of work that exist online about this. But I will suggest you look into diamond paste sharpening. Assuing you can hold a steady angle (through hollow grinding, using a honing jig, or just very good with freehand) the paste thing works incredibly well, for pretty short money as compared with a full set of stones, it works very fast, and the grits available go down to some incredibly fine stuff. Sharper plane cuts more easily.

Wax... try rubbing some paraffin on the soles of your planes

Solid surface. I'm sure the MFT is good for some things. But I think you'll find that a more stable surface will help your planing immensely.

 

[fidelfs]

Remember the stepper the angle, the most effort you have to make to plane wood.

Low Angle planes are normally at 25 degrees and the body at 12 so the actual angle of attack is 37 degrees, much lower than a regular (bevel down) plane with a 25 degrees blade and 20 degrees body.  You can get away from having a second blade is you have a secondary micro bevel with a steeper angle, or you can have a second blade up to 38~40 degrees for difficult wood.

For some the LA BU (Low Angle Bevel Up) Jack Plane may work as a smoother, making a versatile plane use.  You can also have toothed blade and it will help to level and remove tear ups.  The wood will end up having small ridges that later you can smooth with a non toothed blade and the LA BU JP.

Remember the closest the mouth opening the thinner the shaving and helps with tear ups as well.

Sharpening, well you are on your own.  There are so many options and everybody says their style is better for some reasons.  If you are not sharpening in a regular basis (every day) I would suggest you to buy a honing jig (do not buy the expensive ones) maybe 10~14 bucks  to help you maintain the right angle.

I hope this helps.

 

[Tinker]

Thanks, guys, for the info. One thing I do know is that the MFT is not the most solid bench for planing, but even at that, once I got the plane bed set right, and with the extra weight under the MFT, it worked ok.

Sharp was not the problem.  I have a Tormek water wheel that I use to get the angle.  I then go to my set of diamond stones for touch up, including micro bevel, and then back to the honing wheel on the tormek, or if i don't have that set up, i have a ceramic honing stone for the final touch up.  When blade/chisel or knife is where I think it is sharp. i take a piece of scrap printer paper, hold it on edge and run the blade straight down thru.  If i need to saw with the blade and/or keep the blade closer than 1-1/2" or so from my fingers to go straight down thru with the blade and make a clean cut, IT AIN'T SHARP ENOUGH. 

Once i got the right distance of the plane mouth from the blade, I was making right fine shavings and no chatter.  For what I was doing, the discovery was how to use the adjustment of the mouth to proper setting.  i had never tried that . BIIIIIG discovery

After I wrote my original post, i later thought about my HL 850 planer.  i have all of the heads for it and I thought I might try it with one of the grooving heads.  The piece of wood i am working on is really quite rough with a couple of weather checks in it.  If it gets ruined from my experimenting, no loss.  If i can work it down to flat without destroying it, I will figure what to do about the splits later.  the suggestion about using a toothed blade goes along with using the grooving head on the HL 850.  Worth a try.  That planer can be set almost as fine as the hand plane. 

Right now, i have the piece whittled down so it is flat half way across one side at about 1-1/4" thickness.  It needs another 1/2" to get it flat all the way across..  I think that with the grooving head, there would be less chance to break the piece or send it flying across the room.  especially if i make a slight change in direction of cut with each pass.  Once i get it close to flat, I should go back to the hand plane.  Once one side is flat, the oposite side should be a snap  >>> or will it be a CRACK!!!

i can see something happening like when i was a mason and cutting stone with hammers and hand chissels, sets, points and pitches.  A friend (competitor who often worked with me---or I with him) used to say, "You can work for a little while on a stone and it will look great.  you can put a lot of work into the stone and it will only look a little bit better."  Of course, there were the many times I was able to get a stone looking nearly perfect where one more tap with hammer and chissel would make it absolutely perfect.  that one more tap would be the demise of the stone for what it was meant to be.  I can see that happening with this cherry disc.  Oh well, it is one of those projects where i am learning.  A lot of experimenting and learning on one little 12" x 3/4" to 1-1/2" round wedge of cherry.
Tinker

 

[fidelfs]

Just one more thought.  If you have a chance to get your hands on a scrub plane, you will be amazed how fast and effortless is to flatten a piece of wood with this plane.  It will leave a rough base but you can work later with a JP or Smoother.

It is worth to try it and experiment with it.

Have fun!  ;D

 

[Tinker]

Just one more thought.  If you have a chance to get your hands on a scrub plane, you will be amazed how fast and effortless is to flatten a piece of wood with this plane.  It will leave a rough base but you can work later with a JP or Smoother.

It is worth to try it and experiment with it.

Have fun!  ;D

Thanks for that idea.  I had forgotten about that plane. 

years ago, when i was just out of college and awaiting my two year vacation with my Uncle Sam, i was asked (volunteered) to make a trophy cabinet for my dorm. (trophies were for winning some tractor rodeos and livestock showing (i was in 2 yr school of Ag @ U-Conn).
I had not power tools and my workshop, to the mild consternation of my mother, was the kitchen.  I used the kitchen table and a couple of spruce scaffolding planks as a bench.  Handsaws, hand planes and chisels were all armstrong powered.  I had an old stanley router plane that I used to rout out for the shelves.  Some of the lumber had some cup to it and I took one of my old smoother planes and sharpened the blade so it had rounded edges with a slite scoop to all the way to the center of the blade. I think that is sort of the idea with scrub planes, is it not?  Don't you sort of work across grain with them?  One of my carpenter friends had told me of that trick and as I recall, it worked ok except I did end up with a couple of the shelves scooped out a little thin in the centers.  Oh well, I took along a couple of sixpacs when I made delivery.  All hands were happy and the shelves were still there when I stopped back a couple of years later.

I probably still have that plane iron hidden away in a corner of my shop.  Of course, what will happen, I will search high and low.  When I finally give up the search, I will take a ride to the toy store and get a real scrubber. Two hours after I bring it home, I will suddenly find the old blade.  But what the h---, I am somewhat of a tool nut anyhow >>> and getting worse all the time  :

I do have several old plane irons for my smooth plane that I will play around with making wider angled edges for.  You or Jim Watress had suggested something along that line.  I will experiment over the summer.  I don't get involved in too many WW projects once I get outside with the landscaping.  experimenting with handplanes is something I can play with for 5 minutes or five hours.
Tinker