Edge Planing Help

[TrimTheKing]

These videos will help you Doc, this is the one about how to put the slight camber on the blade...


https://youtu.be/WiPAS-iQFvk

This one is planing a square edge with a cambered blade. Explains it better than my words did.

https://youtu.be/y1ztIO6RAYU

I heartily advocate a few mins spent watching these because when I started I knew NOTHING about planing or sharpening and while there are a million ways that people like to do it or it can be done (and we will NOT be getting into that argument on this forum!!!) for a beginner who didn’t know anything it worked for me and I have kept up with this, albeit with some efficiencies of my own, and it works.

Thanks Mark - I'll watch them sometime in the next day or two. I have to be in the right frame of mind to sit down in front of youtube videos.

I haven't look at the clips but if Mark's recommended them, they'll be up to snuff. If you choose to go down the cambered plane road, more power to your elbow; I would counsel though not to camber the blade you use on your shooting board. If you have a few spare planes loafing around (most of us do, except Mike :lol: ) use one (a No.5 or 6) as a dedicated shooting board plane - Rob

I do agree with that Rob, it’s possible to do it with a cambered blade but means shimming up the plane which if you’re doing more than the odd board is a faff so a straight blade is absolutely the way to go.

 

[Custard]

I will sometimes use a cambered blade on a shooting board, but it does require a bit of preparation. Basically you have to ensure that the apex of the camber is aligned with the very centre of the workpiece. Just plonking a cambered iron plane on the shooting board and shuttling it back and forth won't work too well.

Having said that, using a non cambered iron on a shooting board (which I also do) isn't totally straightforward either, you have to use the lateral lever to ensure the iron is plumb.

Bottom line, both types of iron can deliver perfectly acceptable results.

 

[RogerS]

Seeing all this angst over just one type of hand tool makes me grateful that I'm primarily a wood machinist and not having to worry about planes other than where I put it last when I need to prop the workshop door open on a summer day :lol:

Bob

:text-+1: Amen to that !

 

[MY63]

I was not sure if this was the best place to ask but it has been such a good read this afternoon.
My son and I are going to make a box together as I was reading this I thought we are definately going to use a hand plane and shooting board. I am not sure which plane is best for this no5,6,7, even used they are expensive. Or should I follow Bob and go the machine route this would be much easier on my hands.
Triton have a jointer for £220.

 

[Malc2098]

Michael, my old No 5 works OK with my shooting board. I think they're better value than the 6 and 7s. They're known as the jack plane for a reason.

I've just used mine to shoot the joins of the headstock veneers and I'll use it for the joins of the backs and tops of the ukuleles.

 

[sunnybob]

I was not sure if this was the best place to ask but it has been such a good read this afternoon.
My son and I are going to make a box together as I was reading this I thought we are definately going to use a hand plane and shooting board. I am not sure which plane is best for this no5,6,7, even used they are expensive. Or should I follow Bob and go the machine route this would be much easier on my hands.
Triton have a jointer for £220.

I've been making woodwork stuff for 6 years now. have a quick flick through the link in my signature for examples. Some of them are pretty good even by other peoples standards. :shock:
I have NEVER used a hand plane or shooting board on any of them.
I've just managed to sell a 4 1/2 and a 5 1/2 that have been cluttering up my workshop for years. :eusa-dance:

Nothing wrong with hand tools if you want to use hand tools. but they are hard work, take much longer, and dont make the finished article any better.

 

[Mike G]

Hmmmm......

It depends what you are doing. There are lots of jobs that I do which are quicker and more accurate with hand tools. At least, more accurate if you don't spend half your woodworking life making jigs. I would certainly agree that for repeat work, and for a lot of basic grunt work (ripping and preparing stock, for instance), machines are quick. Sometimes much quicker. But, for instance, I guarantee I'll make a set of dovetails quicker by hand than anyone will with a machine, simply because of the set up time. Two or three sets, and of course the machine wins.

(Mike, than handtool woodworker who has spent the last 4 days pushing wood through machines)

 

[sunnybob]

Mike, to save you the time... I have never made a dovetail joint.
The guy specifically mentioned making a box.
If he had asked about an oak filled manor house I would have never said a word. :lol: :lol:

 

[MY63]

Thanks I love making boxes but planing and preparing wood wrecks my hands which are not great to start with.
The shooting board with the long plane looked easy and not too heavy as it is on the bench.
But the little jointer thing looks so simple especially as I now know what I need. Of course it is out of stock

 

[sunnybob]

I've had arthritic hands for abut 8 years now. This year I've been diagnosed with osteo arthritis of the spine, meaning that I cant take any form of shock, even as mild as a hand plane hitting a knot without a flinch.
So I use machines for almost everything. I dont even use handsaws.
Luckily I dont actually want to make large furniture items, so I can still make my medium small stuff quite happily with my machines.
But you need to be clear here, Americans call machines different things to English. Jointer, planer, thicknesser, mean different things depending which side of the atlantic youre on. Youtube is not your friend here due to this.

I have a bench top thicknesser (lunchbox planer in american) which I use to get rough sawn planks flat before I cut the sizes I need on the bandsaw or table saw. If I want small pieces (less than 18" in any direction) like box lids and sides flat, I use a router sled.

 

[MY63]

Thanks SB I think I understand what I am looking for thanks to the other Bob, I am going to start another thread in power tools to see if I can narrow down the options.

 

[Mike G]

That bog oak isn't the easiest stuff to work, Michael. You'll still get tear out with a handplane, made harder by the fact it is hard to see the grain.

 

[MY63]

That bog oak isn't the easiest stuff to work, Michael. You'll still get tear out with a handplane, made harder by the fact it is hard to see the grain.

Thanks Mike that is another thread I think, I may have over ordered the resin :lol:

 

[David C]

It may help you to see one of my video clips on you tube.

There is one which is specifically about planing a square edge.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth

 

[Dr.Al]

It may help you to see one of my video clips on you tube.

There is one which is specifically about planing a square edge.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth

Thanks David - I've already watched it and yes, it helped!

 

[Woodbloke]

It may help you to see one of my video clips on you tube.

There is one which is specifically about planing a square edge.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth

Great to see you on here David, you definitely need to have more input...with pics - Rob

 

[David C]

Thanks chaps.

This forum seems to have improved a lot since I last looked.

Sorry to repeat the video clips, I did not see that they had been mentioned already!

David