Where do I start with wood planes?

[Shawn Stennett]

I want to get started using wood planes and don't know where to start. I watched a couple of guys at the woodworking show in Mesquite a couple weeks ago put some walnut accent strips into a mitered picture frame and would like to incorporate similar things into my work but dont know what I am looking for exactly on the bay. They were using a tonque and groove set I believe but I don't know if there are different things I need to look for. I am interested in learning more about wooden hand planes and molding planes in general. Is there a good site to go to or a good book that could be suggested? I have been looking on ebay but I don't understand the numbering on the planes and they usually have poor or real simple descriptions.

I plan on taking a few courses at there school when I get a chance that is out of Waco, but will have to be later.

Also I have been watching more of the Woodwrite Shop lately since he is always using some sort of antique tools.

Help me get started Please.

[Bill Houghton]

I want to insert an editorial comment here: a lot of people get the impression that hand tool working consists of using planes. This is kind like saying that cooking consists of using pots and pans - it's incomplete. To work with hand tools, you'll need layout tools - so you know where to cut and plane and so on - chisels, hammers/mallets...there's a list of beginning tools (see next paragraph).

"The Hand Plane Book" by Garrett Hack will give you an introduction to planes. But check out every book in your local library system that talks about hand tools, and read through them. This will give you a more comprehensive sense of what you might need.

There are schools, but they're pricey (and eat vacation time); there may be local classes; you may be really lucky and have a woodworking club in your area. These all provide some opportunity for learning with a more experienced worker beside you.

But it's ultimately a matter of practice. If you're comfortable learning by reading and practice, you can just acquire your basic set of tools and go at it. That's what I did; that's what a lot of us did, and a lot of newcomers to the craft still do.

The benefit of a forum like this one is that you can ask questions; the downside of a forum like this one is that you'll get conflicting advice, which may be helpful or really confusing.

[Shawn Stennett]

I have been collecting hand tools for a little while now, mainly for dovetailing but am expanding. I taught myself to how to dovetail through and half-blind (still needs somework though). Unfortunatly I am in the middle of know where and only know one person that woodworks but he is entirely a power tool guy. I will check out the library but don't think my town library will have anything. I will check out that book thankyou.

[Bill Houghton]

I like your quote, by the way. Sounds like you've got an eager apprentice there.

[Shawn Stennett]

I was cutting some dovetails the otherday in my shop with my son sitting on my bench where he loves to watch. He said to me "When I am a big guy are you going to teach me to do that" , all I could say was I can't wait to bud and just smiled at him. He is 3 1/2 and asks for tools everytime we go anywhere.

[Steve Branam]

I've been working on a set of blog pages to answer this kind of question, because it comes up a lot. As Bill says, you'll get plenty of conflicting advice. So here's my salvo: http://www.closegrain.com/p/intro-hand-tools.html.

The first section covers references, so you might want to keep that in mind for your trip to the library. And I also recommend lots of practice (there's a page on practice materials). Don't get frustrated trying to complete a project by learning a bunch of new skills at the same time. Learn some skills, make the mistakes, then work on a project that incorporates them (the skills, not the mistakes!).

And keep watching The Woodwright's Shop, Roy Underhill is great! Several seasons of his videos are online. Look on my links page for those and other sites.

[john brenton]

I know your question isn't about what I think someone should do, but from my experience I would suggest ditching the molding plane thing and investing your money in a good router and quality bits. I knoe this is the neander forum, but unless you only want one ogee or something, it would cost you a crap ton of money to get all the molders it would take to equal a set of router profiles.

As far as the woodies go, in my opinion it takes a lot of wear or rot for me to consider one as being useless..and even then they're useful for scrap beech,maple or fruitwood to steal pieces from. My favorite jack (right now) is a Sandusky jack that I never intended to use but brought back from the dead to sell. It has a shallow crack running the whole length of the sole, I had to inlay the mouth and I replaced the handle, but the performance is superb and I don't worry about knicking dropping or scratching it like I did with my mint red beech Salman. The soles are easy to flatten, but they are easy to flatten wrong too. Flattening from toe to heel is easy, but flattening from side to side can be tricky if there is not much room for lateral adjustment of the iron. You may want to use a caliper or winding sticks ona tricky one like that as you can't really trust the squareness of the sides to reference . I've had planes that would just not work if the sole was not perfectly flat across the width, but most have enough play to cheat.

If your really dedicated to the molding plane route I'd say put a saved search on ebah. I've seen a couple mint molders at a real reasonable price...at my skill leve I wouldn't but a moulder any less than mint-ish. Meaning that I'm not up to the challenge of trying to fix a warped complex plane or reshaping a miffed up iron.

There's my two cents....

[Charlie Stone]

Shawn,
To the original question. If you want to make moldings, buy some blank irons from any major vendor, Hock, LV, LN, and make yourself a half set of hollow and round molding planes. I say to make them because to buy a new set will run you about $3k. A used set usually goes anywhere from $1500 up. Most anything you ever make will be a combination of surfaces which are flat, beads or coves. Beyond that, you could make yourself an "old woman's tooth" as a router and maybe you will want a shoulder plane. Check out http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/OldWoman%27sTooth.html (http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/OldWoman%27sTooth.html)
realistically, there isn't much you can't make for yourself. Start with making your own hand router which will help with the inlays, which it seems is where you want to go first. In the meantime, look around at items similar to what you want to make, and look at the curves in it. Decide what shapes you need to combine to make it using just ), (, and | .

[Robert Rozaieski]

I am interested in learning more about wooden hand planes and molding planes in general. Is there a good site to go to or a good book that could be suggested? I have been looking on ebay but I don't understand the numbering on the planes and they usually have poor or real simple descriptions.

Ignore the numbers. I'll get to why in a second.

How long is your workbench? I ask because it will make a difference in how long of a molding you can make. I usually only need (and prefer) to make one long length of molding that I can then miter and wrap a case with. However, I have an 8' work bench. This is something to think about, as you cannot make moldings longer than your workbench, without turning to some kind of heavy, stiff planing beam or sticking board. If you have a short workbench, you may be stuck making multiple short lengths of molding as opposed to one nice long length. Making short lengths adds more challenge because the profile of one is not likely to be an exact match of the second (or third, etc.), even when using dedicated complex molding planes. This makes mitering a little more challenging as the profile at the corners won't match and so you'll likely have to do some carving at the corners to match up the miter. Not difficult, but something to think about.

With that said, let's assume you can make long lengths of molding, either with your current workbench, or by making a rigid sticking board to plane the moldings on. Hollows and rounds is where I would recommend you start your search. Complex molding planes are nice when you need to make multiple pieces of identical molding, but they only make one profile, and they are also more of a challenge to get tuned up right. On the other hand, with a few hollows and rounds, and a rabbet plane or two, you can make just about any profile, and they are super easy to tune up.

Back to the numbers. Like I said before, ignore them. They have no meaning, except to the original maker of the planes. O.K. this isn't entirely true, but you still don't need to pay attention to them, and here's why. The numbering system was not consistent from one maker to another. When the numbering concept was developed (18th century molding planes typically were not marked or numbered), the English developed a "system" for the numbering where the planes were numbered in 16ths of an inch, up to about 1", and then in 8ths of an inch for planes over 1" wide. So if this numbering system were used properly and consistently, a #4 plane would be 1/4" wide (i.e. 4/16ths), a #6 plane would be 3/8" wide (6/16ths), etc.

This works ok if you stick mainly to early English molding planes. However, when you look at the American made planes, which are much more common on ebay, the "system" goes out the window. Some makers followed the English system closely, while others completely ignored it and went their own way. Auburn for example started their numbering at #2 for a 1/4" plane and went up from there. So the numbers are off when compared to the traditional English method (i.e. #2 was 1/4", #4 was 3/8", #6 was 1/2", etc.). To confuse things even more, Ohio tool decided to just number their planes 1-18. In their catalog, #1 was 1/4", #2 was 3/8", #3 was 1/2", etc. Plus, some American makers changed their numbering system, so two planes from the same maker may not even match if they were made during different time periods. So if you try to play the numbers game, you are likely to end up with a bunch of planes in the same size, unless you stick to a single maker (and sometimes even IF you stick to a single maker).

There is a bright side though in that the numbers really don't matter. What's important is the width of the iron. See, hollows and rounds use simple geometry to their advantage. The profile of the iron is 1/6th of a circle. This means that the width of the iron is identical to the radius of the arc. So a 1/4" wide iron makes a 1/4" radius arc, or a 1/2" diameter circle (as long as the sole and iron are properly shaped to a proper 1/6th of a circle).

This is a good thing, as it allows one to easily determine what plane to use for a particular molding design. Making a 3/4" thumbnail edge on a table top? Grab a hollow plane with a 3/4" wide iron. Want to make a 1" ogee molding (made up of a 1/2" convex curve and a 1/2" concave curve)? Grab a pair of hollow and round planes with 1/2" wide irons.

Since all you are interested in is the width of the iron, you can ignore the maker and the number and instead focus on getting planes with irons in the particular width you need (ask the seller to measure the iron or measure it yourself if you can visually inspect the plane). The smaller sizes are the most useful for furniture work and small projects. Sizes from 1/4" to about 7/8" are my most used. I rarely use the planes wider than this.

Once you've tuned up a few pair of H&Rs, then you'll be ready to try your hand at complex molders. But even with a handful of complex molders at my disposal, my most used molding planes are still the H&Rs. There's an article on tuning up hollows and rounds that will be coming out in a certain popular magazine in a couple months that might interest you. If you don't already get the magazine, you might think about picking up a copy ;).