Making a high angle smoother

[Mark Baldwin III]

I have a project planned that seems it may require a plane with a higher pitch. The wood is Bird's Eye maple. I am making a pair of irons, one for my jointer, and one for a new smoother. The smoother iron is 2", no chipbreaker. I already have a 45 degree smoother with a Hock iron/back iron. What might be a good pitch? 50? 55? Higher? Or maybe the 45 will be good? Thanks!

[Casey Gooding]

I made a 55 degree smoother from Mesquite a few years ago. Works great, and it what I would suggest for your Bird's Eye. I have tried making higher angle planes, but had less luck.

[john brenton]

I had a big chunk of nice birds eye figured maple that I cut into sveral strips of veneer (yeah, talked me into seriously considering a bandsaw) and I had my 50* smoother ready to go, but never needed it. Iis this the bed for your dad? I'd say see if the common pitch works for you, and even if it does...LIE. The wife won't get mad about a tool purchase if its for something like that.


Just walk in all frustrated, and when she asks what's wrong be like "all I want to do is make this thing but I just can't with the tool I have." If she doesn't say "then why don't you get the tool you need?" I say take her back and get a new one,


I have a project planned that seems it may require a plane with a higher pitch. The wood is Bird's Eye maple. I am making a pair of irons, one for my jointer, and one for a new smoother. The smoother iron is 2", no chipbreaker. I already have a 45 degree smoother with a Hock iron/back iron. What might be a good pitch? 50? 55? Higher? Or maybe the 45 will be good? Thanks!

[David Weaver]

Make a 55 degree. There is not enough performance difference between 45 and 50 on really tough woods to make screwing around with a 50 degree worthwhile. 55 degrees made properly should handle just about anything, and if it doesn't, resharpen and try again, and then it should.

[Mark Baldwin III]

Iis this the bed for your dad? I'd say see if the common pitch works for you, and even if it does...LIE. The wife won't get mad about a tool purchase if its for something like that.
Just walk in all frustrated, and when she asks what's wrong be like "all I want to do is make this thing but I just can't with the tool I have." If she doesn't say "then why don't you get the tool you need?" I say take her back and get a new one,

Yup, this is for the bed I'm building for my dad. I'm single, so SWMBO is not a factor. I pretty much do what my check book allows!

Thanks for the input, guys! I should be able to start this one over the weekend. I'm hoping to have 2 brand new planes by next week.

[Dale Osowski]

Chris Hall recently made a 60 deg that is working very well on Bubinga: http://thecarpentryway.blogspot.com/2010/12/ramping-up-for-new-action-2.html

[David Keller NC]

Mark - It's been my experience that bird's eye maple doesn't plane well - with anything. I suppose that it will greatly depend on the tree that the board came from, its moisture content, and other factors, but just about any hand-powered edge tool I've used on it tends to pull the end-grain eyes out fo the board (unless we're talking a scraper).

What I've done in the past is surfaced the board with a powered planer, which prevents rip out of the eyes. Then, for final surfacing, I've wetted the board down with ethanol, and planed it with an included cutting angle of about 60 degrees.

In my opinion, getting good results out of B.E. maple is one of the hardest things to do with any tools (hand tools or power tools).

[Mark Baldwin III]

Thanks for the tip, David. Power planers are not an option, as I don't have one. It's going to have to be very careful hand planing, and really sharp irons. I do have scrapers for the final touches. I don't have a good long hand saw at the moment, so the only power tool activity will be rough milling with a TS. Looking forward to the challenge, and I hope that the irons I'm making for the new planes will turn out!

[Terry Beadle]

I agree that 55 is a good high angle for really knarly wood situations. Additonally, David Charlesworth ( I some times feel like the girl in True Grit drawing Lawyer Dagget out every time I refer to Mr. Charlesworth...hoot! ) recommends an even higher angle even above 60 degrees but by putting a smal 1/32 back bevel on the plane blade. He demonstrates his technique in his video but I've yet to need this trick. Mr. Charlesworth knows his stuff.. recommend you try it on a scrap piece of the birdseye with your current smoother blade. You may not need to make a special high angle smoother. That being said, you CAN'T have too many planes ! Hoot!

Enjoy the shavings.

[Mark Baldwin III]

Terry, I certainly agree that one can not have too many planes! Especially if you're making them yourself. I squared up the blank for my smoother today, and will work more on it tomorrow as I wait for my beloved Packers to take the field and win the Superbowl.
Anyway, these new planes should have a bit of character to 'em. The woods I'm using have some neat features.
On a side note, I need to check out Mr. Charlesworth. I've seen that LV has a DVD or two from him, and I've heard a lot of good things about his techniques. I'll be good with him as long as he isn't trying to sell me something every 3 minutes.

[Zander Kale]

I only have a few sticks of Bird's Eye (left over flooring); I gave it a try with my 55º smoother (2" x ¼", no cap iron) and no problem. I planned in both directions with no tear out. I didn't pull out the 45º but I suspect it might have issues.