Looking for Book/DVD Recommendations - Using Handplanes

[David Castor]

Any recommendations for books that place an emphasis on how to use planes? I've been through most of the books at our local library, and some are helpful, but most seem heavily weighted towards providing information on the history and variety of planes, along with pages of glossy photos of plane collections.

I need the Complete Idiot's Guide to Using Planes or something similar.

If you have DVD recommendations, that would be appreciated as well.

Dave

[Patrick Tipton]

I would save my money for some nice planes. Head over to YouTube and type in "hand plane"....there is tons of information and its free!

Regards, Patrick

[Larry Williams]

Dave,

Planes can be incredibly complex or incredibly simple. In bench planes the uses are defined by the length, width and shape of the iron according to the step you're at. The tasks haven't changed over the centuries hand planes evolved (then devolved, btw) nor has the wood. Unfortunately a lot of what you'll find on the Internet doesn't really make sense when looking at the tasks and what plane features it takes to accomplish those tasks. Probably the most concise description of plane use appeared in Richard Never's 1736 Builder's Dictionary. It's as useful today as the day it was published. Here it is:
182032

[Johnny Kleso]

Check You Tube they have dozens of movies
I have heard Rough to Finish is a good dvd
Also David Charlesworth's for LN series

[Bob Stroupe]

I like this one
Planecraft (http://books.google.com/books?id=juWe9UYOBUUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=planecraft&hl=en&ei=FjBDTfzSC8L3gAfCuKS3AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false)

[Gary Hodgin]

There's a lot of good stuff on you tube. But, as Johnny said, David Charlesworth has a good dvd. Jim Kingshott made a series of hand tool videos/dvd's, and his one on Bench Planes is very good. Chris Schwarz has a couple of good hand plane dvd's. I have a book on hand planes by Garrett Hack that was very helpful.
You can find David Charlesworth and Chris Schwarz's dvd's at the Lie-Nielsen website. Here are the links.

http://www.ptreeusa.com/hand_woodworking_tool_DVD.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Handplane-Book-Garrett-Hack/dp/1561581550
http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1320

[Mark Baldwin III]

+1 on the Jim Kingshott DVD. That's the one that got me started down this path.

[Andrew Yang]

Coarse, Medium, Fine by Schwarz is a good overview.

[Jim Koepke]

Dave,

Welcome to the slippery slope of hand planes.

There are a lot of good recommendations prior to my post. A lot of Chris Schwarz's writings on planes can be found at PopularWoodworking dot com.

Some of my writing on getting started with hand planes can be found here at SMC.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?148076-Getting-Started-With-Hand-Planes

If you have questions that are not answered in what you find, just ask.

Have fun making shavings.

jtk

[David Castor]

Thanks for the responses. I will check out some of the DVDs mentioned. Jim, I have to confess I did not do a good search of this site before posting my question. Your write-up looks excellent - thanks. I have looked at some YouTube videos, but a lot of them seemed to trying to impress the audience with their skill level. I've been making a lot of shavings, but the condition of the work piece seems to get worse the more shavings I make! There are a lot of things that require good hand-eye coordination (golf, hitting a baseball, etc), that I'm not so good at. I'm hoping this isn't another one of those.... Thanks again.

Dave

[Michael Titus]

Coarse, Medium, Fine by Schwarz is a good overview.

I agree, I found it to be the most useful woodworking DVD I've watched so far (but I've only watched about 6 or 7 total).

[john brenton]

"Glew'd" I think I'll start spelling it that way from now on.


Dave,

Planes can be incredibly complex or incredibly simple. In bench planes the uses are defined by the length, width and shape of the iron according to the step you're at. The tasks haven't changed over the centuries hand planes evolved (then devolved, btw) nor has the wood. Unfortunately a lot of what you'll find on the Internet doesn't really make sense when looking at the tasks and what plane features it takes to accomplish those tasks. Probably the most concise description of plane use appeared in Richard Never's 1736 Builder's Dictionary. It's as useful today as the day it was published. Here it is:
182032

[Jim Koepke]

I've been making a lot of shavings, but the condition of the work piece seems to get worse the more shavings I make! There are a lot of things that require good hand-eye coordination (golf, hitting a baseball, etc), that I'm not so good at. I'm hoping this isn't another one of those....

David,

My hand-eye coordination is not all that great.

There are also different kinds of problems with the work piece getting worse the more shavings are made. If it involves the squareness, that can be corrected. It is just making sure the lateral adjustment is properly set. After that it becomes a matter of learning the feel of holding the plane level.

If it has to do with tear out, there are many causes and all can usually be corrected.

Taking deep cuts often results in tear out.

A dull blade can add to the problem.

Planing against the grain may be a cause.

Often, the wood may just have squirrelly grain and needs approaches from many angles.

A lot of the problem depends on what wood you are using. If it is milled and only needs a little clean up there is one approach. If you are using rough milled lumber, then a whole different approach is warranted.

So, maybe this is where you could tell us what planes you have, what kinds of woods you use (rough or milled and the species) and what you are building.

It would also help others to help you by knowing about your sharpening set up and abilities. When the pinnacle of sharpness is achieved, you will find a lot of woods easier to work.

I don't think there are any magic bullets in the pages of many of the books. Sometimes there is a little nugget that gets the light to go on over your head and say "aha!"

My experience has taught me identifying the problem is the most important part of correcting the problem.

jtk

[David Castor]

Just getting back to this after a day away - thanks for all the feedback. I need to do a little more reading and track down a few DVDs I think. I'm sure I'll be back with some questions. At this point my main problem seems to be keeping the edge square to the face of the piece when trying to edge joint. I'll keep working at it...

[Jim Koepke]

At this point my main problem seems to be keeping the edge square to the face of the piece when trying to edge joint. I'll keep working at it...

This is likely the part of hand plane work that tests all of us who use hand planes. One thing that may help is to discover your grip on the front of the plane that works best for you. For me, resting my hand on the knob with my fingers one side of the plane and my thumb on the other is one grip and the other is with the thumb behind the knob and the fingers under the plane and touching the wood. Be careful with the second one especially to keep your fingers away from the blade.

Holding the knob with a "death grip" is not the way to go.

Give it time and it will get better.

jtk

[Tom Vanzant]

"Be careful with the second one especially to keep your fingers away from the blade."

I was setting a freshly honed iron using this grip and ran my lead hand into a stop on the third pass. It stopped but the plane didn't. Took off the corner off my middle finger, but I saw the blood before it hurt. No stitches needed, but a(nother) lesson learned.

[Jim Koepke]

I was setting a freshly honed iron using this grip and ran my lead hand into a stop on the third pass. It stopped but the plane didn't. Took off the corner off my middle finger, but I saw the blood before it hurt. No stitches needed, but a(nother) lesson learned.

I always check that there is enough clearance at the vise or other items on the bench holding the piece being worked. Make the first pass with the blade retracted just to make sure. Even with the blade retracted it can be painful to ram your knuckles in to the side of the vise.

jtk

[Andrae Covington]

...At this point my main problem seems to be keeping the edge square to the face of the piece when trying to edge joint...


This is likely the part of hand plane work that tests all of us who use hand planes...

I definitely struggled with this as well. Actually I still have to really watch what I'm doing. I did spend some money for training wheels... my jointer plane is a Veritas and I bought the fence for it. I used that for a while, but it's a hassle to put the fence on, then take it off when you're doing wide surfaces, back and forth.

In Hand Tool Essentials compiled by Popular Woodworking, there is an article by Don McConnell on edge jointing by hand. His recommendation is to use a cambered blade, moving the plane laterally relative to the edge of the wood to correct an out-of-square edge. You can even correct a twisted edge by pushing the plane in a slightly diagonal path along the board. After I cambered my jointer plane blade, using the fence on a typically sized board would guarantee an out-of-square edge because of the location of the camber. So I stopped using the fence. In Handplane Essentials by Chris Schwarz, he mentions this can be overcome by adding a wooden fence to the Veritas fence, so the workpiece will be roughly centered under the blade.

I have the Schwarz DVD's Coarse, Medium, and Fine and Building Furniture with Hand Planes. I think they are both helpful. These were early videos for Schwarz and Lie-Nielsen though, so he does seem a little awkward and some of the editing is not so great. His more recent videos produced by PW are probably good as well.

I have four Jim Kingshott DVD's, two of which are about handplanes. I think they are great. He comes across confident without being smug, and I think he teaches and demonstrates the basic techniques and other information well. The camera setups and editing are well-done. The only word of caution I would say is if you struggle to understand people who speak English differently than you do, you probably would not like his videos.:)

I also have Rob Cosman's Rough to Ready DVD, which essentially covers the same material as Coarse, Medium, and Fine; starting with a rough board and planing it square and flat. Cosman is a master, no doubt, and multiple camera angles give you helpful perspectives, though I felt like in editing they didn't always choose the best camera. (I have several other Cosman videos, mostly the dovetailing ones, so I may be mis-remembering which one(s) used a wide shot at times I wanted a close-up.) The main disappointment I had with that video, as well as most of his others, is the "power tool guy" who is standing off to the side, asking softball questions and generally dumbstruck at the incomprehensible magic of flattening a piece of wood without electricity.:rolleyes: Cosman does all of his speaking to that guy, turning to the side. Talk to the camera, man, I'm the one watching the video. A couple of his later videos are just him, so he does talk to the camera, which I prefer. Others may feel differently.

[Josh Rudolph]

Handplane Basics - A Better Way to Use Bench Planes

This DVD is what made it all make sense for me. Highly recommend it. I have never seen the Coarse, Medium, Fine; but assume it will be very similar in content as the Handplane Basics DVD.