rick bear
03-10-2011, 12:12 AM
A couple weeks ago, I decided to seriously investigate using a hand plane. From replies to a previous thread, some research on the web, and help from Lee Valley's customer service, I ordered a couple planes and some water stones.
Over the weekend, and while I've been waiting for the order to arrive, I read more and found a fairly positive review of a Mujingpang smoothing plane. I enjoy working with cocobolo and the reviewer, Lyn Magiameli, said this inexpensive plane scored remarkably well. I just happen to be close to the Japanese Woodworker store and picked up one for $33.
This is very new to me, so I hope my observations are of some value.
1) First, I didn't take the time to properly sharpen the blade because I intend to use the water stones I have on order. So I only sharpened to 2,000 grit using sandpaper on a granite block.
2) I already answered one of my own questions, why was the plane only cutting on part of the edge? I found that the the blade was not sitting flat, a very small amount of pitch or "gunk" got between the blade and the plane bed, miniscule, but enough to distort the blade and affect the very thin shavings. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of the surface where the blade rests on the plane bed.
185887
3) The plane did a superb job on curly maple, even with my rough sharpening.
4) The plane did a incredibly good job on a 3/4" stick of fairly straight grained cocobolo
5) The plane did a horrible job on a piece of figured cocobolo (a member of this forum warned me about this)
The top piece of wood in photo below is cocobolo, 2nd from top is curly maple, and bottom piece is the figured maple.
185888
This next photo is taken with a close-up lens showing the near mirror finish of the 3/4" cocobolo. I think the photo also shows micro-scratches that might be lessened by better sharpening. The vertical dimension is 3/4".
185889
This next photo is a close-up of the grain reversal in the figured cocobolo - lot's of tear out (vertical dimension about 3"):
185891
This last photo is a magnified image of the cutting bevel. I did not attempt to add a secondary bevel at this time. You can easily see a couple things in this photo. Some of the larger scratches are from the lower grit sandpaper that I used for sharpening. I could have spent more time on this, but I don't think it made a huge difference. The second feature is the very fine irregularities along the cutting edge of the blade. This may be due to my sharpening or other causes. Based on some of my past experiences with tools steels, I suspect this blade, which is purported to be A2, was not heat treated properly. I partially suspect this by the way it sharpened quickly - softer than it should be.
185892
I hope others find at least some of my observations interesting. I am curious to hear if any of my observations ring true for others with experience using hand planes.
I look forward to the Veritas planes I have on order and having a more ergonomic design to work with.
- Rick
Over the weekend, and while I've been waiting for the order to arrive, I read more and found a fairly positive review of a Mujingpang smoothing plane. I enjoy working with cocobolo and the reviewer, Lyn Magiameli, said this inexpensive plane scored remarkably well. I just happen to be close to the Japanese Woodworker store and picked up one for $33.
This is very new to me, so I hope my observations are of some value.
1) First, I didn't take the time to properly sharpen the blade because I intend to use the water stones I have on order. So I only sharpened to 2,000 grit using sandpaper on a granite block.
2) I already answered one of my own questions, why was the plane only cutting on part of the edge? I found that the the blade was not sitting flat, a very small amount of pitch or "gunk" got between the blade and the plane bed, miniscule, but enough to distort the blade and affect the very thin shavings. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo of the surface where the blade rests on the plane bed.
185887
3) The plane did a superb job on curly maple, even with my rough sharpening.
4) The plane did a incredibly good job on a 3/4" stick of fairly straight grained cocobolo
5) The plane did a horrible job on a piece of figured cocobolo (a member of this forum warned me about this)
The top piece of wood in photo below is cocobolo, 2nd from top is curly maple, and bottom piece is the figured maple.
185888
This next photo is taken with a close-up lens showing the near mirror finish of the 3/4" cocobolo. I think the photo also shows micro-scratches that might be lessened by better sharpening. The vertical dimension is 3/4".
185889
This next photo is a close-up of the grain reversal in the figured cocobolo - lot's of tear out (vertical dimension about 3"):
185891
This last photo is a magnified image of the cutting bevel. I did not attempt to add a secondary bevel at this time. You can easily see a couple things in this photo. Some of the larger scratches are from the lower grit sandpaper that I used for sharpening. I could have spent more time on this, but I don't think it made a huge difference. The second feature is the very fine irregularities along the cutting edge of the blade. This may be due to my sharpening or other causes. Based on some of my past experiences with tools steels, I suspect this blade, which is purported to be A2, was not heat treated properly. I partially suspect this by the way it sharpened quickly - softer than it should be.
185892
I hope others find at least some of my observations interesting. I am curious to hear if any of my observations ring true for others with experience using hand planes.
I look forward to the Veritas planes I have on order and having a more ergonomic design to work with.
- Rick