wooden plane grain orientation? Stock size?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Been keeping an eye out for stock of decent size and quality to try making some wooden planes. Thinking I'd like to try my hand at making some molding planes, but Matthew's recent posts and having stumbled across some older threads here have piqued my interest in trying to make some bench planes. No idea if I'll actually follow through on any of this.

I know it's been covered here before but I'm having a hard time finding the quick answer through search.

When making a western-style wooden plane, would the preferred grain orientation be with the growth rings parallel to the sole? (i.e. - "flat sawn" if you counted the sole and the top of the plane as the "faces" of the lumber, "quartersawn" if you count the sides of the plane as the face of the lumber?)

My understanding is that's preferred in molding planes (which means hunting out quartersawn stock, which has been a bit of a hassle, or resawing the plane blanks off the edges of thick flatsawn stock) but is it preferred for a bench plane?

How far rift-sawn could you go before it's an issue?

Obviously the width of the stock is determined by the thickness of the plane blade, but how tall ought the plane body be? Seems most of the planes I see are almost square; should that be the way go, or is there a rule of thumb besides what just looks right?

[Sean Richards]

Some notes on grain orientation here http://www.planemaker.com/articles_tuning.html

[Kees Heiden]

Yes that is a great article. It's about the ideal wood orientation. Something to strive for.

But I have seen lots of bench planes with rift cut wood. My favorite smoother is even completely wrong with the grow rings vertical. It behaves fine though.

[george wilson]

Happy New Year!! I could not stay in bed from back pain. Got up at 5:00.

Though the correct grain orientation is for the "outside" of the tree to be on the sole of the plane,with the growth rings horizontal,there are plenty of old planes floating around with the grain at 45º(rift sawn as mentioned). I doubt anyone here is going to use a plane hard enough for it to matter. It is nice to see grain correctly oriented,though. And,if the wood is good and dry,shrinking and other issues should not be a noticeable problem. We have better heating (and cooling) systems than in the old days(hopefully).

We made many planes that are used by outdoor trades in the museum. These are stored in unheated buildings,too. I haven't heard any problems developing with our planes enough to find them back at the toolmaker's shop. Our beech was cut and air dried in an attic for several years before use. The wood was stored high off the ground for about 5 years. The attic reached over 120 degrees in the Summers.

[Jack Curtis]

Those of us in wooden plane land probably won't be able to destroy our creations, but humidity certainly can; so I'm guessing that grain orientation does make a difference, just not destruction.