Flattening large, curly boards

[Prashun Patel]

When working with slabs or large glue ups, despite proper drying/planing/cauling/domino-ing, etc, it is inevitable (for me) that large boards require some flattening before final smoothing. On bookmatched slabs or curly woods, I have a devil of a time doing this flattening with planes. I've 'honed' my sharpening techniques, and have been working with higher bevel angles. These help. However, it isn't perfect. I still tear out frequently enough that I wanted a better method...

Until now.

On this 72"x26" curly maple top, I've been using my bevel up jack with a TOOTHED BLADE to do final flattening. It's been a dream. I do have a micro bevel at 40 degrees, but so does my solid blade, and it tears where this does not. I've been able to run this toothed blade across grain, with the grain, against the grain. I cannot get it to tear out.

Some other fantastic things about this is that the toothy tracks leave witness to the low spots (second pic), so it's easy to concentrate on the right areas. I've also experimented with heavier cuts and opening up the mouth so it's a real hog. Still, no tear out. Third, it's tremendously easier to push than a solid blade. It just glides; more strokes maybe, but less effort on each.

The track marks smooth/sand out pretty easily.

I read very little about toothed blades, but I have to say that for rougher work, this is one of the best buys both for thicknessing and flattening. Check it out.

[Brian Holcombe]

What do you go back and smooth with? I often use wood with interesting grain for table tops, and shameful to admit I usually sand them to finish. Recently I bought a high angle smoothing plane (55 degrees) to move toward planed finishes but have not received it yet.

[Prashun Patel]

I am not a pure Neander.

My holy grail is to use a planes to do the smoothing too (easier set up, less dust), but I'm not there yet. On each project, I practice on the underside of the top. That's what I'll do here with my small bevel up smoother.

But I am not above using my ROS on the topside until I get my planing chops.

[Brian Holcombe]

Are you local to Princeton?

i'm half neander, half festool yuppie. I'm moving more toward hand tools for many operations, I find I have greater control over the outcome and quality.

[Prashun Patel]

Yes, I am. pm sent.

[David Turner]

I hate to say it, but there will be times where no matter what you use or how sharp it is, you will get tear out ! This is especially true with curly stock. Rather than beat myself up, I haul it to the local cabinet/woodworking shop and have it run through a wide belt sander.

Just my 2 cents,

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[Stu Gillard]

This is exactly how this Huon Pine cabinet top was smoothed. This is some nice timber.

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It was toothed with a old wooden toothing plane and smoothed with a coffin infill.
Some areas needed a bit of scraping.

[Pete Hotard]

^^^^^ Am I the only one that sees a creepy Alien wearing welding glasses....

[Jim Matthews]

^^^^^ Am I the only one that sees a creepy Alien wearing welding glasses....
Nope. I've blown one too many interviews over "Tell me what you see..." pictures like these.

Few of my jobs held imagination to be an asset.

[Stu Gillard]

^^^^^ Am I the only one that sees a creepy Alien wearing welding glasses....

I see the evil owl of doom.

[Jim Koepke]

Am I the only one that sees a creepy Alien wearing welding glasses....

I thought it looked like a flying squirrel with googles.

jtk

[Hilton Ralphs]

I see a naked old lady who's been sitting on the loo too long.

An owl with goggles would work though.

[Gary Howorka]

I see a naked old lady who's been sitting on the loo too long.

An owl with goggles would work though.


Phew, I could of swore that was a picture of me the morning after Pizza covered in Jalapeños.

[Sam Stephens]

I see a naked old lady who's been sitting on the loo too long.

An owl with goggles would work though.

are they not one and the same?

[David Weaver]

^^^^^ Am I the only one that sees a creepy Alien wearing welding glasses....

I see a very angry squirrel in that picture for some reason!

[Prashun Patel]

So, do any of you guys besides Stu use toothed blades?

[Jeff Bartley]

I've never used a toothed blade but I'd expect it to work well for heavy cuts. Prashun, have you read David W's article on setting the chipbreaker on a double iron plane? I would encourage you to give it a try. In the past I've had good results in curly maple, curly cherry, curly walnut with high bevel angles on bevel up planes; but there was the occasional tear-out. With a run-of-the-mill stanley with the chip breaker set properly close you really don't even need to pay attention to grain direction. Weirdly the plane makes the same sound as a steep bevel up plane. If you lived closer I'd bring ya a plane to try.......I'd love to watch someones face the first time they used this set up!

[David Weaver]

So, do any of you guys besides Stu use toothed blades?

Not any more. The double iron has sort of phased that out for me. Even in coarse work, you can set it on a jack or fore plane to limit the tearout to an amount that will come out in the following steps.

All you have to do with each plane is figure out how close to set the cap iron so that it's working the chip (the plane will resist you more, in most cases the chip will change if it stays together, and then have a depth of cut where it almost becomes impossible to push). Once you find that, back it off a little so that you get the benefit of its limiting tearout but without having to bull the plane hard. It's only a fiddle for a short time, and then you'll more or less remember about where you had it on each plane and it'll be like the showtime oven each time you put the cap iron and iron back together ..."set it and forget it".

But, the toothed iron (and high angle planes) certainly works in practice, and you can't argue with what works in practice!

[Bobby O'Neal]

I have not used one yet but you have me very intrigued. I am in very much the same spot, in a process to hone planing skills unto being a finish planing guru. I made a cross out of curly maple that bested me around Christmas time and I wound up sanding the final finish. Encouragingly, last week I finished some bedside tables and was able to finish plane them. One had a bit of curl in the top but wasn't too extravagant. It was a small, but exciting victory. They were made out of scrap cherry laying around that had been culled from other projects. They were really just a practice project and an experiment with a shape I've liked for a while. All that to say, I'm excited about your findings and hope to make the same gains. Thanks for sharing.


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[Prashun Patel]

Jeff, David, thanks for the tip about the chip breaker. I've been following the thread on the new article that's out about this. Thanks. Bobby, nicely done!

[Daniel Hartmann]

I couldn't imagine working large figured boards without a scraper plane. Spend some time learning to setup and use one and you'll be surprised by the results. I can take quite thick shavings without any tearout. I have the veritas large scraper plane with a hock iron in it. I put a burr on the 45 degree honed blade.