Wood Hand Plane

[Blake M Williams]

I just bought an old wooden hand plane, all cracked up with broken handle but still had original iron and chip breaker. So I thought with it being so cheap I could clean up blade, which looks pretty thick by itself, and use it to make a plane. First thought was copy existing plane, but I see that a lot of you guys start with a smoother, which is what is what is being made in the how to DVD I got.

What woods are recommended for hand planes?

What woods can be laminated together that wont split or fight each other?

[John Vernier]

I don't see why a smooth plane is the best first plane to make. A jack plane would be a lot more forgiving as it does not need to be so precisely tuned as a smoother. For instance if the plane's mouth ends up being a bit more open than you planned, with a jack plane it is of little consequence.

Beech is the most common traditional wood for planes. Lots of hard, stable woods have been used for planes with varying degrees of success, but beech was the overwhelming choice of commercial plane makers in Europe and the US for centuries.

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Blake,

As John points out, beech is the most common wood found in early wood bodied planes. It must have been plentiful at one time.

Most likely any good tight grained wood of hard structure would work. Yes, a hard wood but some 'hard woods' are two soft.

Not knowing your location it is difficult to determine what woods would be suitable and available in your location. Maple of ash might do the job. Not sure if there is much ash still available.

Have fun and post some pictures if you can.

jtk

[Nicholas Lawrence]

We did a thread on this not too long ago if you want to run a search. Kees Heiden, Steve Voigt, and others had lots of good comments.

There is a long series of videos on YouTube by DavidW, where he makes a jack plane.

[george wilson]

There is no reason that maple would not be better than beech. I have done plenty of work with both. I think beech was just a plentiful,cheap hardwood. It certainly twists and warps enough when drying. Beech is not as hard as Northern hard maple (sugar maple) either.

The trouble with maple is finding it 4" thick. And,when you do,it is high priced compared to some other American hard woods. They used yellow birch in colonial America in New England. I don't know your location.

[Kees Heiden]

Beech makes a great wood for making traditional style planes with a hand chopped mortise, for fon reason, it is very nice to work. Maple would be quite a bit tougher.

But I think you want to make a laminated plane, using the Krenov method? Then most any kind of wood can be used. I even know a guy who made a working set from Azobe, about the most "lively" wood I can think of.

[Allan Speers]

I would choose a species that has low overall movement, and a very low (even) T/R ratio. Beech is actually pretty bad, even though it was so commonly used. (Euro Beech is slightly better but still bad.) I'll never understand why it was so popular. Supposedly, because it's being diffuse-porous it wears better at the mouth, but there are more stable species that are also diffuse-porous. (Yellow Poplar comes quickly to mind)

Birch is miles better, stability-wise, and it's also diffuse-porous. So is Maple, BTW, though Maple has a lousy T/R ratio so wouldn't ever be my choice.

A small (incomplete) list of diffuse-porpous species: Beech, Birch, Maple, Apple, Cherry, Poplar, Alder, Cottonwood, Holly, Mahogany, Rosewood, Purpleheart, Blackwood, Ebony....


Irrespective of porosity type, durability is almost a contradictory attribute to stability. - but that's why god invented the laminated sole. IMO that's the only way to go. Make your sole out of Lignum, Ipe, etc, (Beech, if you must) and then pick an ultra-stable wood for the main body. IMO, ECE got it right with their Birch/ lignum & Birch/ Hornbeam planes.
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If using a single species, (no lamnation) some tasty choices (Hard, stable, low T/R, and diffuse-porous, AFAIK) would be:

Any Rosewood, Cocobolo, (well seasoned) Bloodwood, Brazilwood, Purpleheart, African Blackwood.

notes:

* Cocobolo is about as stable as it gets, and very hard, yet it can blow up on you. I think it has to be VERY well-seasoned.

* Ebony is lovely, hard, and diffuse, and a very low T/Rof 1.3, but doesn't win any awards for overall stability.

* I always meant to make some planes out of Black Mesquite, as it is stable & hard, but then I found out it’s only semi-diffuse porous. (sometimes even described as ring-porous, go figure) so it might need a laminated sole anyway. Same for Black Locust. You just can't win ....

[george wilson]

If you can't get beech,just use good,dry hard maple and you'll be fine.

[Stewie Simpson]

The moisture content within the wood your working with is an important consideration. The ideal m/c target should be no higher than 8 -9%.

[Steve Voigt]

I really hope that when newbies come here for advice, that they consider the source. You have a choice. You can listen to this clear, simple, unfussy advice from a guy who's built literally hundreds of planes and has demonstrated expertise in using them:


If you can't get beech,just use good,dry hard maple and you'll be fine.

Or, you can listen to a bunch of theoretical ramblings about how traditional planemaking woods are terrible, how you have to use expensive, unsustainable tropical woods, how difficult it all is, bla bla bla. Funny how the people with this advice never seem to offer any evidence that they've actually made planes.

Your call.

[george wilson]

Or,maybe they can accuse me of holding people down!!!:)

I have some very nice 16/4 hard maple. If I build another wooden plane(like I need another!),I'll likely use the maple.

[Pat Barry]

I wonder if anyone knows WHY beechwood became the defacto choice for wooden planes? I am hoping that one of the resident plane makers here might have some knowledge to pass on about this. I wonder at the same time why beechwood furniture isn't all that common - AFAIK anyway - maybe there is plenty of ti out there. Maybe its because beech was plentiful and reasonably tough material so it would hold up well for planes and other tools, but wasn't such a desirable wood for furniture that it was therefore relatively inexpensive. Who knows?? Maybe the people using it today are just using it because its traditional.

[Steve Voigt]

I wonder if anyone knows WHY beechwood became the defacto choice for wooden planes? I am hoping that one of the resident plane makers here might have some knowledge to pass on about this. I wonder at the same time why beechwood furniture isn't all that common - AFAIK anyway - maybe there is plenty of ti out there. Maybe its because beech was plentiful and reasonably tough material so it would hold up well for planes and other tools, but wasn't such a desirable wood for furniture that it was therefore relatively inexpensive. Who knows?? Maybe the people using it today are just using it because its traditional.


Just read this:
http://planemaker.com/articles_beech.html

[george wilson]

The 5000 board feet of beechwood we cut for toolmaking in about 1986 or 87 was the WORST wood I have ever seen to warp,twist and deform than any other wood I have ever tried to dry.

We cut it in February on museum property,using nice,straight 18"+ diameter beech trees. It was sealed on the ends and put into the attic of a large carriage house in the Historic Area that we used for storing wood for the trades. We left it there for several years before,in 1992,we began to make planes from it. FORTUNATELY,most planes are pretty SHORT!

We had to make some cooper's jointers several years later,and,anticipating problems with the beech,we selected a 6"x6" and planed it nice and straight and square. It soon twisted in a propeller shape. after several months,we planed it up again. Again it twisted the same way. Now,this beech was a nice,straight grained piece,bear in mind. We repeatedly let the billet acclimate for several months,always having it return to the twisted shape. Finally,when we were down to the last size we needed to make the plane,it finally magically stopped twisting. We finally had a stable 4x4.

This was the most obnoxious wood I have ever tried to use!!! As far as I am concerned,despite all the write up by Old Street,I think it was just used because it was plentiful,and still is.

It is also a fairly miserable wood to turn on a lathe,getting a "hairy" surface from the chisel.

[Allan Speers]

^ What George said.

Additionally, have you ever seen what happens to a Beech workbench if you remove the end pieces and let it sit in a non climate-controlled room? I have, three times. (two of mine and one of a friends.) They basically explode. - And that's with European Beech.

How many vintage Beech planes are full of cracks? Probably 95% or more. Yet I have seen many dozens of vintage Birch planes, and have yet to see a single crack.

Beech clearly does have certain qualities that make it beneficial for plan making, but stability 'aint one of them.

Whatever...

[Prashun Patel]

I got lucky. The American Beech I had taken down in my back yard yielded about 500bf usable wood. Stains and some spalt notwithstanding, it has been pretty stable for me. I made mirror frame that warped, but most of the rest has made very fine drawers and cabinets and stools.

[Steve Voigt]

This was the most obnoxious wood I have ever tried to use!!! As far as I am concerned,despite all the write up by Old Street,I think it was just used because it was plentiful,and still is.



Larry's article is full of excellent information, but perhaps this is the most relevant 'graph:


This property of beech also creates problems. It is difficult to dry without degrade because the tangential surfaces give off moisture so easily. This is so prevalent that it is nearly impossible to locate a source of thick beech today. We can't help but think early plane makers also had problems drying beech. If there was another wood that offered as good a combination of characteristics, wouldn't plane makers have gladly made a change? There are similar woods that don't have these problems in drying and they can make some good planes. These include maple, cherry, persimmon, yellow birch and pear or apple. Some are plentiful and were often used for craftsman-made planes as well as some commercially made planes but they don't equal beech for common commercial plane making use.

I've worked with several sawmills as well as drying beech myself, and can attest to the difficulties. It's an enormous pain in the arse. As Larry says, why would anyone go to all the trouble if there weren't some other payoff for using this material? (Note also that these problems pertain only to drying green lumber; once the material is fully dried, stability really isn't an issue any more.)

It amuses me when people say that beech must've been used only because it was cheap, plentiful, and easy to work. One thing I've learned from studying old planes is that the makers went to almost insane lengths to get every detail right, to make the planes work as well as possible. Below is my Routledge (mid-19th c.) fillister. Note the double-dovetailed boxing. Consider all the fine details on a plane like this: the skew, tapered iron and tapered knicker, elaborate hardware, etc. Does it really seem plausible that makers would lavish such attention on the making, and then use a throwaway, inferior species just because it was cheap?

(just to be clear, I also agree with Larry that plenty of other species will make excellent planes. For a craftsman-made plane, there is no necessity to use beech. My purpose here is to push back against the idea that beech is junk, which is a pretty clear insult--intended or not--to me and all the other people who are making traditional planes out of traditional materials)

344379

[george wilson]

Glad I amuse you,Steve! We need to get entertainment where we can.

I'll have to disagree that beech is not a problem AFTER it is dry. Did you read my story about making the cooper's jointer? And,that beech had definitely been dried for many years longer than was necessary.

I made my planes out of beech,too. If you have seen the pictures. Had to. It was the traditional material. No insult was intended to you.

[John Vernier]

I have some beech which was felled and split into billets 3 years ago. This spring I milled some of it into rough rectangular blanks, and I'm watching it carefully for further twist and degrade. So far so good, although it wasn't probably the finest grade beech to begin with. I wonder how much the stability varies tree to tree? With any luck I'll try my hand at plane making over the winter.

I have often wondered why the first American commercial plane makers used birch in the mid-eighteenth century, and then switched largely to beech by the next generation. My guess is that Beech didn't grow in coastal New England, and that beech became available when Western Pennsylvania and the eastern Ohio River Valley became more heavily settled. Does that make sense?

Incidentally, I understand beech was a common choice for the covered portions of upholstered furniture - couches, wing chairs, etc, which would of course have the visible wooden bits in mahogany, walnut or cherry depending on cost. It certainly had its place but I don't think it was considered very pretty, except perhaps by tool makers who, let's face it, look at things differently from everybody else.

[george wilson]

O.K.,I'm going to confess: I enjoy a nice slab of beech as much as anyone else. It can have a beautiful pink color that I really enjoy. I have some European beech that has that beautiful pinkness. Unfortunately,it is only 2" thick. Most of the American beech we made our planes out of are nice and pink,too.

And,I also enjoy the fine flecking you see on perfectly quartered beech,like on the sides of planes.

I really don't think a wooden plane looks quite right unless it is made of beech. I guess I'm too traditional in my thinking. But,I also think that maple makes an excellent choice.

But,you have to understand,I HAVE to have SOME means of getting back at that twisting beech we dried!!:) Unfortunately,I have only a small amount of 16/4 beech. I may HAVE to resort to maple if I make my Norris adjuster wooden plane. Actually,I have boxwood more than large enough to make any plane I wish. I just can't bring myself to saw up my 10" logs. Someone will end up getting hold of them after I die,and make book ends out of those logs I have.

[Pat Barry]

Larry's article is full of excellent information, but perhaps this is the most relevant 'graph:



I've worked with several sawmills as well as drying beech myself, and can attest to the difficulties. It's an enormous pain in the arse. As Larry says, why would anyone go to all the trouble if there weren't some other payoff for using this material? (Note also that these problems pertain only to drying green lumber; once the material is fully dried, stability really isn't an issue any more.)

It amuses me when people say that beech must've been used only because it was cheap, plentiful, and easy to work. One thing I've learned from studying old planes is that the makers went to almost insane lengths to get every detail right, to make the planes work as well as possible. Below is my Routledge (mid-19th c.) fillister. Note the double-dovetailed boxing. Consider all the fine details on a plane like this: the skew, tapered iron and tapered knicker, elaborate hardware, etc. Does it really seem plausible that makers would lavish such attention on the making, and then use a throwaway, inferior species just because it was cheap?

(just to be clear, I also agree with Larry that plenty of other species will make excellent planes. For a craftsman-made plane, there is no necessity to use beech. My purpose here is to push back against the idea that beech is junk, which is a pretty clear insult--intended or not--to me and all the other people who are making traditional planes out of traditional materials)


So, with all that in mind, why do you use beech? For you own amusement? You are a craftsman. Why wouldn't you invest your efforts into another species for your craftsman made planes? There must be a reason. Is it what your customers expect? Do you get more of a feeling of accomplishment using a difficult to manage material?

[Steve Voigt]

So, with all that in mind, why do you use beech? For you own amusement? You are a craftsman. Why wouldn't you invest your efforts into another species for your craftsman made planes? There must be a reason. Is it what your customers expect? Do you get more of a feeling of accomplishment using a difficult to manage material?


Pat,

"Craftsman made" is a term for planes made by woodworkers for their own use, in contrast to commercially-made planes. Typically, craftsman-made planes have been built out whatever was available, while commercially-made planes are normally made of beech, with a few exceptions. That was the point of Larry's (and my) reference to craftsman-made.

As for why I use beech, I posted a link in reply to you earlier. All the major reasons for using beech are outlined in that article by Larry Williams. Secondary reasons include aesthetics (as George mentioned in his last post), workability (beech is very nice to work), feel in use (very different from maple, for example), tradition, and yes, customer expectations. But "a feeling of accomplishment using a difficult material" is not one of the reasons. If you want to make something right, you surmount the difficulties, be they logistical, technical, or whatever else.

[Kees Heiden]

I sure can report troubles with beech billets too! The stuff really likes to crack. My longer planes are all about an inch shorter then I wanted them to be, because that was the absolute maximum length I could wring from those billets. Beech also like to rot, and seems to be delicious for all kinds of creepy worms. My wood came from a guy who was so stupid to store his wood outside! Most of his stock was rotting away, only after digging deep in his stacks of wood I was able to find some usable stuff.

Beech dries very quickly and that is its problem. So slowing down the drying rate as much as possible, without introducing spalting, molding or worm damage is the key. Maybe (just an ide from me), it was too warm and too dry on your attic, George?

The old time planemakers would dry their wood for many years. That probably wasn't neccessary to get the wood down to a low moisture content in the first place, but it was probably neccessary to get the wood to cycle a couple of times from wet to dry to slightly wet to dry again etc, so you get some hysteresis effect in the wood. When wood tends to get through a couple of these cycles it tends to become a bit more stable. And as soon as the plane is made and finished with a good oil finish, it seems to be a lot more stable too. David Weaver reports something like this too. He was making a nice tryplane one day and then, when he wasn't finished yet, he had a very dry weather spell and imediatelyy he got some surface cracking. Oiling the plane helps to prevent that.

But beech is not the only commercially used wood in the world. The Japanese use some kind of white oak. The Germans and Austrians like hornbeam, until they ran out of suitable supplies. The French like to use cormier, or service tree in English, a mediterranean kind of fruitwood that is very hard and dense. The Chinese seem to favour some kinds of rosewood. All these countries have plenty supply of beech too.

[Stewie Simpson]

Quite right Kees.

http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af219/swagman001/goldenberg%20france%20hand%20plane/DSC_0329_zps6e56d1d7.jpg (http://s1009.photobucket.com/user/swagman001/media/goldenberg%20france%20hand%20plane/DSC_0329_zps6e56d1d7.jpg.html)

VRAI CORMIER (TRUE CORMIER)
http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af219/swagman001/goldenberg%20france%20hand%20plane/DSC_0336_zps63804e43.jpg (http://s1009.photobucket.com/user/swagman001/media/goldenberg%20france%20hand%20plane/DSC_0336_zps63804e43.jpg.html)

[george wilson]

I LOVE the looks of that cormier!! Looks like boxwood!!

Notice the completely off kilter grain orientation!

[Pat Barry]

Pat,

"Craftsman made" is a term for planes made by woodworkers for their own use, in contrast to commercially-made planes. Typically, craftsman-made planes have been built out whatever was available, while commercially-made planes are normally made of beech, with a few exceptions. That was the point of Larry's (and my) reference to craftsman-made.

As for why I use beech, I posted a link in reply to you earlier. All the major reasons for using beech are outlined in that article by Larry Williams. Secondary reasons include aesthetics (as George mentioned in his last post), workability (beech is very nice to work), feel in use (very different from maple, for example), tradition, and yes, customer expectations. But "a feeling of accomplishment using a difficult material" is not one of the reasons. If you want to make something right, you surmount the difficulties, be they logistical, technical, or whatever else.
Thanks for the responses Steve. Do you have issues with cracking like George and Kees describe? What precautions do you take to minimize the damage? Do you know of other plane makers using woods other than beech for their work?

[Steve Voigt]

Thanks for the responses Steve. Do you have issues with cracking like George and Kees describe? What precautions do you take to minimize the damage? Do you know of other plane makers using woods other than beech for their work?


Pat,

I've never had any issues with checking once a plane was finished. Plenty of pieces get rejected for checking during the drying process, but if if a piece has dried without developing any checks, it should be ok. Someone mentioned earlier that many old planes have checks in them. That's true, but it would be true of any wood that was left in an unheated barn for 150 years. It's unrealistic to look at old planes that have been discarded or treated like trash, and then make judgments about their durability. A metal plane doesn't look so great either if its been sitting in a leaky shed for a century.

Regarding other woods, planemakers have always used other species...rosewood in particular, also box, pear, and others. Caleb James uses native pear, rosewood and persimmon on occasion. Oliver Sparks uses rosewood and box quite a bit. Phil Edwards uses box and he used to use goncalo alves. You can see lots of examples from these three guys if you check out their instagram feeds. And, as someone mentioned, the earliest New England colonists liked yellow birch. So beech has never been the only wood, but it's been the mainstay that was used 90% of the time.

[Pat Barry]

Thanks Steve

[Blake M Williams]

Thanks for all the input, I should measure and post a pic of the iron I have. I have been waiting on a small shipment of misc wood pieces, I wasn't really sure what to buy but the ppl at the hardwood place seemed nice enough, I'm kinda getting a sample shipment I guess you could say. Waiting since Tuesday. I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with the Odessa, Tx area but I do not have any real lumber yards aside from the big box stores. I have even called several cabinet shops in the area and they all have to order in. I've been talking to Brazos Forest Products, what do yall suggest?