Skew direction.

[Oskar Sedell]

Hi all,

had a bit of luck at the local flee market yesterday. Found this skewed moving filister which will get a face lift and hopefully work nicely.

The blade is skewed, so that it will hit the edge of the board first. There are also skewed planes, where the foremost part of the blade is in the corner of the rabbet, "pulling" the plane into the cut. What is the theory behind choosing one over the other?

For example, the Philly Planes moving filister is skewed into the rabbet (please correct me if I'm wrong on this, judging from the wedge on the homepage I'm drawing this conclusion), while the Philly Planes dovetail plane has a "reverse skew", like in the picture below. Both are in essence moving filisters, but seems to be skewed in different directions. Why could this be?

Is it just a question of if the shavings come out right or left?

I'd like to build me a plane for cutting male sliding dovetails, and this is part of the reason for asking.

Looking forward to hear your views on this.

Best regards,

Oskar

344299

[lowell holmes]

What is a "male sliding dovetail"?

[Patrick Chase]

What is a "male sliding dovetail"?

The half of a sliding dovetail that slides into the "female" socket. Use your imagination, it's not "hard".

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Oskar

I do not know if it really matters. I vaguely recall Steve Knight saying that the skew needed to be high at the leading edge. However the dovetail plane I first built has the high at the trailing edge ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/EvolvingADovetailPlane2_html_m4c7e0299.jpg
It does not appear to matter much. The plane performs very well ..


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/EvolvingADovetailPlane2_html_5d1ba357.jpg


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/EvolvingADovetailPlane2_html_51dd2e51.jpg



There are more details here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/EvolvingADovetailPlane2.html

There is also a female dovetail plane on my website. However the one I recommend to build is simply a modification of the Stanley #79. This can do both male and female joints ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Sliding%20dovetail/33a_zpsidiigdnu.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Sliding%20dovetail/5a_zpsudmzaeup.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Oskar Sedell]

Lowell: I meant exactly what Patrick wrote; the male part of a sliding dovetail.

Derek: Thank you! I've read your article before, and it is part of the inspiration for making such a plane. Maybe you are right, that it doesn't matter how the skew is placed. It would be interesting to hear if someone have noticed a difference in planing with/cross the grain.

Maybe having the trailing edge in the corner of the dovetail reduces the risk of splitting off the corner of the male part when planing cross grain. That is, the corner at the edge of the board (if that makes it clearer :) ).

[lowell holmes]

I never visulaized what you were talking about. Having seen a picture of one, I understand what you are talking about.:)

[Oskar Sedell]

Just found this blog post from Phil Edwards about his choice of skew for the dovetail plane.

http://philsville.blogspot.de/2012/11/dovetail-plane.html

The logic makes sense to me, but I've never tried such a plane. Anyone who noticed this effect?

[Derek Cohen]

Oskar, Phil has used the same skew configuration as my plane (which I built 6 years before Phil built his), so my comments about the skew direction would answer your question.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Oskar Sedell]

Thank you Derek. I will try it out, and I'm sure it will work fine. I'll report back when I've found a suitable iron and the time to build the plane :)