New Member - and a question

[jon harriman]

Hello, I have been lurking here for a month enjoying the wealth of knowledge from this experienced group. I have been slowly building myself a workshop in the garage, amassing a colelction of mostly power machines but now find myself looking at handtools (planes, chisels, etc).

I am building a dresser for the bedroom, have completed the case, and have just glued up the top. Using a card scraper, I evened out the joints after the glue up, and made the glue lines disappear. I am somewhat pleased with the results, but am looking to improve my technique. When I run my hand with the grain it feels flat and smooth. However, running across the grain, I can feel high spots and valleys. Should I use a handplane to level the top? If so, which one do I use? I'd rather not use a power sander.

I have read that a straight edge across a plane blade would leave tracks, and that a rounded blade is preferred. Is the rounded blade created at the grinder or during the honing stages on the wetstone?

I guess thats more than 1 question, but I look forward to hearing your responses.

[Michael Fross]

Hello Jon,

I'm fairly new here myself and am amazed at the knowledge and friendliness of the folks here. Welcome.

As for your plane question, I would run a smooth plane across the top. This will help even out the surface, but will also give a great depth when finished.

Smooth plane blades should have rounded corners so as not to rip the wood fibers, but the rounding only has to be very very faint. I just give each corner extra pressure during each phase of sharpening and that seems to do the trick for me. Graham Blackburn showed this technique at a seminar and it seems to work for me.

Kind regards,

Michael

[Richard Gillespie]

jon h.;

I'm not an expert at this, just self taught and my teacher is a dummy. A variety of curved and straight blades are used with planes. For example, the scrub plane uses a pronounced curve and a 45 degree angle of attack to quickly cut material off the rough cut lumber. Then with a jack plane you start with a lesser curved blade running with the grain to flatten the stock and then continue again with a jack and a slightly less curved blade to further flatten.

After that I use a #7 with a slightly curved blade to further flatten. In this context there is probably .010" or less difference between the middle of the blade and outside corners. I then go to several different smoothers (which ever works best that day) to smooth out the top. Scraping is the last step in the process. I use a LV scraping plane for that.

All in all you will still feel the ridge's and valleys across the grain and to me that tells the story that it was worked with hand tools. To eliminate those you would have to sand.

Now to grinding the curves on your irons. If you do a search on this and other forums you will find various jigs people have made to assist them in grinding them. I do it by hand and eye. I then use the scary sharp method to continue the sharpening process. On the slightly curved blades, I grind those straight with a Veritas jig and using a rocking motion on the scary sharp get a slight curve. I use a slight curve on my smothers and jointer's to prevent corner dig ins. However, on my bevel up planes and block planes I keep the blade straight.

I hope this helps. Welcome to the slippery slope.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Welcome, Jon. First thing is that a western smoother is not the tool with which to level surfaces, except for extra long smoothers. Western smoothers are short and intended to smooth whatever hills and dales they ride across. So for leveling, you'll want a try plane. I like wooden planes, so I use either a long Japanese smoother (if the leveling job is minor) or an HNT Gordon try plane. In both cases the blade edge should be chamfered slightly, very slightly (the Japanese planes have the edges cut off, so it's pretty obvious where the chamfer has to happen), which can easily be accomplished by applying more pressure to both sides when sharpening.

BTW, try to obtain the August, 2005 issue of Pop Woodworking. There's an article in there detailing the types of planes, written by Adam Cherubini.

Pam

[jon harriman]

Thanks for the replies!! Would the new Veritas Bevel up Low Angle Jack Plane be a good choice for leveling this surface?

[Mike Wenzloff]

In a word, yes.

Mike

[Keith Outten]

Jon,

I guess you know by now everyone uses their full names. Please send me a PM and include your last name and I will adjust your user login.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Thanks for the replies!! Would the new Veritas Bevel up Low Angle Jack Plane be a good choice for leveling this surface?

Most likely. I started out using a LN LA Jack 62 for several jobs and it came very close to doing the smoothing, too. From what I've heard, the LV is even better.

Pam