Hand planing for the beginner?

[Steve Mathews]

Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.

[ken hatch]

Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.

Steve,

That's a pretty big hunk to start with.

Lie-Nielsen planes are very good but over kill for the first plane you need learn. Because of the thick iron it is harder to get the needed camber on your "jack" plane (normally a #5) and because it is a roughing plane a Bailey style plane with a thin cutter is lighter and easier to use.

It is usually a three plane process, a Jack to rough out the board, a jointer to true the board, and then the smoother for final prep. Getting to four square can be frustrating the first few times, change that, it can be frustrating if you do not do it often.

ken

[Mark Rainey]

Steve, congratulations on the booty! Yes, face and edge jointing, followed by thicknessing and squaring is a good endeavor, but ease into things by starting with a piece of pine hopefully already machined into a flat board with square edges. Try to get shavings on the edge of the board. Note the grain of the board and if you are planing with it or against it. Sight down the plane & note how your blade protrudes from the sole and how you can control the thickness of shaving by amount of blade showing. Try to get the blade square to the sole. Enjoy watching those shavings fly!

[Jim Matthews]

May I suggest you begin your practice on Poplar?
Many begin with Pine, which has unforgiving aspects that trip up many a novice (like me). Poplar is *much* better behaved.

It's compliant to handplanes, relatively inexpensivensive and takes most finishes well.

Rather than start with something rough sawn, consider stock that is already "surfaced" as a starting point.

Sailors "learn the ropes" in a safe harbor at the till of a small boat in clear weather. A similar approach will yield increments of competence that add up to enjoyment.

https://www.renaissancewoodworker.com/hand-tool-projects-for-the-beginner/

[Steve Mathews]

I have to confess that it's not as if I never used a handplane, it's just admitting to not knowing much about them. I had an assortment of older Stanleys but after some frustration using them and more so viewing a Rob Cosman episode where he stated that getting some of these tools to function properly may not be worth the effort I eventually sold or gave them away. Obviously I purchased what Rob recommended to start afresh. My approach would've probably been different at a younger age. Having said all this I'm excited about learning something new. I like the premise mentioned in the article Jim mentioned, start with a small project instead of working on a piece of wood without a use. I recall when first trying my hand at woodturning the boredom practicing cuts with a skew. It wasn't until making something useful like a bowl that finally made it enjoyable. Most of it turned into decorative firewood but it was more fun to make.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

My reviewing of the Rob Cosman channel is that he uses Wind River planes, not LN. Still, he is a proponent of good equipment.
I’m not sure giving away your Stanley Bailey planes was a good use of resources, but that’s your issue. I have a Record #7 that takes gorgeous shavings that drives me nuts because the lateral adjustment isn’t working properly, but I still use it. Most of my other Record planes have been replaced by Lee Valley, as money became available.
Enjoy your new planes, and your grandchildren will probably enjoy the quality, too.

[Jim Koepke]

Steve, your profile doesn't list your location. You may live near another member who would be willing to spend time with you to help you understand the use of your planes.

Also knowing your location would help with suggesting variious woods to use. In my previous location poplar wasn't very common. In my current location alder is often available.

Pine or fir is often recommended because it is available almost everywhere.

If you were in my area my suggestion would be to pick up some mill ends/firewood for practice.

This post may be of help > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?148076

jtk

[Mike Walsh]

you might want to check out the Fine Woodworking website which has a free video series running this weekend for Father's Day, one is from Mike Pekovich on "Fundamentals of Handplanes"

[Andrew Seemann]

I'd say start with something like a #4 and just plane a piece of machine planed wood to get a feel for how it performs and reacts. See what changing the blade depth, frog width, going with, against, across, the grain does. Go straight, skew right, skew left, do slight skew, do heavy skew, etc. The main thing is just to learn how the plane reacts to things, and start mentally filing away all that information, so you can anticipate what to so in what situation. This includes learning all the "wrong" things, mostly so you know what they are, and what they do or don't do. It is almost impossible to damage a plane in normal use, short of dropping on the floor.

After that, just try out all the planes and see what they do and how they react. There are "right" orders of planes to use, and "right" ways to do things, but learning that stuff comes later.

Plus the "right" way of doing something for someone else may not be the "right" way for you to do it. For example, Cosman's top 10 most used planes are almost completely opposite of what my top 10 most used planes are, and yet we both manage to turn out good work. We must just prefer to use different planes, and one might use machines in one situation and the other hand tools.

[Steve Mathews]

I'd say start with something like a #4 and just plane a piece of machine planed wood to get a feel for how it performs and reacts. See what changing the blade depth, frog width, going with, against, across, the grain does. Go straight, skew right, skew left, do slight skew, do heavy skew, etc. The main thing is just to learn how the plane reacts to things, and start mentally filing away all that information, so you can anticipate what to so in what situation. This includes learning all the "wrong" things, mostly so you know what they are, and what they do or don't do. It is almost impossible to damage a plane in normal use, short of dropping on the floor.

After that, just try out all the planes and see what they do and how they react. There are "right" orders of planes to use, and "right" ways to do things, but learning that stuff comes later.

Plus the "right" way of doing something for someone else may not be the "right" way for you to do it. For example, Cosman's top 10 most used planes are almost completely opposite of what my top 10 most used planes are, and yet we both manage to turn out good work. We must just prefer to use different planes, and one might use machines in one situation and the other hand tools.

Your comment begs to ask, what are your top 10 most used planes?

[Tom Trees]

Have a look at David Charlesworth's videos for just about the absolute best demonstration of planing technique, hands down!
He can describe better through a video, than most could demonstrate in a real life scenario.
Super descriptive, and real master of conveying the most accurate wording possible.
You can tell he has worked harder than anyone to make those videos.


Saying that, I use the cap iron rather than honing those troublesome microbevels and having tight mouths, the corners of my irons aren't relieved so much, as that disables the cap iron
from working correctly, (if its further than a 32" away from the edge,then it won't get close enough for elimination of tearout)
I suggest you keep at least one iron honed with no camber for a shooting board at the least.
If you intend to use the cap iron but you've honed the corners off already, then it will take some time until you will be able to hone that camber off your smoother,
and you stand a good chance of going down silly time wasting rabbit holes that yield inferior results, with more faff included.

Watch David Charlesworth then David Weaver (David W on youtube) afterwards.
Mr Weaver demonstrates how to use the double iron correctly.
Regardless what they say, very very few folks on youtube have this down,

If you cannot see straight shavings in hardwoods, then the shavings are not being fully affected by the cap iron, which can lead to tearout depending on what you're working.
Tight mouths are for few things like arrises, so not the best practice for surfacing your stock.

Enjoy your hamper!
Tom

[Curt Putnam]

Read :Coarse, Medium, Fine" by Christopher Schwarz. Many do not agree with him but that piece is a great place to start.

I agree - get the # 4 and a piece of poplar and start planing on the edge, then the face, and then end grain, This is assuming you can sharpen properly.

Spend time on Derek Cohen's website IntheWoodShop.com

Ask lots of questions

[Andrew Seemann]

Your comment begs to ask, what are your top 10 most used planes?


In rough order from most to least. Some are duplicate planes, but with a different mouth configuration. Bear in mind I am not a hand tool purist, so I don't generally thickness and edge joint by hand. I mostly use hand tools to augment power tool wood working and avoid sanding dust where I can.

There are a few more I would like to get, specifically a #271, and I've always wanted a #45. I'd pick up a #5 1/4 if I saw it for cheap and in good condition. Actually that is true of almost any plane. "Hi, my name is Andrew, and I have problem with buying used planes on the cheap."

All the below are used, from around 1900 - 1950, typically Stanley, but some other makes as well. I don't like the heavy bodies or thick irons of the modern makers (or prices :) ).

#4 Smooth, with tight mouth for smoothing and occasional shooting.
#4 Smooth, with wider mouth for quick removal of machine marks and planing off glue drips (after the scraper).
Standard angle block planes, 9 1/2 style, mine are Millers Falls and Sargent.
#3 Smooth for cleaning up tear out, woods with rapidly changing grain, and woods that are particularly hard or tiring to plane (e.g. annoyingly hard oaks, rock maple).
#5 Jack, tight mouth for quick cleaning up edges/edge jointing small pieces, occasional face planing.
#7 or #8 for edge jointing boards too long for the jointer
#4 1/2 Smooth, for woods friendly to wide shavings, like white pine, soft maple, poplar, etc.
#78 Moving Fillister, for adjusting rabbets, also doubles as a shoulder plane.
#71 Router, for cleaning up or deepening dados and grooves that I didn't do right on the table saw.
#5 Jack, wide mouth for quick face jointing prior to running through the planer for woods too wide for the jointer.
#6 Fore, tight mouth for cleaning/truing up panels, occasional face planing.
#40 Scrub, for quick removal of wood, particularly when I am pi$$ed at a piece of wood.
Low angle block plane. Never cared for this, much prefer standard 9 1/2, but gets used occasionally.
Specialty planes, like #79 side rabbet, #140 skew rabbet, compass plane, bull nose rabbet etc.

[Warren Mickley]

Schwarz, Cosman, and Charlesworth, all mentioned in this thread, all make excellent videos. The content does not match the production quality. I watched Cosman's 10 hand plane video yesterday. A long time hand tool woodworker, I owned just one of those planes.

For rough work, I use a double iron jack plane that I made 42 years ago. It weighs less than three pounds. Cosman recommends a seven pound jack plane; I cannot imagine anyone wanting to use this thing in a serious way. He recommends the 5 1/2 jack plane so he can swap back beveled blades with the 4 1/2 and 7 planes. Woodworkers who have learned to use double iron planes do not need back bevels. Cosman lists no plow, no dado plane, and only the dinkiest of moving fillisters.

Here is a list:

Wooden jack
Wooden trying plane
Jointer
Smoothing plane

Universal plow (a plow with movable fence, multiple cutters)
Moving fillister
Dado plane
Rabbet plane.

After this Badger plane, Strike block plane, hollows and rounds etc.

[Mike Kreinhop]

Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.

I am deeply invested in LN planes and chisels and was struggling on where to begin. All of the tools worked, but I seemed to be missing the hype associated with LN. Fortunately for me, my location and free time provided a great opportunity to attend David Charlesworth's Tool Tuning course in Devon, UK (as well as his other three courses). I watched the Sellers and Crossman videos on YouTube, but for me, there is nothing better than face to face training.

While my LN planes were good out of the box, they were great after the Tool Tuning course. Included training in the course is how to use the plane, and for me it was a bit of a challenge at first as I had to unlearn what I grew up doing. Fortunately, Sir was patient with me and I had a great time. If conditions and funds permit, I strongly recommend David's courses.

[Robert Engel]

I’m with Mike ^ to some extent. I started out with Stanley’s when I bought a WoodRiver for me the extra weight, thicker blade, and better adjusters actually prompted me to sell my Stanley’s.

I have to confess stepping up” to a LN wasn’t as big a step as I anticipated. Granted the blades are flat and the finish is a little better but once I got the WR iron flattened I can’t tell a difference. I think Cosman has it right on the WR planes.

That said the LN 4 1/2 is one sweet tool

Water under the bridge but I would not have purchased all those planes at one time.

[Andrew Seemann]

Learning on old tools does admittedly have a steep learning curve. You need to have a lot of things mostly right before anything goes right as a whole. The frustrating part is you tend to be learning how to sharpen, how to adjust the tools, and how to use the tools all at the same time. I do see the logic in buying something that works from the get go, because you get to find out what the end result is supposed to be, which is a large part of the learning process.

If like me, you started out in your early 20s without a lot of money, you also tend to be learning on subpar (i.e. cheap) tools and with low quality sharpening equipment, because you don't know and can't afford anything better. That combination as mentioned is quite frustrating. The good part is that if you stick with it, you tend to get quite good at it, because you learn all the "wrong" things and why they are wrong as well as learning the "right" things and why they are right (and when the "wrong" things actually work better than the "right" things). The bad thing is that it is very tempting to give up on hand tools all together and go back to your sub-par but workable power tools.

That said, it is probably easier to learn on old tools today than it was for me. I learned hand tool skills back before that interwebs thing, back when you had to learn things from books and magazines (remember those?). Today you have all kinds of internet resources, which is great, with all kinds of videos on nearly every tool and operation. The bad part is that you have so many that it is overwhelming. When I learned, you just read a FWW article by Frid or Klausz and did what they did. There weren't that many "experts" and in general they tended to be fairly similar in what they said and did.

Now you have millions of videos by thousands of woodworkers, many of whom seem believable, but may make an experienced person cringe. Further complicating it, the folks I learned from did this work for a living, and that was their main goal. They tended to do things as fast and simple as possible while maintaining the level of quality they needed. Now, most -but not all- hand tool people are hobbyists, and tend to be on the "romantic" side of woodworking, and approach it from a hobby perspective. They want to own lots of tools and use each one as much as possible, even if there is a more efficient way doing something. I think that accounts for a lot of the difference between a top 10 list from Cosman, vs one from someone like Warren, or even me. Rob is catering to the hobby market, because that is really the only market for those tools and skills these days. Warren actually does it for a job, and me, I need to get stuff done before my wife can't wait any longer and buys the item from the store:)

If you are doing Rob style work and doing things like him, his tool list makes sense. If you do stuff a different way, a different list makes sense. Kind of the way it is for everything in woodworking.

[bill epstein]

Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.

I may be alone but think that's an excellent idea. Choose one plane, a larger one like a 5 1/2 Jack and stick to it, though.

You'll want to school yourself on proper work flow and check for level and square frequently as you go. Once you have level, parallel, and square S4S, then move on to a smoother, #4. After you have that, properly cambered and making shiny burnished passes that remove marks from the Jack, you can tackle anything.

Early on you might get frustrated and reach for the coarse stone du jour to "improve" the factory blade edge and angle. Don't. Stick to an abrasive 2000 grit or above (I use 8000) finding the angle and pulling the blade toward you lightly no more than 10 passes for honing as you work. Once you have the muscles and muscle memory then you can screw up the blades trying out this stone and that technique.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I'm a beginner.

I took a class at the Homestead Heritage School in Waco, Texas and learned the Paul Sellers method. Pretty simple, but time consuming to get it right. Get a 30" board. Use a square to draw a line across the 30" about a quarter inch from the top edge. Plane to that line. Not over it, right up to the line. Always leave the line. Start with a 4 or 5 Jack Plane. Sharpen and adjust plane until you get light shavings.

Stance is left foot forward and use your whole body to move the plane, not just your arms.

Rinse and repeat.

Then try a 45 degree angle.

Then try scratching up the surface and cleaning the face of the board

Then try end grain.

I think we planed for a full day, before moving on to the chisels.

Consider taking the class. It was well worth it, and you'll actually build some furniture the first week.

[Prashun Patel]

I thought it was easier to start with smoothing, then jointing, then flattening. Smoothing a reasonably straight grained wood, while hard to perfect, is a function of great sharpening. That's the first skill I'd learn.

Jointing requires reading the wood and understanding flatness in a single dimension, and selectively planing a region of a board. The narrowness of it makes it more straight forward than face flattening, which is the hardest, IMHO. That requires you to really read a board, understand where to plane, and how much to plane.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

You purchased lie nielsen, you, you don't need to learn a bunch about tune up, that leaves three things:



Making a blade sharp
keeping a blade sharp
using the plane


Your blade is already sharp, some might argue that you can make it sharper, but that takes us (2) above.

Backs should be flat on the back, but you can always polish that and make sure.

I use a Tormek to place a hollow grind on the blade and then free hand the blade to keep it sharp. You can either learn to free hand or get a guide. How do you intend to sharpen? Sand paper? machine? stones (diamond, arkansas, water)?

For (3), just go for it. Get some clean lumber and see if you dimension it, make it flat and square.

[Jim Matthews]

For (3), just go for it. Get some clean lumber and see if you dimension it, make it flat and square.

^^^^
This.
There is no substitute for making sawdust.

[James Pallas]

I would start by doing what I do with an unfamiliar plane. Start with a descent piece of wood. Go from no cut to light to heavy, move the lateral, adjust the chip breaker for different settings. Get the feel of each plane. Even the same make and model can have a slightly different feel.

[David Eisenhauer]

After sharpening, get a piece of 2x4 or something already relatively flat and smooth without knots or places with wild grain change looking spots (at this stage, you don't want anomalies to del with) and back the iron up on the smoother (#4?). Start pushing the plane down the length of the board while advancing the iron to make it start cutting lightly. Just keep pushing the plane and observe what happens when you do certain actions - cut deeper or shallower - move the lateral lever, see what that does - plane the other way to see which way works better and then look at the grain of the timber - push the plane straight ahead, then at a slight angle to the direction of travel, then at a 45 deg angle - vary the weight of your hands on the plane as you move it, especially as you start the cut and finish the cut at the end of the board - turn the board on edge and try to keep the plane balanced on the edge for a square cut - etc, - etc - etc. Just start learning what a plane does when you do "X". Right now, you don't need to start trying to get four square, just need to learn what a plane does on fairly tame wood as a result of one of your actions.

[Tim Best]

+1 On what David and what everyone else has mentioned. All good advice. Until about a year ago, I had never picked up a hand plane. Had I read this thread or the 2000+ similar threads (and actually followed the sage advice) before I jumped in, the learning curve may not have been quite as steep.

Not too hijack the thread, but a question/thought for the collective: Earlier it was suggested that the OP stay away from pine for the test board. While I agree that Borg pine/fir is difficult to work with, I also consider it a valuable learning material.

First, it’s abundant, relatively sustainable, and inexpensive.

Second, if chosen with few knots and minimal abrupt grain changes, one knows he/she/they is (are) making progress with hand tools when consistent shavings are made in pine or similar material without a ton of exertion.

Third, because pine requires a sharp edge and then some, one knows when he/she/they is (are) making progress with sharpening. I don’t consider my chisels sharp unless I can pare pine end grain with minimal effort.

All that is to say that I enjoy working with poplar and I will never try to chop dovetails in SYP again!😏

Tim

[Thomas McCurnin]

At Homestead Heritage, all we used was pine. It was clear pine, but pine nonetheless. A little fuzzy for chisel work, but good enough with which to practice.

[Jim Koepke]

Depending on the local humidity and how the wood is stored, pine can move a lot in a short period of time.

One lumber yard didn't sticker their stacks of pine. They also didn't let customers pick through the piles. Some of the pieces split or cupped between the lumber yard and my home on the drive home. Never went back to that lumber yard.

jtk

[Erich Weidner]

Read :Coarse, Medium, Fine" by Christopher Schwarz. Many do not agree with him but that piece is a great place to start.


Spend time on Derek Cohen's website IntheWoodShop.com

Ask lots of questions

+1 There is also a video LN sells for Course, Medium, Fine. Watching that a few times made things click. Derek's site is also awesome. Also a Chris Schwarz video from Popular Woodworking called Handplane Basics, a better way to use handplanes. I think that necessary along with course, medium, fine as for some reason the C,M,F video didn't really go into the Jack plane much (as I recall. I watch so much they get jumbled in my head).

Don't feel shamed by jumping in whole hog on LN stuff. What all did you pick up from LN? What new loot? :)

[Erich Weidner]

I like the premise mentioned in the article Jim mentioned, start with a small project instead of working on a piece of wood without a use. I recall when first trying my hand at woodturning the boredom practicing cuts with a skew. It wasn't until making something useful like a bowl that finally made it enjoyable. Most of it turned into decorative firewood but it was more fun to make.

I definitely relate to this. Only recently have I developed more patience for pure practice on scrap. I'm just getting re-started with dovetails and I couldn't bring myself to "waste" precious shop time on off cuts, but I needed a planing stop and I just butchered a few trying to make one that would clamp into my face vice. But I digress...

At any rate, I'm also in the middle of a three project hand tool only vow. 1st project was a pair of sawbenches. 2nd is a thick shaker-ish side table (Franken Table II it will be called), and 3rd is a medium sized tool chest (just started). So feel liberated to make Franken-furniature. You still learn a lot, and even if it ends up ugly, I'm happier overall than just practicing. (Granted my shop time is very limited right now due to 2 jobs, so I want to "make stuff" not practice for the most part).

[Jim Matthews]

"Not too hijack the thread, but a question/thought for the collective: Earlier it was suggested that the OP stay away from pine for the test board. While I agree that Borg pine/fir is difficult to work with, I also consider it a valuable learning material."

Unless it's selected at a traditional lumber yard or hardwood supplier, Pine at the large retailers is uneven in quality and rushed through production.

As you mentioned, it has very soft endgrain which requires sharpening skills few have on starting out.

Poplar is my recommend "secondary" wood, as it is North American, has longer to mature before sawing and tends to be properly dried before sale.

Nothing against Pine as lumber - plenty of reservations regarding the condition of most boards on sale.

[Tom M King]

Here is a video I made of flattening a shutter panel. This will give you an idea of the motion for removing fairly thick shavings. The first no. 6 takes shavings of about 12 thou, and the second about 7 ( not exact-just by memory). This was my first attempt at making a video, and I forgot to turn the mic on. I was talking the whole time, but never got around to doing the video setup again.

The hump on the near corner was taken off by left handing the plane, but I thought the video was already long enough to get the point across, so I stopped it before turning my back to the camera.

This was for exterior shutters on a mid 19th Century museum house. The wood is Cypress, and the planes are Stanley, with stock irons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SED7B65cppM

[Jerome Andrieux]

I also consider it a valuable learning material. Depends on the morale and the objectives of the people learning. With kids, I usually go with more "rewarding" woods, such as oak, which never fail to impress the first time hand plane user. With people that "just wants the job done", I start with pine/fir, since that's what they will use anyway.

[Andrew Seemann]

"Pine" also tends to be a generic name for "conifer wood dried to 19% or so moisture cheaply available at the building lumber yard" and can be pine, spruce, balsam, larch, fir, hemlock, etc.

White pine planes beautifully, as does red, and sugar. Ponderosa can be OK, some other varieties can be challenging, southern yellow can be hard as a rock.

Spruce can be a nightmare, depending on species.

Doug fir can be like SYP; the true firs are hit and miss for ease of planing.

Hemlock/Fir often have such big growth rings that they are useless to anything but being a 2x4

[Jim Matthews]

Excellent video.

Kudos

[Derek Cohen]

Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.


For rough work, I use a double iron jack plane that I made 42 years ago. It weighs less than three pounds. Cosman recommends a seven pound jack plane; I cannot imagine anyone wanting to use this thing in a serious way. He recommends the 5 1/2 jack plane so he can swap back beveled blades with the 4 1/2 and 7 planes. Woodworkers who have learned to use double iron planes do not need back bevels. Cosman lists no plow, no dado plane, and only the dinkiest of moving fillisters.

Here is a list:

Wooden jack
Wooden trying plane
Jointer
Smoothing plane

Universal plow (a plow with movable fence, multiple cutters)
Moving fillister
Dado plane
Rabbet plane.

After this Badger plane, Strike block plane, hollows and rounds etc.

Steve, enjoy the hell out of your planes, use every one of them as much as possible, get to know them well - what they can do, how well they can do it, and what tasks they are best suited for, and not. At the end of the day you may decide that Warren's list is the way to go. But you cannot get there without first experimenting and deciding from experience what works for you. There are no right and wrongs in woodworking - so many ways to skin a cat. All good.

The best way to learn is to be prepared to make mistakes. It is just wood. And pride. Get over the pride. Learning that one can make mistakes and correct them is the way to confidence.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[david charlesworth]

Warren's vacuous and idle criticism is completely baseless and without detail.

I think he has worked in a very different workshop to mine, and by the way I have been at it for about 50 years.

Almost all modern workshops have router tables which make many of the wooden planes redundant.

He will see that several of the above do not share his prejudice and have enjoyed my DVDs a great deal, and found them useful.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth

[Ryan J Carpenter]

You are going to like these planes! I think this an approach that gets missed a bit around here. Back when I got my first LN, I too was frustrated by a handful of antiques and a few mid range planes and I didn't have enough experience to sort out what issues were the tool and which I was to blame for. I also didn't have the vacation time for a proper class (not to mention that a LN plane is a fraction of what most classes costs). For me, the LN took all the tool questions off the table and pointed out my specific skill gaps which were easy to tackle with some research. Then, knowing what a good plane is capable of, I knew what to tune on my other non-LN planes.

[Mike Kreinhop]

Based on my experience, the advice of getting a bunch of lumber and plane, plane, plane until you get it right might not be the best advice if there is no point of reference of what "right" is supposed to be. I prefer the face-to-face approach to learning new skills that require hand and eye coordination. Fortunately, I didn't have to unlearn years of doing it wrong and walked into the classroom as a nearly blank slate with no ego.

Before I moved to Germany, I worked partial weekends at a Harley-Davidson shop in Virginia in exchange for deep discounts on parts and accessories. One of the weekend rituals was buffing the showroom floor every Sunday morning before the shop opened for customers. Jim, the primary owner, refused to let anyone else buff the floor because he didn't want anyone to hit the display cases or bump into any of the bikes on display. It was painful watching him struggle with the Hild buffer as he manhandled it around the floor, between the bikes, and near the display cases. About 45 minutes later, he was done and was wringing wet with sweat.

One Sunday, Jim was nowhere to be found and the store was due to open in 30 minutes. I grabbed the buffer and my cup of coffee and started buffing the floor as I had done many years before in the military. I was almost finished when Jim arrived and he was furious that I was buffing with one hand around his precious inventory. I then learned that no one had ever taught him how to use a buffer, so I showed him how to control the left and right movement and let the buffer do all of the work. In a few minutes, he had mastered the buffer and was now very upset at the other owner, another former military person, for never correcting him. The other owner was now upset at me for ruining his Sunday morning entertainment. Bottom line, some things just can't be learned by some people "just doing it" and hoping for the best.

[Mark Hennebury]

I had a friend that moved to Japan to learn woodworking; he told me a story of trying to buy an expensive plane from a maker one day; the maker refused to sell it to him saying that he did not yet possess the the knowledge and experience to use this quality of tool, and told him to come back in a few years.

The forums are great places to get information.

The workshop is a great place to find understanding.

My suggestion would be to read about chip-breakers, read about sharpening, read about Japanese planes, Think about it.
Then get a cheap #4 strip it down, tune it up and use it, observe, analyze and tinker with it until you get it to work flawlessly.
Make a million shavings with it.
Then Grasshopper, you will know what planes you need, what they do and how to use them.







Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.

[Charles Guest]

Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.

The extremely competent maker in the videos below appears to be using a Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane at points in them, along with other L-N planes too. Perhaps some plane handling tips will evidence themselves to you. It's helpful to see how it's done with one's living at stake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7otLVAZh0Y

A Townsend block front reproduction. Make sure to watch this one to the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRbIq-kxIgQ

Moving around all those "heavy" planes seems to be keeping him lean and fit. :) The results of having used them don't seem to be substandard to my eyes.

[Steve Voigt]

Warren's vacuous and idle criticism is completely baseless and without detail.

I think he has worked in a very different workshop to mine, and by the way I have been at it for about 50 years.

Almost all modern workshops have router tables which make many of the wooden planes redundant.

He will see that several of the above do not share his prejudice and have enjoyed my DVDs a great deal, and found them useful.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth


I dunno, I thought Warren's advice was typically blunt but basically spot on.
The idea of starting out with "10 favorite planes" is pretty silly…no wonder the OP seems paralyzed by information overload.

For the OP, expanding on Warren's list a little, if you just want to dimension and smooth wood, you only need three planes:
- jack
- try or jointer
- smoother

That might be all you ever need. But if you decide you want to make joints by hand, rather than power, you'll need to make rabbets and grooves, so you'll need:
- rabbet plane or fillister
- plow or dedicated grooving planes

You could spend all your life with just these, but if you eventually want to make moldings by hand, you'll need some molding planes. I'd follow Matt Bickford's excellent advice and start with just two pair (4's and 8's or 6's and 10's).

I'm up to nine planes and most people will never do more than these nine can do. Of course there are many more great planes! But start small and you won't get overwhelmed. Stay away from Youtubers who sound like used car salesman, require you to buy a trunk full of tools, or preach reliance on jigs and fixtures.

By the way Mr. Charlesworth, not everyone has a router table (I don't, though I have a lot of machinery), and having one certainly doesn't make molding planes redundant. Some people just hate routers; others prefer the far superior surface quality and versatility of hollows, rounds, and other useful molding planes.

[Jim Koepke]

The idea of starting out with "10 favorite planes" is pretty silly…

Especially when it is someone else's "10 favorite planes."

The next step is to learn to use what you have.

jtk

[Mel Fulks]

[QUOTE=Mark Hennebury;3034429]I had a friend that moved to Japan to learn woodworking; he told me a story of trying to buy an expensive plane from a maker one day; the maker refused to sell it to him saying that he did not yet possess the the knowledge and experience to use this quality of tool, and told him to come back in a few years.

Mark, you forgot " Grass- Hopuh". All of those stories have that ! Origin was probably U.S. TV

[Rafael Herrera]

Hey Warren, I bought this Badger plane, it looks to be in good shape and with plenty of steel in the iron. On its way from the UK, looking forward to it.

436342

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Nice video Tom. Thanks for posting.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

The extremely competent maker in the videos below appears to be using a Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane at points in them, along with other L-N planes too. Perhaps some plane handling tips will evidence themselves to you. It's helpful to see how it's done with one's living at stake:

Moving around all those "heavy" planes seems to be keeping him lean and fit. :) The results of having used them don't seem to be substandard to my eyes.

One of the things that comes up again and again as a point of conflict in these discussions is the difference in perspective and experience between people who use hand planes to do minor adjustments or final smoothing, and people who use hand planes for everything.

In the first couple of minutes the video shows the maker using a chopsaw and a power mortiser. I suspect they are not flattening and dimensioning rough lumber with hand planes.

Warren is coming from the perspective of starting with rough lumber, and doing all of the preparation by hand. Not everybody needs to do things the way he does, but his observations are not vacuous, idle, or baseless. They are worthy of respect, and can help even those who do not work the way he does.