Lee Schierer
07-25-2006, 12:01 PM
The plane contest created a lot of interest at the picnic and seemed to work quite well. The hard maple proved to be a good challenge with some grain reversal that proved a bit tricky to get a continuous length shaving. The challenge was to produce the longest and thinnest shaving from the contest board. Points were awarded for each parameter and the lowest point total won. The board was hard maple, 72" wide and 1-1/4 thick. We planed off almost 3/4" of width during the course of the contest, 1 to 2 thousandths of an inch at a time. Shavings were all measured with the same set of micrometers to the nearest .0001"
We did find that shavings would "shrink" from the full length when they started getting thinner. Shavings that were really thick were almost the same length as the contestpiece. We tried to flatten and stretch shavings as best we could to give credit for length. If the judges broke a shaving they would measure the pieces and come up with a total length. Many shavings were not full width of the plane iron that made them. We treated those the same as full width shavings. Everyone was working off the same piece of wood and were given ample time to make a shaving. Alan Turner actually made the thinnest submitted shaving (average of .00061) of the day but could not get it to go full length. Several others also made really thin shavings as well, but the contest was for combined thinness and length so contestants had to compromise in their setup to get the best of both factors.
There were 17 contestants in all and unbelievably we ended up with a tie for first so we had to have a plane off. We did alter the rules slightly as the two tied contestants had allowed other people to use their planes and the "winning" settings had been altered. We had Ellis flatten the board and then we allowed each of the tied contestants some time to produce a shaving they wanted to enter as the tie breaker.
Prize winners were:
1st Rob Tarr - Lie Nielsen #4 Bronze donated by Woodcraft
2nd Warren Mickley - Router Plane donated by Lee Valley & Veritas
3rd Moses Yoder - Iron Low Angle Block Plane 102I donated by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Inc.
4th Mike Hambelton - Coffin Smoothing Plane donated by Knight Toolworks
5th place Joanne Adler - Marking knife & awl set donated by Dave Anderson, Chester Toolworks.
The complete results are tabulated in the photo below:
Thanks to all the donors for the prizes and to all the participants for making the contest a challenge and a lot of fun. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that I learned a lot about adjusting and using a handplane from the other participants. There was a lot of teaching going on as well.
Be sure to thank the prize donors as you do business with them. Hopefully we can have other contests in the future. How about a hand saw contest to saw off a length of 2 X 6 the fastest?
We did find that shavings would "shrink" from the full length when they started getting thinner. Shavings that were really thick were almost the same length as the contestpiece. We tried to flatten and stretch shavings as best we could to give credit for length. If the judges broke a shaving they would measure the pieces and come up with a total length. Many shavings were not full width of the plane iron that made them. We treated those the same as full width shavings. Everyone was working off the same piece of wood and were given ample time to make a shaving. Alan Turner actually made the thinnest submitted shaving (average of .00061) of the day but could not get it to go full length. Several others also made really thin shavings as well, but the contest was for combined thinness and length so contestants had to compromise in their setup to get the best of both factors.
There were 17 contestants in all and unbelievably we ended up with a tie for first so we had to have a plane off. We did alter the rules slightly as the two tied contestants had allowed other people to use their planes and the "winning" settings had been altered. We had Ellis flatten the board and then we allowed each of the tied contestants some time to produce a shaving they wanted to enter as the tie breaker.
Prize winners were:
1st Rob Tarr - Lie Nielsen #4 Bronze donated by Woodcraft
2nd Warren Mickley - Router Plane donated by Lee Valley & Veritas
3rd Moses Yoder - Iron Low Angle Block Plane 102I donated by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Inc.
4th Mike Hambelton - Coffin Smoothing Plane donated by Knight Toolworks
5th place Joanne Adler - Marking knife & awl set donated by Dave Anderson, Chester Toolworks.
The complete results are tabulated in the photo below:
Thanks to all the donors for the prizes and to all the participants for making the contest a challenge and a lot of fun. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that I learned a lot about adjusting and using a handplane from the other participants. There was a lot of teaching going on as well.
Be sure to thank the prize donors as you do business with them. Hopefully we can have other contests in the future. How about a hand saw contest to saw off a length of 2 X 6 the fastest?