Alan Turner
12-01-2003, 11:01 AM
Boy did I have a neander weekend! I have a commission for 6 shelves, of cherry, from a flitch, with a front edge which retains the wane. So, bought a short flitch of 8/4 cherry, had the client pick the shapes she wanted, and then rough cut them. Of course, once out of the wide board, they twisted a bit. Actually, quite a bit. The shelves were about 15" wide, and my jointer is but 12". Time for the neander work.
3 of the shelves are 4+ feet long, and 3 are 10+ long. So, got out the wooden body scrub plane and went to work. These 8/4 boards were cut at the mill to about 2 1/4" thick, thank goodness. About 10 hours later, they were done, flattened, and planed. By far the most time was spent with a scrub plane, and a No. 5 and No. 7. On some boards had to take off as much as ½" of stock in order to get a flat side for the planer to register against.
I am going to estimate that of the 10 hours it took to do this work, 8 were spent doing aerobic planing. Interestingly, I only had to touch up the iron on the scrub plane one time. That old German (I think) iron should be enshrined for its ability to hold an edge under demanding circumstances.
Alan
3 of the shelves are 4+ feet long, and 3 are 10+ long. So, got out the wooden body scrub plane and went to work. These 8/4 boards were cut at the mill to about 2 1/4" thick, thank goodness. About 10 hours later, they were done, flattened, and planed. By far the most time was spent with a scrub plane, and a No. 5 and No. 7. On some boards had to take off as much as ½" of stock in order to get a flat side for the planer to register against.
I am going to estimate that of the 10 hours it took to do this work, 8 were spent doing aerobic planing. Interestingly, I only had to touch up the iron on the scrub plane one time. That old German (I think) iron should be enshrined for its ability to hold an edge under demanding circumstances.
Alan