which plane for difficult grain?

[nick brigg]

i was thinking about the Veritas low angle jointer with a 50 degree blade, what do you guys think?

[Rob Luter]

I use their low angle (bevel up) jack plane, and purchased all three blade angles. The 25 degree is great for end grain, the 38 degree blade works well for most grain (end, edge, or face) and the 50 degree blade works great for the tough stuff. The 50 degree is a lot of work to push however, so consider a lower angle for the plain vanilla stuff.

[Andrew Williams]

I have used the 50 on curly maple without much effort. It has to be sharp, and set for a very fine cut.

[Martin Cash]

Hi Nick,
The best planes bar none for difficult grain are Terry Gordon's high angle (60 degrees) planes made in Australia.
These have been designed with the difficult switchback grain of Australian hardwoods in mind, and they consistently receive rave reviews.
Terry has a range from block planes through to jointers that will fill the bill.
I have included a picture of one of his planes.
see:
http://www.hntgordon.com.au/una55try.htm
Regards
MC:D:D:D

[Eddie Darby]

Lie-Nielsen is now offering in addition to the York Pitch High Angle Frog of 50*, a 55* HA frog as well.
If you need to, you can then add a small back bevel of say 5* and you will have the equivalent of a 60* just like that!

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=HAF

[David DeCristoforo]

In truth, successful cutting of "difficult" grain is going to be affected much more by the sharpness and "tuning" of the plane than by the angle of the blade.

[Ron Brese]

When discussing the planing of difficult woods, a sharp iron is an assumed ingredient in the process, past that a steeper pitch can make a dramatic difference in the results one gets from working hard to plane woods. Even though planes with steeper bed angles are harder to push thru the wood, sometimes a 5 degree difference in bed angles can make an astounding difference in the results. Some say that the steeper the angle the less mouth tightness has to do with good results, however a steep pitch and a tight mouth can result in a quite improved performance on hard to plane woods.

I recently was faced with planing some 100+ year old heart pine (quarter sawn 30+ growth rings per inch) with a york pitch plane I got decent results but still a little roughness around the few small knots, I changed over to a 55 degree plane and was able to cleanup even around the knots with no problems.

Ron Brese

[nick brigg]

thanks guys! i think im gonna stick with what i know and go with the veritas! on to another topic, does anyone have any experience with the Crown dovetail saw? it got great reviews in fine woodworking and its about 20 bucks so i was thinking about picking that guy up too.

[Andrew Williams]

I would not buy a DT saw based on low price. I have a Pax DT saw which cut great out of the box, but cost quite a bit more than the $20 you mentioned. I also have a Roberts and Lee Dorchester gent's saw which was about $35 and cut terribly out of the box, until I re-set the teeth. Be prepared to do some tweaking! Cutting DTs is no fun with lousy tools.

[nick brigg]

I would not buy a DT saw based on low price. I have a Pax DT saw which cut great out of the box, but cost quite a bit more than the $20 you mentioned. I also have a Roberts and Lee Dorchester gent's saw which was about $35 and cut terribly out of the box, until I re-set the teeth. Be prepared to do some tweaking! Cutting DTs is no fun with lousy tools.

yeah, i used a japanese saw for dovetails and i could never get it to track straight, its like cutting wood with tin foil. and about the crown DT saw, someone i know has it and said it was great for the price. i was just trying to get more opinions about it.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Nick,
I can't answer specifically about the Crown saw, but another related comment is in order. I've been hand cutting dovetails for years. My first dovetail saws were of the "Gents saw" with the inline handles like the Crown. I was always having trouble cutting a straight line and always ended up paring to clean up my own messes. I went and bought a L-N Independence saw when they were still available on a waiting list only. Problem solved!! Since that time I have used nothing but a pistol grip saw. It turns out that I just can not manage to use a gents saw without twisting my wrist part way through the cut. Every once and a while I go back and try again ....same result.

The point here is that, "different strokes for different folks." :D

[Steven Wilson]

a nice old Matheson infill smoother works rather nicely on squirely grain. A well tuned scraper plane also works when all else fails.

[Zahid Naqvi]

I have the Crown DT saw, but I suffer from the same problem as Dave Anderson. So I switched the stock in-line handle of the Crown and made me a pistol grip :) . works so much better. The Crown out of the box cuts very slow, so I had to learn how to sharpen it and set the teeth.

[Steve Wargo]

http://madhunkyworkshop.com/images/SS2.jpg

[Derek Cohen]

i was thinking about the Veritas low angle jointer with a 50 degree blade, what do you guys think?

Hi Nick

I can comment on both the BU Jointer and the Crown gents dovetail saw, having both.

The Veritas BUJ is a superior tool. It has the registration of a #8 and the overall length of a #7. I use it with the 50 degree bevel most of the time.

For a detailed assessment, read my review at:
http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/dCohen/z_art/LVBevelUpJointer/index.asp

The Crown gent dovetail saw is actually an excellent buy, especially so at its price. Mine was not usable out of the box, but all it needed was to stone the one side gently (that is, run the teeth along a diamond stone to reduce the set slightly). I have been using it for about 5 years now (amongst several other DT saws). To be honest, the gent saw style is not my personal favourite - I think a straight handle is better suited to pulling (as per a Japanese saw) rather than pushing. But this saw does work well.

Crown gent saw on the wall:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Sawtree1.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[nick brigg]

UPDATE! i forgot about the plane for now and got myself the crown saw with a few files and a saw set, made a test cut, it sucked, followed the fine woodworking sharpening article and WOW, it doesnt cut as smoothly as a japanese saw, but damn dead straight!

although im sure i messe up sharpening the saw, the "file every OTHER tooth" messed me up. but i mean, the saw cuts wood so it works haha.