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Scott Rollins
09-19-2008, 9:49 PM
I just got my Veritas scrub plane in working order...lapped the sole, the blade and the fittings inside. It did not require much work happily to say. The question on usage is when planing at an angle to the grain, say 45 degrees or so, do you point the front of the plane in the direction of travel or skewed? It works amazingly well. I can reduce a board to woodchips in minutes with this thing! I originally bought it to do some "hand hewn" work on a table. But I see myself slipping down the slope!

Bob Noles
09-19-2008, 10:23 PM
Scott,

Did you get the O1 or the A2 iron for it? I am thinking about getting one and curious.

Bill Moser
09-19-2008, 10:36 PM
Geez, fettling a scrub plane -- not sure it matters (except that the iron is sharp) but good practice anyway :). I generally don't skew when I'm hogging off lots of wood -- I just go straight at it, at about 45 degrees to the grain, alternating on each pass to 45 deg. on the other direction ( so that the passes in either direction are perpendicular)

Michael Faurot
09-19-2008, 11:42 PM
The question on usage is when planing at an angle to the grain, say 45 degrees or so, do you point the front of the plane in the direction of travel or skewed?


I pretty much point it straight. When I use a scrub, I'm normally only interested in removing a lot of material quickly and I'm not worried about a shearing cut to minimize tear-out.



I originally bought it to do some "hand hewn" work on a table.This might be a horse of a different color. If you're not using your scrub plane to do rough work, but instead to create a texture effect you might indeed want to skew it and set the blade for a lighter cut. I've not done this myself, but if I were looking to make that effect I'd probably want nicely dished out scallops without tearout, so I might skew the plane in that case.

Steve knight
09-20-2008, 12:27 AM
you flattened the sole of a scrub plane? the thing could be twisted and it would not matter (G)
anyway as others have said the plane is used 45 or so across the board the plane facing straight. it's the cross action that makes the plane easy to use. try it with the grain (G)

Scott Rollins
09-20-2008, 11:19 AM
In my own defense I am a bit of a perfectionist. I like to have all my tools in as good a condition as they can be. That being said I tried the plane at 45 degrees to the work and I got a little tearout in one direction but not the other (duh against the grain). I fliped th work piece around and no tearout with out skewing. As this is for a decorative surface the 45 degree scallops will be roughly perpedicular to each other and with a semi deep cut to get about a 3/4" scallop width.
The scrap piece looks good and I will present it to LOL later today to see if she approves. (10 yr anniversary).

The blade is the HCS blade. I have not used it alot yet, but even straight out of the box it cut pretty well. After sharpening with a hand held diamond card on the radius and lapping the top flat if cuts like butter--almost no effort is required.

Cutting with the grain will remove 1/16" in a single pass with almost no effort in my walnut stock I am working with. I rough flattened a 10" widex 60 in long piece in about 10 minutes-not bad having never done that before. I planed the high spots until it sat flat on a torsion box I have and then ran it though my power planer on a planer sled. Dead flat. Much better and quicker than any method I have ever used before.

I can definately see the advantge of hand tools having been a power tool junkie for years. I am re-considering using this as my primary path for wide boards. I had the Jet 12" jointer planer on my short list, but now I am wondering if a hand plane set-up would be more economical.

What plane would one use to flatten the rough surface left by the scrub plane?

David Keller NC
09-20-2008, 2:11 PM
"What plane would one use to flatten the rough surface left by the scrub plane?"

Generally a fore plane with a cambered edge of about a 10" - 14" radius. There's a lot of debate about using scrub planes to flatten boards (boy, did that start an argument on the FWW's Knots forum!). Some say it's too short, as the purpose is to hog off the high spots while skipping over the low spots. I use my (LN) scrub on a regular basis for the initial stage of flattening a very wide board (20+ inches), but I don't use it as an "automatic flattener" as one would a long fore plane. Instead, I use winding sticks to id the high spots, and use the scrub on just those spots, followed by the fore plane, jointer, and finally (if it needs it) a smoother.

As to skewing - my opinion is that it just doesn't matter all that much with a scrub. If you use it as an "automatic flattener" on a fairly narrow (less than 12 inches) board, then skewing will reference off of slightly different surfaces than pointing it straight ahead, but the effect will be the same - you'll skip the low spots (or just not take off as much) and hog the high spots.

If you use it as an automatic flattener on a really wide board, you could have some issues. The plane's short enough that it could dig out low spots and high spots, leaving you with a lower surface, but still just as twisted, dished, etc...as it started. That's where it's nice to have a nice long roughing plane, whether a metal #6 or a woodie. It's long enough to take out any dish, cup, etc... without doing too much sighting and marking of excessively high (or low) spots.

Bill Moser
09-20-2008, 6:33 PM
If you use it as an automatic flattener on a really wide board, you could have some issues. The plane's short enough that it could dig out low spots and high spots, leaving you with a lower surface, but still just as twisted, dished, etc...as it started. That's where it's nice to have a nice long roughing plane, whether a metal #6 or a woodie. It's long enough to take out any dish, cup, etc... without doing too much sighting and marking of excessively high (or low) spots.

A scrub is great for taking out cup, or the first pass for serious wind or bow, or the first step in dimensioning firewood, but thats about it. If you're using a scrub plane to produce a decorative effect, then I'd say that you need to use it in two different ways, at two different times. The first use is as a first-pass at dimensioning rough lumber. Of course this can also be done with the thickness planer of your choice. The second place, it seems to me, is after dimensioning, as an artistic effect, where you start with a surface flattened by a #7 or #8, and, rather than finish it with a #4, you use the scrub to get the effect you want. For this, i would suggest a super sharp blade, and extraordinary attention to grain detail (I'm assuming you don't want any tear out). skewing the blade can help here, but at the expense of the look of the finished surface, since the effective width of the blade will be greater. And tearout never looks good , does it (?) no matter how rough-hewn you want the surface to be.

David Keller NC
09-21-2008, 12:15 PM
Bill - It's possible to use a scrub to take out wind, cup, or bow out of large board, but you can't just plane away - you have to find and identify the exact spots that need to be taken down and use the scrub only on those spots. You don't have to do this with a long plane - the length of the plane automatically means you'll be planing the high spots and leaving the low spots alone. That's what I meant about using a plane as an "automatic flattener".

Bill Houghton
09-21-2008, 12:32 PM
The question on usage is when planing at an angle to the grain, say 45 degrees or so, do you point the front of the plane in the direction of travel or skewed?

In my experience, using a scrub plane properly is an athletic experience; I think you want your pushing hand directly behind the cutting edge. So, straight. I'm not sure what advantage you would gain by skewing.

When I'm using a scrub for stock reduction, I use short, abrupt strokes, kind of karate fashion (I usually refrain from grunting as I do), at an angle to the grain, as you suggest. As I approach "flat," I swing the plane around to plane with the grain and use it more gently. On good days, I can get the stock pretty well ready for a jack plane this way.

Yes, they're fun tools.

Scott Rollins
09-21-2008, 7:32 PM
Thank you all for your help. I guess I need to say that I only flattened the boards enough to lay flat and not rock as they passed though the planer on a planer sled. The board was then flipped and the rough flattened side was smoothed with the planer. It worked very quickly.

For the table top I found it easiest to control by pulling it across the board by the front handle and guideing it with my left hand over the top. I was left with a surface that was uniformly crosshatched. Tearout was unavoidable in a few areas where the grain reversed. It was a sweaty day, but fun to do something differnent. I'll post pictures afer the finish coats of tung oil are on.

Johnny Kleso
09-21-2008, 8:12 PM
Scott,
No skewing needed and you can go 90* across the grain as well as at 45*

Going with the grain you will need big arms and will cause more tear out from grain lifting..

Also you can just high areas to remove twist and cupping...