What tool to use

[Roy Hahn]

Can someone offer some advise as to what would be the best hand tool to plane down flat wide hardwood stock to thin sheets? I was think perhaps a scrub plane followed by a #4 smoothing plane and then maybe a 60-1/2. I don't have a scrub plane and because they seem to go for a premium, I don't want to make the investment without some advise first. I'm all ears guys..
Thanks!:)

[Johnny Kleso]

You could use a No5 with a cambered blade and use it like a big scrub plane and use it to smooth latter with a different blade or re-grind..

[Wallis Hampson]

how wide is 'wide'?

[Robert Rozaieski]

How thick are we talking to start with and how thin to finish? You may be better served by resawing. Planing away any substantial thickness is a waste of wood and time. If you want to take a 3/4" board and make a 1/4" board for example, resaw it and then clean up both resawn pieces to 1/4" thick. Much faster and less wasteful than planing away 1/2" of wood. You end up with 2 thinner boards instead of one and for less effort.

Bob

[Mark Maleski]

I have a similar issue - available stock seems to be 3/4 or thicker. I've not used hand planes for long, but enough to conclude that I don't want to try to size stock with them (flatten, square and smooth only). As a result I've just added "build a frame saw" to my list of workshop projects. "Buy bandsaw" would be another good option, but I haven't figured out how to sneak that by the wife (smile).

Mark

[glenn bradley]

Bandsaw and lunchbox planer . . . ooops, wrong forum ;-)

[Bill Moser]

Resawing is definitely the way to go. with say 4" or narrower boards, I can use the rip edge of my ryoba (japanese hand saw) to resaw. I just stand the board vertical in a vise on my bench, and work the near edge down 45 degrees, saw the far edge so that the saw is horizontal again, and repeat. At that width, I can relatively easily resaw 1/4" thick boards of any length in two. For wider boards, I have used a western rip saw to saw a groove about 1" deep into each edge for the length of the board, and used that to guide the cut. Probably not conventional, but it works for me...

[Roy Hahn]

I should have been more specific... The material will be starting out approximately .25" thick and approximately 20.0" wide and 24.0" long.

I need to bring it down to a range of .1" to .18" thick. Because of the width, I don't beleive a band saw or Ryoba saw will work, even though I have both of those tools available. Thanks again!

[Roy Hahn]

You could use a No5 with a cambered blade and use it like a big scrub plane and use it to smooth latter with a different blade or re-grind..

Johnny, have you physically tried this method before? I have a number 5 that I suppose I could just get another blade to sacrifice...

[Bob Coleman]

I would imagine the biggest problem is anchoring the piece in order to plane it. I can't think of a way to do it other than doing it half at a time and using the other half to clamp down. What are you planning to do?

As for which planes, I would use a bench plane, #5 - #7 (I don't own a #8, but I imagine that would work too) followed by scraping/sanding depending on how smooth you want the surface. 0.07" isn't all that much. I plane down 1" to 5/8" for table tops that are too wide for my planer. It takes awhile and is pretty tiring, but to me preferable to ripping a 18" wide board to fit in my 12" planer.

May I ask what you are using these boards for?
Cheers
Bob

[Bill Moser]

Roy, can you tell us what you're doing with this board? I sounds like you're getting into veneer territory (ok, really, really thick). Are you gluing this to another surface?

[Roy Hahn]

Sure, these are typical thickness ranges of guitar tops, sides and backs. The woods are species of Cedar, Spruce, Mahoany, Rosewood and Walnut.

[Bill Moser]

Ok, I get it now. What you're trying to do sounds difficult (I thought they sold all this stuff for guitars pre-thicknessed these days!) I sounds like you need to start with a surface that you have trued, then use a wheel-type marking gauge (LV or glen-drake) to mark the final thickness. After that, glue or tape down the piece to the trued surface, and use a #5 set up as Johnny suggests to bring it down to close to final thickness (taking very fine shavings), finishing with a #4 and then scraper. This should be your show side, of course. I would imagine that tear out is a serous enemy here, so keep you blades sharp!

[Roy Hahn]

That sounds like a good approach. Thanks everyone! As always a great help...:)

[Steve Hamlin]

Luddite tendencies I may have, but a drum sander is a real boon for this.
Have done it the trad way, cramping one end down with a holdfast (with a protective block underneath) and planing away from it, checking regularly with calipers.
Just relying on edge marks make you very dependant on flat bench and long flat plane. Remember, if anything, you'll want more meat in the middle than around the periphery.
IIRC Cumpiano details this and other hand tool techniques in his book.
Cheers
Steve