Plane woods

[Aaron Kline]

I decided to try my hand at making some planes. I don't quite know which would too use though. Any thoughts on maple? I am hesitant about its dimensional stability even though it would be quartersawn. I've read that beech isn't exactly a stable wood either and this is the traditional material. What about honduras mahogany? Thanks. If I decide to make the planes, I'll be sure to post pictures.

[Aaron Kline]

I forgot a wood I was thinking of, white ash. It wears good, but its open grain, so would it be acceptible?

[Chris Padilla]

Aaron,

I posted the below stuff a little while ago in another thread on another forum. Straight from AW so don't shoot the messenger if y'all don't agree! :)

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Mesquite is quite a remarkable wood. There was a whole article in AW #87 (6/01) about it so I'll touch on the highlights:

Mesquite is exceptionally stable. Red Oak moves 11.3%, Maple moves 9.9%, Walnut moves 8.7 % and Mahogany moves 4.1%. Mesquite moves 2.6%! (The percent change in size is based on a swing in moisture content from 14% to 6%)

Mesquite doesn't distort or cup easily. If you take a tangential:radial ratio, Mesquite is at 1.2 while Red Oak is at 2.2 and Eastern Whie Pine is at 2.9. Cupping is usually the result of plain-sawn boards shrinking more in the tangential direction than radially. In most American species, this ratio is more than 2:1 but mesquite is closer to 1:1. This means boards tend to stay flat.

Mesquite is hard. The standard test for hardness is to measure the force it takes to drive a 7/16" steel ball half-way into a flatsawn board. In pounds of pressure, we have:

Pine is at ~660
Red Oak is at ~1120
Hard Maple is at ~1580
Mesquite is at ~2300

Mesquite's high silica content, high extractive content and extreme hardness can dull your tools quickly. Be sure to clean your tools (mineral spirits) to remove the buildup often. There isn't much oil in Mesquite so it can be sanded and glued easily. Due to its extreme hardness, it finishes quite nicely with fine sanding grits and buffing so very little finish is needed.

As we can tell, Mesquite truly shines on the lathe and turning green logs is the way to go. Since it dries with little change, go ahead and turn it and finish it green. It'll dry nice and slowly through the finish.

The sapwood of Mesquite, however, is a no-no as insects appear to LOVE it...even after finishing a product you could find bore holes and piles of yellow (the color of the sapwood) sawdust in place of your prized piece! :)

I took portions of the article and summarized some brief points here. After reading this article I was excited to get some Mesquite until I saw the prices for it! Yikes! :(

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[Chris Padilla]

The below is from Kirk (KC) Constable who posts quite freqeuntly on the Genral forum and his thoughts about the AW findings on mesquite:

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Magazine articles are great...but sometimes they just don't represent the 'real world'. I've been working primarily with mesquite for the past four years, so I feel somewhat qualified to make the following observations... :)

True: Mesquite is very stable, as far as shrinkage and general movement are concerned. We think nothing of gluing a breadboard end all the way across a 48" tabletop, or wrapping a tabletop in a 'picture frame' border. It just isn't an issue.

True: It finishes up beautifully. Darkens like cherry...more quickly, but not as dramatically over the long haul.

False: It's not prone to cup or warp. Speaking only of Texas mesquite, rare is the piece that will stay flat once planed, or straight once jointed. Close...yes...flat and straight? Not very often, and that seems to hold true of both kiln and air dried material. It can be quite frustrating to find suitable material for a tall door (as on an upper hutch)...and once you find it, you still really don't know what you've got until after final milling. I have noticed a difference in some South American mesquite (Argentina)...it stays flat and straight.

Subjective: It's harder on cutting tools. When I'm not working with mesquite, I'm working cherry...and I think the cherry is far and away harder on tools. I've had a DeWalt planer at home for five or six years, and I've changed the knives twice. When we built the arena tables a couple years back (54 serving tables 12' wide by 20-something wide with six legs each, 175 end/coffe table tops), we'd go a month or more before changing the blades in the Grizzly 20" planer. I just don't see it.

True: It's expensive.

And I have to make a comment about the sapwood. You can usually tell if you've got an insect issue by looking at it. People don't seem to be able to grasp that insects are gonna be found in the sapwood more if for no other reason than that's where they enter the tree. Once it's lumber, the insects can go in anywhere they want.

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[Greg Wease]

You have lots of options for hard, stable wood. I don't think mahogany is the best choice--it's pretty soft. I made a smoother from hard maple a few months ago and so far it is holding up well. Of course there isn't much variation in temp/humidity here in San Diego so wood doesn't tend to move much. I also made a spokeshave out of osage orange which should work well for plane bodies. Some traditional woods to consider are applewood and boxwood. I also have a chisel plane made of ipe--this stuff is really hard and seems stable; Steve Knight uses it. Then there's always rosewood, ebony, lignum vitae,...

Good luck with your plane making!
Greg Wease

[Mark Singer]

: lignum vitae (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=lignum+vitae&spell=1)

[Tim Sproul]

hahahahha....lignum vitae. For the entire body? It is great for the bottom....would/does the "oilliness" of lv make it difficult to keep an iron wedged firmly?

I've seen woodies make from hard maple, beech, hornbeam, ironwood, oak, .....

[Michael Cody]

1/4 Sawn White Oak, Beech, Hop-Hornbeam, Dogwood, PurpleHeart and IPE are all good choices...

Many japanese planes are White Oak .. a lot of british infills were Mahogany or Rosewood. Personally -- White Oak or Beech is what I would use for first trys. It's not to expensive, it's easy to work and you are going to make mistakes .. so it's not quite as nerve wracking. That said, Ash would be acceptable in my opinion too, though I would use quarter or rift sawn because of stability. A Lignum Vitae sole is a good choice and it won't break the bank in small chunks though IPE would be cheaper and easier to get and almost as good.

Check out Knight Toolworks -- his stuff is awesome and you can see the materials he uses... There are several good books out there too.. Go to Half.Com and search for "Making HandPlanes" to find David Finck's book - a good one. Here are some links to some articles and sites:

http://www.planemaker.com/articles/beech.html
http://www.norsewoodsmith.com
http://handplane-central.alphalink.com.au/profiles/