Hand planing for the beginner?

[Robert Engel]

I’m with Mike ^ to some extent. I started out with Stanley’s when I bought a WoodRiver for me the extra weight, thicker blade, and better adjusters actually prompted me to sell my Stanley’s.

I have to confess stepping up” to a LN wasn’t as big a step as I anticipated. Granted the blades are flat and the finish is a little better but once I got the WR iron flattened I can’t tell a difference. I think Cosman has it right on the WR planes.

That said the LN 4 1/2 is one sweet tool

Water under the bridge but I would not have purchased all those planes at one time.

[Andrew Seemann]

Learning on old tools does admittedly have a steep learning curve. You need to have a lot of things mostly right before anything goes right as a whole. The frustrating part is you tend to be learning how to sharpen, how to adjust the tools, and how to use the tools all at the same time. I do see the logic in buying something that works from the get go, because you get to find out what the end result is supposed to be, which is a large part of the learning process.

If like me, you started out in your early 20s without a lot of money, you also tend to be learning on subpar (i.e. cheap) tools and with low quality sharpening equipment, because you don't know and can't afford anything better. That combination as mentioned is quite frustrating. The good part is that if you stick with it, you tend to get quite good at it, because you learn all the "wrong" things and why they are wrong as well as learning the "right" things and why they are right (and when the "wrong" things actually work better than the "right" things). The bad thing is that it is very tempting to give up on hand tools all together and go back to your sub-par but workable power tools.

That said, it is probably easier to learn on old tools today than it was for me. I learned hand tool skills back before that interwebs thing, back when you had to learn things from books and magazines (remember those?). Today you have all kinds of internet resources, which is great, with all kinds of videos on nearly every tool and operation. The bad part is that you have so many that it is overwhelming. When I learned, you just read a FWW article by Frid or Klausz and did what they did. There weren't that many "experts" and in general they tended to be fairly similar in what they said and did.

Now you have millions of videos by thousands of woodworkers, many of whom seem believable, but may make an experienced person cringe. Further complicating it, the folks I learned from did this work for a living, and that was their main goal. They tended to do things as fast and simple as possible while maintaining the level of quality they needed. Now, most -but not all- hand tool people are hobbyists, and tend to be on the "romantic" side of woodworking, and approach it from a hobby perspective. They want to own lots of tools and use each one as much as possible, even if there is a more efficient way doing something. I think that accounts for a lot of the difference between a top 10 list from Cosman, vs one from someone like Warren, or even me. Rob is catering to the hobby market, because that is really the only market for those tools and skills these days. Warren actually does it for a job, and me, I need to get stuff done before my wife can't wait any longer and buys the item from the store

If you are doing Rob style work and doing things like him, his tool list makes sense. If you do stuff a different way, a different list makes sense. Kind of the way it is for everything in woodworking.

[bill epstein]

Ok, I just purchased about a 100 lbs. of Lie-Nielsen handplanes, all of Rob Cosman's "Top 10 Handplanes" and more, and I'm knee deep in the minutiae of blade sharpening. But I have to admit I know next to nothing about using any of these tools. So where do I begin? I don't know where the idea came from but it seems to make sense to start off preparing a rough sawn piece of wood and make the sides square, parallel and flat.

I may be alone but think that's an excellent idea. Choose one plane, a larger one like a 5 1/2 Jack and stick to it, though.

You'll want to school yourself on proper work flow and check for level and square frequently as you go. Once you have level, parallel, and square S4S, then move on to a smoother, #4. After you have that, properly cambered and making shiny burnished passes that remove marks from the Jack, you can tackle anything.

Early on you might get frustrated and reach for the coarse stone du jour to "improve" the factory blade edge and angle. Don't. Stick to an abrasive 2000 grit or above (I use 8000) finding the angle and pulling the blade toward you lightly no more than 10 passes for honing as you work. Once you have the muscles and muscle memory then you can screw up the blades trying out this stone and that technique.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I'm a beginner.

I took a class at the Homestead Heritage School in Waco, Texas and learned the Paul Sellers method. Pretty simple, but time consuming to get it right. Get a 30" board. Use a square to draw a line across the 30" about a quarter inch from the top edge. Plane to that line. Not over it, right up to the line. Always leave the line. Start with a 4 or 5 Jack Plane. Sharpen and adjust plane until you get light shavings.

Stance is left foot forward and use your whole body to move the plane, not just your arms.

Rinse and repeat.

Then try a 45 degree angle.

Then try scratching up the surface and cleaning the face of the board

Then try end grain.

I think we planed for a full day, before moving on to the chisels.

Consider taking the class. It was well worth it, and you'll actually build some furniture the first week.

[Prashun Patel]

I thought it was easier to start with smoothing, then jointing, then flattening. Smoothing a reasonably straight grained wood, while hard to perfect, is a function of great sharpening. That's the first skill I'd learn.

Jointing requires reading the wood and understanding flatness in a single dimension, and selectively planing a region of a board. The narrowness of it makes it more straight forward than face flattening, which is the hardest, IMHO. That requires you to really read a board, understand where to plane, and how much to plane.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

You purchased lie nielsen, you, you don't need to learn a bunch about tune up, that leaves three things:

1. Making a blade sharp
2. keeping a blade sharp
3. using the plane

Your blade is already sharp, some might argue that you can make it sharper, but that takes us (2) above.

Backs should be flat on the back, but you can always polish that and make sure.

I use a Tormek to place a hollow grind on the blade and then free hand the blade to keep it sharp. You can either learn to free hand or get a guide. How do you intend to sharpen? Sand paper? machine? stones (diamond, arkansas, water)?

For (3), just go for it. Get some clean lumber and see if you dimension it, make it flat and square.

[Jim Matthews]

For (3), just go for it. Get some clean lumber and see if you dimension it, make it flat and square.

^^^^
This.
There is no substitute for making sawdust.

[James Pallas]

I would start by doing what I do with an unfamiliar plane. Start with a descent piece of wood. Go from no cut to light to heavy, move the lateral, adjust the chip breaker for different settings. Get the feel of each plane. Even the same make and model can have a slightly different feel.

[David Eisenhauer]

After sharpening, get a piece of 2x4 or something already relatively flat and smooth without knots or places with wild grain change looking spots (at this stage, you don't want anomalies to del with) and back the iron up on the smoother (#4?). Start pushing the plane down the length of the board while advancing the iron to make it start cutting lightly. Just keep pushing the plane and observe what happens when you do certain actions - cut deeper or shallower - move the lateral lever, see what that does - plane the other way to see which way works better and then look at the grain of the timber - push the plane straight ahead, then at a slight angle to the direction of travel, then at a 45 deg angle - vary the weight of your hands on the plane as you move it, especially as you start the cut and finish the cut at the end of the board - turn the board on edge and try to keep the plane balanced on the edge for a square cut - etc, - etc - etc. Just start learning what a plane does when you do "X". Right now, you don't need to start trying to get four square, just need to learn what a plane does on fairly tame wood as a result of one of your actions.

[Tim Best]

+1 On what David and what everyone else has mentioned. All good advice. Until about a year ago, I had never picked up a hand plane. Had I read this thread or the 2000+ similar threads (and actually followed the sage advice) before I jumped in, the learning curve may not have been quite as steep.

Not too hijack the thread, but a question/thought for the collective: Earlier it was suggested that the OP stay away from pine for the test board. While I agree that Borg pine/fir is difficult to work with, I also consider it a valuable learning material.

First, it’s abundant, relatively sustainable, and inexpensive.

Second, if chosen with few knots and minimal abrupt grain changes, one knows he/she/they is (are) making progress with hand tools when consistent shavings are made in pine or similar material without a ton of exertion.

Third, because pine requires a sharp edge and then some, one knows when he/she/they is (are) making progress with sharpening. I don’t consider my chisels sharp unless I can pare pine end grain with minimal effort.

All that is to say that I enjoy working with poplar and I will never try to chop dovetails in SYP again!😏

Tim

[Thomas McCurnin]

At Homestead Heritage, all we used was pine. It was clear pine, but pine nonetheless. A little fuzzy for chisel work, but good enough with which to practice.

[Jim Koepke]

Depending on the local humidity and how the wood is stored, pine can move a lot in a short period of time.

One lumber yard didn't sticker their stacks of pine. They also didn't let customers pick through the piles. Some of the pieces split or cupped between the lumber yard and my home on the drive home. Never went back to that lumber yard.

jtk

[Erich Weidner]

Read :Coarse, Medium, Fine" by Christopher Schwarz. Many do not agree with him but that piece is a great place to start.


Spend time on Derek Cohen's website IntheWoodShop.com

Ask lots of questions

+1 There is also a video LN sells for Course, Medium, Fine. Watching that a few times made things click. Derek's site is also awesome. Also a Chris Schwarz video from Popular Woodworking called Handplane Basics, a better way to use handplanes. I think that necessary along with course, medium, fine as for some reason the C,M,F video didn't really go into the Jack plane much (as I recall. I watch so much they get jumbled in my head).

Don't feel shamed by jumping in whole hog on LN stuff. What all did you pick up from LN? What new loot?

[Erich Weidner]

I like the premise mentioned in the article Jim mentioned, start with a small project instead of working on a piece of wood without a use. I recall when first trying my hand at woodturning the boredom practicing cuts with a skew. It wasn't until making something useful like a bowl that finally made it enjoyable. Most of it turned into decorative firewood but it was more fun to make.

I definitely relate to this. Only recently have I developed more patience for pure practice on scrap. I'm just getting re-started with dovetails and I couldn't bring myself to "waste" precious shop time on off cuts, but I needed a planing stop and I just butchered a few trying to make one that would clamp into my face vice. But I digress...

At any rate, I'm also in the middle of a three project hand tool only vow. 1st project was a pair of sawbenches. 2nd is a thick shaker-ish side table (Franken Table II it will be called), and 3rd is a medium sized tool chest (just started). So feel liberated to make Franken-furniature. You still learn a lot, and even if it ends up ugly, I'm happier overall than just practicing. (Granted my shop time is very limited right now due to 2 jobs, so I want to "make stuff" not practice for the most part).

[Jim Matthews]

"Not too hijack the thread, but a question/thought for the collective: Earlier it was suggested that the OP stay away from pine for the test board. While I agree that Borg pine/fir is difficult to work with, I also consider it a valuable learning material."

Unless it's selected at a traditional lumber yard or hardwood supplier, Pine at the large retailers is uneven in quality and rushed through production.

As you mentioned, it has very soft endgrain which requires sharpening skills few have on starting out.

Poplar is my recommend "secondary" wood, as it is North American, has longer to mature before sawing and tends to be properly dried before sale.

Nothing against Pine as lumber - plenty of reservations regarding the condition of most boards on sale.