Hand plane vs sanding charcuterie board

[Luis Reyes]

Hi All,

Kind of a small question here. I'm making a small charcuterie board (around 10" by 5.5" and 3/4" thick). It's flat but still has some plane marks from the lumber yard. Would you sand these out or use a #4 hand plane?

For the record, I've only started using hand planes last week but all I've done is remove high spots off a longer board. Researching online suggests I could do either way so I was thinking of trying the #4 plane and if I screw it up then I sand it down! Let me know what you think!

[Prashun Patel]

If you're not trying to flatten out the board (that is, fix a bow, cup or twist) then just use your random orbital sander. Start with 120. You'll be rid of those marks quickly and less painfully if you are new to hand tools.

[Ben Ellenberger]

That is a great way to get experience with a hand plane. Give it a try and you can sand out any spots that don’t come out quite right.

hand planes have a learning curve, from sharpening, to setting, to planing technique. So take any chance you get to use them. Unless it is something that has to be absolutely perfect, the worst thing that can happen is you will need to some sanding at the end.

for something like that I would absolutely use a plane. It is faster and quieter than a sander and it doesn’t make dust.

[Rob Luter]

Depends on the wood. I just finished the board below. Initial flattening was done with a Jack plane followed by a lunchbox planer. Getting it smooth took card scrapers and lots of sanding. The grain was going everywhere at once and I didn’t have a high angle plane that would work well.

[Luis Reyes]

That is a great way to get experience with a hand plane. Give it a try and you can sand out any spots that don’t come out quite right.

hand planes have a learning curve, from sharpening, to setting, to planing technique. So take any chance you get to use them. Unless it is something that has to be absolutely perfect, the worst thing that can happen is you will need to some sanding at the end.

for something like that I would absolutely use a plane. It is faster and quieter than a sander and it doesn’t make dust.

Would a #5 work instead of a #4? I know my #5 is sharp as I've been using it but my #4 I'm not too sure yet. Maybe I should sharpen again just in case.

Luis

[Luis Reyes]

Depends on the wood. I just finished the board below. Initial flattening was done with a Jack plane followed by a lunchbox planer. Getting it smooth took card scrapers and lots of sanding. The grain was going everywhere at once and I didn’t have a high angle plane that would work well.

That's a beautiful board! I hope in the future to try something like that! Did you buy that at the lumberyard and then planed it down?

Right now I'm using walnut and direction of the grain is pretty consistent so hopefully using a hand plane will work!

[Rob Luter]

It was from a tree a guy milled up for me 20 years ago. Here’s another one from the same tree, the grain was more normal on this and sharp planes worked well. I dialed in the live edges with spokeshaves.

[Ben Ellenberger]

Sure, a #5 will work fine, as long as you’ve got it sharp and set for a shallow cut. A longer plane means the board needs to be flatter to get a full length cut, so a #5 might miss a few low spots that a #4 would get down to, but on a relatively small board it won’t make too big of a difference.

This also sounds like an excuse to practice sharpening. Try the #5, try the #4, then try sharpening the #4 and try it again. Planes work much better when they are freshly sharpened, so it’s something you’ll want to get comfortable doing.

[Ben Ellenberger]

Depends on the wood. I just finished the board below. Initial flattening was done with a Jack plane followed by a lunchbox planer. Getting it smooth took card scrapers and lots of sanding. The grain was going everywhere at once and I didn’t have a high angle plane that would work well.

Yeah - that looks like it would be tricky with a hand plane. You would learn a lot about reading grain direction though!

[Prashun Patel]

If you want to get experience with a handplane, then go for it. I'm all for learning, and it's a great skill to master. But don't feel that it's the best tool in all situations. In fact, in THIS situation, where it's already been planed flat, and you don't have that much experience with it, the ROS will be the quickest way to smooth. If you use a plane, beware you may introduce tear out if you don't read the direction well. You also risk track marks. None of that is a show stopper, but you may find it's more work to use the plane.

It has been said by many plane owners that a hand planed surface is superior to a sanded surface. In my experience that is not true. A surface well planed or well sanded (that means going up in grit) will be indistinguishable after finishing.

[Monte Milanuk]

Sure, a #5 will work fine, as long as you’ve got it sharp and set for a shallow cut. A longer plane means the board needs to be flatter to get a full length cut, so a #5 might miss a few low spots that a #4 would get down to, but on a relatively small board it won’t make too big of a difference.

This also sounds like an excuse to practice sharpening. Try the #5, try the #4, then try sharpening the #4 and try it again. Planes work much better when they are freshly sharpened, so it’s something you’ll want to get comfortable doing.

What about just pulling the iron from the #5 and dropping it in the #4? If you know the iron is sharp, and it's the same physical size...

[Tom Bender]

Hand planes are great tools but tricky. I'm with Mr Patel on this one, a hand plane can make a mess of it that can take a lot of sanding to fix. When just sanding can get it done fairly quickly, that's the right tool.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi All,

Kind of a small question here. I'm making a small charcuterie board (around 10" by 5.5" and 3/4" thick). It's flat but still has some plane marks from the lumber yard. Would you sand these out or use a #4 hand plane?

For the record, I've only started using hand planes last week but all I've done is remove high spots off a longer board. Researching online suggests I could do either way so I was thinking of trying the #4 plane and if I screw it up then I sand it down! Let me know what you think!

Luis, it depends on how experienced you are with hand planes, how well you can read the grain, and how much reversing grain the board has.

A hand plane will ensure that this board is flat, while a sander may not (and I suspect your board is unlikely to be flat).

Either a #4 or #5 will work. The simplest set up is as sharp a blade as you can get, and a very shallow cut. Rather do more work and be safe. An experienced hand planer would set the chipbreaker close to the edge of the blade to prevent tearout.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Derek...very good advice. What finish you intend to put on it also matters as a a really nice hand-planed surface may not be ideal for some finishes, believe it or not.