Rabbets - or sometimes you're not as terrible as you think you are

[Aaron Liebling]

I was cutting some rabbet (or rather trying to cut some rabbets) for the first time using my new skew rabbet plane and it was just brutally difficult. The blade was sharp and I thought it must be my terrible technique. The wood was sapele and I finally gave up and cut them on the table saw with a dado blade. Today, I needed to rabbet some walnut and thought I'd give it another try. The experience was night and day! I had my 1/4" taken off in 15 pleasurable minutes.

Lesson learned (again): some woods are just difficult and given my hybrid working style I shouldn't feel bad reaching for the table saw or mechanical router if it makes the job easier. On the other hand, some woods are a joy to use hand tools on.

The real lesson, I guess, is to use more walnut and less sapele.

P.S. anyone have great tips for trying to err n the neanderthal side while using silicon heavy tropical hardwoods?
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[Luke Dupont]

Walnut is an absolute joy to work with handtools!

Difficult woods require greater skill with hand tools (ie, be able to sharpen and set up your plane really well), and/or require you to be flexible with how you approach the work and not fixate on one method.

For example, if I were having difficulty cutting a rabbet with a shoulder plane, I might consider using a saw and chisel to cut it instead. I know I could get the job done that way, no matter how difficult the wood or how wild the grain.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Aaron

My offering is:

1. score the boundary lines clearly. This is especially important when planing across the grain.

2. if the rebate is a show joint, such as drawer bottom fitting into slips inside a drawer, then aim to make the cut a smidgeon inside the boundary line. Finish to the line with a shoulder plane.

3. where wood is brittle and has a tendency to tear/spelch, take very light cuts until the boundary is defined. Then only deepen the cut.

4. ensure that the outside edge of the blade aligns with the nicker, and both are a smidgeon outside the side of the plane's body. This ensures that one planes into the corner, and has a square (and not tapered) result.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[James Pallas]

Hi Aaron, my approach for difficult wood is score deep and than take a couple of cuts with a plane. Just enough to get a good edge. I than take a big plane, like a jack, angle it at +/- 45* and take as much as I can leaving a little at your established edge. Now use your rabbet plane until the going gets tough. Go back to your jack plane at less than 45* and take a little more and so on. In my case I have a Veritas jack rabbet plane that will do all of this except for the final finessing. This is how I approach hard maple and such. After all of that said. If the rabbet was less than a foot or so I would saw and chisel it and use a rabbet plane to dress it up.
Jim

[Derek Cohen]

It occurred to me that I have several articles/pictorial on rebating using the Veritas Skew Rabbet Plane. This extract may help. Article here:

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...hCabinet3.html

The moving fillister of choice is the Veritas Skew Rabbet Plane ...






Those familiar with this plane will note that the front knob has been removed. My preference is to rest my thumb on that spot and apply downforce, while the palm applies force against the side of the plane. Here is an example from another build ...






This fillister has a deeper subfence. The depth stop knob has also been slotted for ensure that it has been tightened securely ...






The plane is generally only set up to slice with the knicker ahead of the blade when planing across the grain. However, the Merbau used here has especially interlocked grain, and the nicker it employed to prevent spelching on the shoulders.






Here, the nicker is a smidgeon outside the body of the plane. The skewed blade lies in-line with the nicker. This has another purpose, which is to cut into the lower corner of the rebate and keep it clean and square. Otherwise it would allow waste to build there, and the inside would create a slope.

In addition to the line created by the nicker, a cutting gauge is run along the rebate boundary. This may be used after or during the rebate is cut to clean out the inside corner.

One last item of preparation is, following marking out the rebate (again with a cutting gauge), the lower boundary line is highlighted with blue painter's tape. This is simply to aid in monitoring the plane as it gets close to the line.

This is what the shavings from fairly straight-grained wood looks like ...





The case is dovetailed with mitres at each corner. There are two benefits for this: the first is aesthetic; the second is that it permits the panels to be rebated through the full length (otherwise stopped rebates are needed) ...






Here is a better glimpse of the grain direction ...






The case back is done ...






The finish we were looking for ...




Regards from Perth

Derek

[Aaron Liebling]

Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions. The deeper scoring to prevent spalting was especially helpful. I cut the other side this morning and it was much cleaner!

Regarding

if the rebate is a show joint, such as drawer bottom fitting into slips inside a drawer, then aim to make the cut a smidgeon inside the boundary line. Finish to the line with a shoulder plane.


I like the idea of not working all the way to the line with the rabbet plane, but this implies using the shoulder plane perpendicular to direction the rabbet plane was originally used, right? I feel like I'm less confident with keeping things squared when taking long cuts with the shoulder plane than I am with the rabbet plane. Why do you specifically recommend the shoulder plane here (versus the rabbet plane?)

[Derek Cohen]

Why do you specifically recommend the shoulder plane here (versus the rabbet plane?)

This is the best use of a shoulder plane … to plane accurate shoulders. In this case, square the shoulders of a rebate.

It is also a very easy plane to use, especially if 95% of the rebate has already been cut with a moving fillister plane.

Rebate made with Skew Rabbet …



Cleaning up the rebate of a drawer bottom in preparation for fitting a slip …



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Koepke]

I like the idea of not working all the way to the line with the rabbet plane, but this implies using the shoulder plane perpendicular to direction the rabbet plane was originally used, right? I feel like I'm less confident with keeping things squared when taking long cuts with the shoulder plane than I am with the rabbet plane. Why do you specifically recommend the shoulder plane here (versus the rabbet plane?)

Derek will hopefully reply with his reasons. For me a shoulder plane might also be my first choice. Keeping the shoulder plane square to the work is made easy by the design of the shoulder plane making it easy to use the sides as a fence against a planed surface such as the bottom of a rabbet.

Some of the cuts in your images look like dados instead of rabbets. My preference for clean up on dados and sometimes rabbets is a side rabbet plane:

Shoulder Cut.jpg

More folks have a shoulder planes than side rabbet planes, so that is also a good reason to use a shoulder plane.

The skew rabbet plane may also work on the end grain but may be a bit awkward.

jtk

[Aaron Liebling]

Great info. I'll give it a go with the shoulder plans next time!