Wood hand plane questions

[Jim Koepke]

I think with this tunnel you are trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Agreed, if there was a problem this would solve, antique planes would have a hole through the center.

jtk

[David Carroll]

If you like to experiment, there is nothing wrong with that. It is your plane after all. But in terms of solving a problem, one thing to remember is that planes were made long before wood kilns and vacuum kilns and moisture meters came into being. Looking at old woodworking texts, there are often instructions on re-flattening wooden plane soles and eventually inlaying blocks to close up the mouths of planes that had worn, and been re-flattened repeatedly, opening the mouth.

So, regular work to keep wooden plane soles flat was likely just a normal part of maintaining planes in a world with wild shifts in seasonal humidity, no HVAC systems and made from wood that was air dried. JMHO.

DC

[Reed Gray]

All of these comments are food for thought. I do have some Mountain Mahogany, which is as hard as the desert iron wood from the SW. Most of it is not straight enough for a stable plane, but it might make a good sole. I actually have some iron wood that I could turn into a plane. Also some boxwood. I may even try some Oregon myrtle wood which is actually a California bay laurel. It is pretty hard, and has an inter locking grain. The quest begins!

robo hippy

[Rafael Herrera]

Ed, those charts are for green to oven-dry shrinkage. I'm not sure the reason those flooring sites are quoting them since a consumer would have no use for that information, flooring is bought dry. Once the lumber has dried, its rate of shrinkage and expansion is presumably smaller. None of the sites above provide those figures. I don't really know what it is for Beechwood.

It is also worth mentioning that early in the 20th century and any time before that there was plenty of old growth wood. If there was anything better than Beechwood, it would have been used. It should also be pointed out that the British islands were pretty badly deforested a long time ago. They imported large amounts of lumber.

In China and Japan they use/used other species and different designs as well. So, Beechwood is not the only woood used in large scale plane making.

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I was talking to a friend about this subject. He also pointed out that plane makers preferred the sap layer of the Beechwood tree for planes. Why? What is the difference between beech sap wood and heart wood? That's an interesting question.

Rafael

[David Carroll]

Birch was also widely used in plane-making, early on in America. At a farm museum, I once saw a birch plane (I assume it was a jack plane) made from a birch limb in which the stub of a branch was left on the plane and served as the tote. It was well-used with a mouth that you could chase a mouse through. I knew it was birch because there were still remnants of bark on it. I believe in one of Irving Sloane's books he did a drawing of a similar plane.

A plane like this breaks all the rules, but in the hands of a skilled worker, it did the job!

DC

[Edward Weber]

Rafael, I have no issue with Beech, I simply said it's not the best for this use IMO.

The dimensional stability charts are derived by compiling decades of saturation and movement studies to determine how different wood species behave. Knowing that, you can further determine what species is best suited for your purpose. Whether that be flooring or something else.

While Beech was the predominant wood for European and Colonial American plane making, there are many, many, other species with different properties that may be better suited for making planes today.
Many Japanese planes are made of a type of white oak, other eastern planes are made from rosewoods, ebonies, Blackwood or Ironbark to name a few, are they all wrong?

It's up to Reed what he uses. I would suggest Myrtle. It has good properties and is native to the region. Cut some bodies, one with a tunnel one without and see how they react over the course of a year.

[Rafael Herrera]

The dimensional stability charts are derived by compiling decades of saturation and movement studies to determine how different wood species behave. Knowing that, you can further determine what species is best suited for your purpose. Whether that be flooring or something else.
[...]
Many Japanese planes are made of a type of white oak, other eastern planes are made from rosewoods, ebonies, Blackwood or Ironbark to name a few, are they all wrong?

I'm not questioning those charts at all. Those figures are for shrinkage from freshly cut green wood to kiln dried. Those are useless figures for a consumer, we don't normally buy green wood.

In fact, if the site below is accurate, a quarter sawn American beech hand plane, 3" in height, will shrink 0.0354 inches (about 1/32") if it goes through a moisture content change from 14% to 8%, which may be an extreme swing, I'm just plugging in numbers.

For beech, the rates of shrinkage they're using is 2.55% tangential, 1.2% radial, when going from 14% to 8% moisture content. If those figures are correct, they are what a woodworker can actually take into account when designing.

https://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl

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I didn't say the Japanese or Chinese were wrong, they use/used what they have access to.

I just mentioned them because English and American traditions are similar and mostly what we discuss, but they're not universal. In continental Europe they seem to have used beech bodies with hornbeam or lignum soles. Their plane designs are different as well.

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From time to time exotic wood planes pop up, made by ship builders, or so goes the popular explanations. Are those better planes? it's anyone's guess.

Want to make a plane with Lignum Vitae, rosewood, or some other dense wood? They'll be heavy as lead, I don't think they'd be practical planes.

Rafael

[Reed Gray]

After pondering this for a few more days, the whole point of having a hole through the middle would allow the wood to 'adjust' both to general seasonal weather changes, and the more sudden changes if you move the plane to a different environment. An air hole through the center would make it much easier for the wood to equalize without building up enough stress so that it cracks. I will be making one, just out of curiosity. Ed sent me an e mail commenting about using 'decorative' plugs. They could add to the design, but the hole still needs to be open for 'breathing'. The end grain checking, which is a stress relief crack, might be at the very least, greatly reduced if not eliminated. I guess I could use a stabilized wood, that stuff that is polymerized in a vacuum chamber. No clue as to what that could cost....

robo hippy

[David Carroll]

"At a farm museum, I once saw a birch plane (I assume it was a jack plane) made from a birch limb in which the stub of a branch was left on the plane and served as the tote. It was well-used with a mouth that you could chase a mouse through. I knew it was birch because there were still remnants of bark on it. I believe in one of Irving Sloane's books he did a drawing of a similar plane."

Errata: Irving Sloane wrote books on Guitarmaking, I meant Eric Sloane, who wrote books on Early American Industries, and there is a Museum that bears his name in Kent, CT. This will be the site of the spring meeting of ATTIC (Antique Tools and Trades of Connecticut) on June 10th. I will hopefully be there.

[Edward Weber]

I'm not questioning those charts at all. Those figures are for shrinkage from freshly cut green wood to kiln dried. Those are useless figures for a consumer, we don't normally buy green wood.
Rafael

These charts reflect wood that has reached FSP, (roughly 30%) Only below 30% is where dimensional changes occurs, no more free water is being lost, it's no longer considered green.
Once the drying of the cell walls starts, that where the shrinking begins.

Beech moves quite a lot in this range, much more than many other species. This is fact, not opinion, as documented in the various studies and charts.
This is why I said, I don't think it's the best. that's my opinion based on facts.

So again, dimensional stability is how much a species moves in the range between the FSP and Zero, although we usually only focus on the range down to the EMC.
Why you think these numbers are useless is a mystery to me. Understanding wood movement is a critical part of woodworking IMO.
https://owic.oregonstate.edu/sites/d...ubs/EM8600.pdf

Reed, I mentioned filling the hole with a plug, I meant to say after the blank had dried evenly.

[Rafael Herrera]

I must not be expressing myself properly.

I said they're useless to me, I don't go to the lumberyard to buy green wood when I have a project. (I have bought green wood, but that's just sitting in my shed drying for some future use.)

In the case of beech, the site I consulted shows that its movement is not extreme once dry. In addition, not just any lump of beech is used to make a plane. It is specially cut and oriented so its movement does not warp the plane to uselessness, see my post above.

Rafael

[Warren Mickley]

My beech trying plane is 2.977 inches wide as of 8PM this evening. The humidity is 43%. I wonder if anyone would be so bold as to
predict the width it will be in August when the humidity is 100%, given all the charts available on line.

I have a feeling that few respondents here have any idea why beech is favored for planes. One reason is the terrific wedging action. A beech wedge in a beech body grabs easily and holds. Harder stiffer woods have trouble compressing enough to hold without a lot more force. Ever wonder why Lie Nielsen chisels have trouble with the handles loosening? They even say on videos not to pick up their chisels by the handle lest the blade come loose. Traditional woods like beech and ash work better for holding in wedging.

The beech wedge is also good for easy adjustment. An experienced worker can advance or retract the iron in small increments because the wedging action is so good.

Ever wonder why saw handles are traditionally made of beech more than other woods? It has to do with shock absorption. A beech saw handle or a beech plane or a beech chisel handle will absorb shock so that the work is easier on the worker's frame. This is not something you would notice if you hardly ever use these tools. Some of the woods proposed in this thread as superior to beech hurt my arms just thinking about them.

[Tom M King]

European Beech is wonderful stuff to shape too. I don't know about domestic Beech because I don't remember ever working with any. The old molding planes I've had to tweak or even completely reshape the profile on were just wonderful pieces of wood to have to do that with. Most of my molding planes came from the UK.

[Jack Dover]

Not just in America. In some places yellow birch is still tools wood de-facto.

But the issue would be finding a suitable timber. I'd wager that getting straight grained QS yellow birch is way harder than getting suitable beech. Also more expensive: only maybe 3' at the stump area are good for plane making, while a birch tree can be used whole, even branches.

The birch family in general doesn't have a good abrasion resistance and the difference is just insane. It wears and birch planes become sole shot in just a few years. I guess if the only available wood to me was birch, I'd add brass wear plates right away.

[Rafael Herrera]

You can source quartersawn European beech at this site, https://www.inventory.horizonwood.co.../lumber/391630. You can get a smoother and either a jack or a jointer out one of those blanks.

Red Rose Reproductions is also a source, but they sell American beech. They often are out of stock. https://redrosereproductions.com/too...lets-c19456188