Wood hand plane questions

[Reed Gray]

I will be making some wood hand planes in the next year or three. There is one thing That seems obvious to me, but I have never seen or heard of it. We all know that any wood 8/4 or thicker never reaches moisture content equilibrium, the inside has a higher moisture content than the outside. Any antique hand plane, made with 12/4 wood will have varying degrees of end grain checking. Over the years, the moisture content difference creates stress, and stress is relieved by cracking. So, for a 12/4 square block, why hasn't any one drilled a long wise hole about 1 inch diameter? That would make for the wood being pretty much the same thickness all around and stress would be pretty equal.....

robo hippy

[Edward Weber]

Why anyone hasen't done it, I don't really know for sure. I would say, it's not necessary
Now back to your original statement about moisture content.
Once the piece of 12/4 has reached EMC (equilibrium moisture content) this is where the wood is no longer gaining or releasing moisture. There will be a moisture gradient as you mentioned but it doesn't matter if the outside is X and the inside is X+1.
The only thing that matters is that it's not moving due to moisture transfer, which is when it settles at the ambient relative humidity (RH). Once the wood acclimatizes and is considered stable, the numbers don't really matter.
The EMC of the wood in my shop to be considered stable will be slightly different than in yours, due to the RH.

[Rafael Herrera]

As Ed pointed out, the gradient in moisture within the plane body is not large enough to cause significant movement if the plane is well cared for. Some will crack, but that is caused by more extreme changes in the environment the plane is placed at. One of my friends has gotten planes from the UK and several times a plane has developed a crack after a few weeks. On the other hand, I have several wooden planes, some even from the UK, and I have not experienced cracking problems. These are all Beechwood planes, by the way.

As per your idea, you could try to make a plane in that fashion and see what happens. Instead of drilling, the plane could be laminated to create a square hole too.

Rafael

[Dave Anderson NH]

One other notation about moisture content in thicker logs, boards, or blanks. Wood which is kiln dried in a vacuum kiln loses its moisture from the center first. This results in remarkably stable wood since the outside is the last to dry. There is almost no end checking. The downside is availability and price. Few places have vacuum kilns ands most commercial operations use huge steam kilns. Vacuum kilns are generally smaller in the range of 1000-2500 bdft and the results show in the end price.

[Reed Gray]

Well, when I make my first wood hand plane, I will have a hole down the length. I just have to experiment. As for beech, I have had one log I got some years back for bowl making, and it pretty much shattered. I do once turn my bowls, to about 1/4 inch let them dry about a week, then sand and finish. This does work for some woods, but not all. American yellow wood tree is one. While wood can and does reach equilibrium, eventually, wood never stops moving, due to changing climate. In an 8/4 board, this doesn't create too much of a problem. With 12/4, this is more of o problem because of the bigger difference. To me, that means stress, which even though it is minimal, it probably is enough so that over time, it will need to be released. It isn't as much of a difference as you would have in a whole log, which is impossible to dry without lots of checking.

I did pick up an AC Bartlett 20 inch jointer plane, or maybe it was just the plane iron that was made by Bartlett. It came from Ohio, and probably the later 1800s. I was able to get a few shavings with it, but the sole is in bad shape. Current plans are to put a new sole on it. I don't want it for collectability, I want to use it and to use it for a model for making another one, or other ones..... Looks like it is oak rather than beech.

I did have a local business for a while that used a vacuum kiln. The wood from it worked like air dried lumber. Wonderful stuff. Rip a board on the table saw and you get shavings, not dust.

robo hippy

[Edward Weber]

Reed, I think this will be an interesting experiment, though I don't think there will be much difference, if any. The center of a 12/4 piece of timber will be below the FSP of roughly 30% and probably much lower, closer to 20 would be my guess. Your target dryness for your area is probably about 9%. The differential in MC is not going to be much more than 10%.
One word of caution, don't mill to final size before drilling. After you bore out the center and cut out for the iron there may be additional movement, especially with Beech, allow for it.

IMO, Beech really isn't the best species for planes, it moves too much, as Rafael pointed out

[Reed Gray]

I had thought about doing a glue up of staves, leaving maybe a 3/4 inch opening, and then drilling out the center with a 1 inch bit. There would be glue squeeze out that I would want to clean up. I have wondered about beech. At the store where I buy my kiln dried wood, they checked and sugar maple is not quite as hard as the beech. No idea if it is more stable or not. I want to try a block plane or two first, then a 5 1/2 of some sort, and maybe a jointer plane or two. I do have a chunk of lignum that I could make a whole jointer's plane out of, but think I will save that for other things. It would make an excellent sole, but I would expect the glue joint to fail eventually. I have some iron wood chunks too. Much more experimenting ahead.....

I did pick up an AC Bartlett plane, or maybe that was who made the irons. I couldn't find anything about that name. It needed a lot of work, but I was able to get it to take a few shavings. The modern planes do have some advantages....

robo hippy

[Rafael Herrera]

I wouldn't go as far as make the claim that Beechwood is not a good timber for planes. After all, for several centuries the majority of planes were made of Beechwood.

The plane design (or tradition) calls for the bark side rings to face down and to be parallel to the sole. Also, for the grain to be straight, no runoff. All these presumably to control the wood movement. Letting a plane sit on a barn shelf for decades or subjecting it to sudden and extreme moisture change will likely damage a Beechwood plane. It does not mean necessarily that the type of wood is wrong for a plane, it means don't abuse your tool.

The behavior of a relatively small block of wood, planes, compared to the boards used for a table, door, cabinet, etc. is also not exactly the same.

I've a few blocks of rift sawn Beechwood and Applewood for plane making. It's part of long term plan to make a few planes. I don't really need more wooden planes, I've more of them than shelf space to store them at the moment. There's satisfaction in making your own tools though.

Your idea may or may not have merit. If it's of enough interest to you, why not pursue it? We're not all driven by the same things in this hobby. Making the next dovetailed box or seeing one by someone else is not what makes me get out of bed every morning.

Rafael

[Jack Dover]

I made planes out of beech and maple. Hardness isn't a factor I think, I've seen red oak boards denser than beech, but stability probably is. In my experience maple was way less stable than beech, but that might be just a particular board (all my planes could have been made from a single board and more than half of the board would be unused) - all maple planes had to be reflattened and trued several times before they settled.

Not all planes have checked btw. This probably has something to do with a quality of source material and then the environment these planes lived. I have a woodie from 1960-ies which has checked almost to the point of being the Grand Canyon stunt double, and I have planes from late 18xx that don't have a single crack.

Also remember that a body is supposed to be throughly oiled, practically infused with oil. Either submerged in BLO for a few days, or mouth sealed and oil poured until absorption stops. Many planes didn't get oiled. The oiled ones I have don't have a single crack, not even a hairline.

[Edward Weber]

I wouldn't go as far as make the claim that Beechwood is not a good timber for planes. After all, for several centuries the majority of planes were made of Beechwood.

Rafael

I didn't say not good, I said not the best.
The easy availability of numerous species today is why I can easily make such a claim.
For the several centuries you mention, Beech was a good choice for many reasons.

I would choose a species that is less susceptible to movement.
Check out any wood dimensional stability chart and see where Beech lands in comparison to other species before you commit to using it. IMO, there are better (more dimensionally stable) options.
Which is where this conversation started.

[Rafael Herrera]

Could you post a link to the chart, please?

[Warren Mickley]

Well, when I make my first wood hand plane, I will have a hole down the length. I just have to experiment. As for beech, I have had one log I got some years back for bowl making, and it pretty much shattered. I do once turn my bowls, to about 1/4 inch let them dry about a week, then sand and finish. This does work for some woods, but not all. American yellow wood tree is one. While wood can and does reach equilibrium, eventually, wood never stops moving, due to changing climate. In an 8/4 board, this doesn't create too much of a problem. With 12/4, this is more of o problem because of the bigger difference. To me, that means stress, which even though it is minimal, it probably is enough so that over time, it will need to be released. It isn't as much of a difference as you would have in a whole log, which is impossible to dry without lots of checking.

I did pick up an AC Bartlett 20 inch jointer plane, or maybe it was just the plane iron that was made by Bartlett. It came from Ohio, and probably the later 1800s. I was able to get a few shavings with it, but the sole is in bad shape. Current plans are to put a new sole on it. I don't want it for collectability, I want to use it and to use it for a model for making another one, or other ones..... Looks like it is oak rather than beech.

I did have a local business for a while that used a vacuum kiln. The wood from it worked like air dried lumber. Wonderful stuff. Rip a board on the table saw and you get shavings, not dust.

robo hippy

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

I have had my beech double iron trying plane since 1979. It is now about 120 years old. It was in great shape when I got it and though it has been used hard is in great shape now. There are a few very thin cracks in the endgrain.

I made a double iron jack plane in 1978, used very hard. It is the only jack plane I have owned. No cracks in either end (it has only been 45 years).

Beech has been the premier wood for bench planes for centuries. This was figured out not by engineers looking at charts, but by users with long experience.

[Edward Weber]

Could you post a link to the chart, please?

Google wood dimensional stability chart or view them separately at a site like the wood database. Look for the last section, Shrinkage:
Beech, Radial: 5.5%, Tangential: 11.9%, Volumetric: 17.2%, T/R Ratio: 2.2
Sapale, Radial: 4.8%, Tangential: 7.2%, Volumetric: 12.8%, T/R Ratio: 1.5
https://www.wood-database.com/wood-a...nal-shrinkage/

Examples, most are hardwood flooring sites that rely on this information. I know a 12/4 blank will act differently than a 3/4 floor board but the values are what they are.
https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/F-72-11
https://sullivanhardwoodflooring.com...ng-stabibility
https://mesquitehardwoodflooring.com/properties.html

[Richard Coers]

I will be making some wood hand planes in the next year or three. There is one thing That seems obvious to me, but I have never seen or heard of it. We all know that any wood 8/4 or thicker never reaches moisture content equilibrium, the inside has a higher moisture content than the outside. Any antique hand plane, made with 12/4 wood will have varying degrees of end grain checking. Over the years, the moisture content difference creates stress, and stress is relieved by cracking. So, for a 12/4 square block, why hasn't any one drilled a long wise hole about 1 inch diameter? That would make for the wood being pretty much the same thickness all around and stress would be pretty equal.....

robo hippy

Never is a long time. I'd assume any thickness of wood reaches equilibrium at sometime over a human lifetime.

[Alan Schwabacher]

I would agree that this is not as big a problem as you think. But if you are trying to ensure that the wood reaches equilibrium with humidity throughout, a lengthwise hole would be much less effective than an array of small crosswise holes.

A real problem with trying stuff like this is the difficulty in telling whether it made any difference, and whether any difference you see is related to the hole. You could make a lot of them with and without hole(s) and see whether the range of things you observe with the hole(s) is different from the range you see in planes without.

Over many years people who used these planes to make their livings have compared more planes than would be practical for you to, and over many hours of work settled on designs that worked well. That's why you get suggestions to look at history: it is a big experiment, in a sense.