I have seen the light (on plane irons)

[mark1]

I want to share a success I had with sharpening my plane irons.

First, a little background. I have been trying to do more and more of my work with hand tools. So far I am at about 40% and increasing every month. One area I never felt confident with was planing the surface of a glued up panel.

I had a real break through with my planes when I read a post on here about cambering the irons. I have been getting them really sharp, but was too focused on keeping the edges square. I finally decided to experiment with one of my small bench planes and camber it. The result is amazing. I now feel confident that I can hand plane the surface of my work rather than use the power planer (which leaves ripples that have to be sanded or scraped off). One more tool I can unplug!

Thanks community for all of this great knowledge and inspiration.

[Ken S]

Nice post, Mark! Isn't it great when a good plan finally comes together!

Do you have Chris Schwarz' book on handplaning? It should be a well worn part of every serious hand tool woodworker's ready reference bookshelf. Chris really explores cambering. Once you can consistently produce very sharp plane edges, you are coming up on the halfway point. When you master cambering and the flexibility of different angles, you can start to see the finish line.

I am surprised to see what a fetish we have developed for square bench plane edges. I certainly agree with it for joinery planes, like rabbet and fillister planes. (Does a floating panel, unglued, nees an absolutely square plowed groove?) However, bench planes are designed to allow adjustment for slightly out of square irons. If this were not so, why would they have lateral adjustment levers? And, why would we have the diminutive plane hammers for tapping the irons to final adjustment? I am not opposed to striving for square bench plane irons, however, let's realize that beyond a certain point, we are doing it for our vanity rather than for practical woodworking. (Spending a lot of time achieving a very flat bottom on a jack (fore) plane used for coarse work is another example of a Quixotic endeavor with limited real world benefits.)

Keep up the good work, Mark, and keep us posted on your journey.

Ken

[Hatchcanyon]

Reminds me of my own learning curve!

Nevertheless I do not agree with the whole statement. Cambering may be sometimes fine but is wrong on a lot of planes. Plow and rabbet planes are not for cambers, just as little as block planes. To say it the other way round my planes are all not cambered neither the jack planes nor the jointers. Only the scrub plane is but this is a completely different story. It needs an iron with a  nearly semicircle edge. This is not a camber.

Jointing an edge will become difficult with a cambered iron but is easy and straightforward with a square edge. Some people say that a slightly cambered iron leads to board surface cuts flowing into the adjacent one. But how about using the plane askew?

Seems to be that a thicker (more sturdy) iron might do more good than any camber. I have some experience with not so old Stanley planes and their irons of only 1,6 mm. Replace these toys with an iron of 2,5 - 3 mm and you have a completely different tool!

I agree that breaking (rounding) the very far edges of a iron - only half a millimeter or so - may sometimes reduce tearout but im my opinion and experience "reading" the wood and cutting in the right direction is much more efficient.

Sure I don't want to push someone in a given direction but I stronly recommend to have two planes with and without camber and do some practise with both to learn abot the differences.

A question about the powered planer? Is it a handheld machine or a jointer? A handheld will never produce a smooth surface, this is alway a coarse tool for removing a lot of wood within a short time, but a jointer will. Even my 30 years old jointer machine will provided that the cutter irons are sharp and without any dents.

Rolf

[Ken S]

Interesting post, Rolf.

I believe we essentially agree. I mentioned the joinery planes only in the conrext of square edges. The only plane blades I use with camber are bench planes. I use only enough camber on a smooth plane to have the corners just disappear beneath the bottom. This eliminates "plane tracks" caused by the corners. As the smooth plane shavings are very thin, perhaps .001" or .02mm, very little camber is needed.

With the jointer plane, the shavings are slightly thicker, perhaps .006" or .15mm. More camber is needed to bury the corners. Normally I would use a pass with the smoother before gluing.

The jack plane can be used with all three functions. It can be a longish smoother, a short jointer, or a fore plane for initial planing. As a fore plane, I use more camber.

I agree about the radius for a roughing plane. I have never owned one; it was on my want but never bought list.

You make a good point about using cambered and uncambered blades side by side. I have thought about upgrading a blade or two with a Hock blade.

I have never owned or especially wanted a handheld power planer.

Ken

[mark1]

A question about the powered planer? Is it a handheld machine or a jointer? A handheld will never produce a smooth surface, this is alway a coarse tool for removing a lot of wood within a short time, but a jointer will. Even my 30 years old jointer machine will provided that the cutter irons are sharp and without any dents.

Rolf

The planer I unplugged is a 13" Craftsman that I bought 30 years ago while I was still in high school. Solid cast iron bed and nice powerful motor. Does a nice job but I'm still happier doing the same thing by hand - makes me feel like I'm really making something by hand rather than just running the wood though a series of machine steps.

[SharpenADullWitt]

A question about the powered planer? Is it a handheld machine or a jointer? A handheld will never produce a smooth surface, this is alway a coarse tool for removing a lot of wood within a short time, but a jointer will. Even my 30 years old jointer machine will provided that the cutter irons are sharp and without any dents.

Rolf

The planer I unplugged is a 13" Craftsman that I bought 30 years ago while I was still in high school. Solid cast iron bed and nice powerful motor. Does a nice job but I'm still happier doing the same thing by hand - makes me feel like I'm really making something by hand rather than just running the wood though a series of machine steps.

Wait until you have a large project.
I am trying to convert my style to a mix, where I use a circular saw, in a similar fashion to how they would have used a hand saw back then.  (take up less space then stationary tools)  This will be in conjunction with hand tools. (not enough time in shop)

[Hatchcanyon]

Wait until you have a large project.
I am trying to convert my style to a mix, where I use a circular saw, in a similar fashion to how they would have used a hand saw back then.  (take up less space then stationary tools)  This will be in conjunction with hand tools. (not enough time in shop)

To me thats the right statement. Both - power and hand tools have their merits and flaws. Should I plane a board wider than 5 cm by hand? I will not, at least no longer. Planing a very wide board not fitting through my jointer/thickness planer (a combined machine) usually something considered doint it by hand is easily done with a jig running on top of my workbench and a router. An advantage of this setup: Most of the chips are catched by the the routers dust collection. But for sure this method is 10 times slower that using an apropriate planer by it may be 10 times fast that doing the job with a hand plane.

Years ago I did level the top plate of my new workbench by hand only using bank planes. It worked but what a drudgery! Never ever again! At this time I only owned a circular saw, a drill and a jigsaw)

Rolf

[mark1]

SADW and Hatch - my goal is to work slower and spend more time on each task. I sit in an office chair all day long (I'm an IT architect), so getting a tool in my hands and slowly shaping something is like a deep breath of oxygen to me. I'm trying to turn off the power tools so I can spend MORE time on each project

[SharpenADullWitt]

At some point I would like to build a project with hand tools.  Now I have too many projects, and not enough time, as well as wanting to get into other skill sets (turning).  Find what works for you and enjoy it.  You may have to use power tools sometime when the spouse says she wants something now.

[mark1]

You may have to use power tools sometime when the spouse says she wants something now.

Ha - I hear that!

[Ken S]

The correct answer is: .................... it depends.

I believe the least wise choice is to acquire so many tools, be they hand or power, that you have no remaining budget for wood or other materials or no time because you have to work extra hours to pay for the tools. A subset of this is creating too many projects which forces you to bulldoze through what should be an enjoyable hobby.

Having to produce mind numbing projects to sell to pay for fancy tools is another unsatisfying choice.

The Shaker candle boxes Ernie Conover uses as teaching projects for hand cut dovetails come to mind as a good choice. In class, we made them using a combination of power and hand tools, although they could be made using all power or all hand tools.

We sized the wooden parts using a table saw. Standard board size today, 3/4" or 19mm, would work, however, thinning the wood makes a more pleasing box. We used a thickness planer for that. This was a practical choice due to the relatively short time available.

We cut the groove for the bottom on the long sides with an old Stanley 45 plane set up as a plow plane. This was most enjoyable. It could have been easily done using a table saw or router table. Today I would use my Veritas Small Plow Plane, which is a real delight. We cut the stoppod bottom grooves with a chisel.

The top was tapered along the edges for lightness of appearance. We did this using a bench plane.

The dovetails were laid out with a marking gage, dividers, bevel and a small square. We used a chisel and mallet to chop them.

The hinges were inset with a chisel.

The project is an excellent training project. It involves using several skill operations. It requires only a small quantity of lumber. Traditionally, the Shakers used pine or poplar, both readily available and inexpensive. (The choice of material is not limited to pine or poplar; cherry would be a nice, but moderately more expensive choice.)

This project is also quite practical timewise. A weekend or a couple evenings. Long enough to be enjoyable and short enough to fit into most schedules. These candle boxes are useful for many things. They are a bit whimsical and make very nice gifts. The handcut dovetails add a wow factor.

Projects like candle boxes are easily built in a small shop with a modest selection of tools, either hand or power, or a combination.

Ken

[Jan]

SADW and Hatch - my goal is to work slower and spend more time on each task. I sit in an office chair all day long (I'm an IT architect), so getting a tool in my hands and slowly shaping something is like a deep breath of oxygen to me. I'm trying to turn off the power tools so I can spend MORE time on each project

Mark1, I know intimately the need to do something by hands and not only by the head also. 

In the past when I did not have enough time for a handmade project, I sometimes went at least into the workshop to delight myself by the look on the tools and machines. 

Sharpening was always for me a good compromise between manual and mental activity. Simply craft. 

Jan

[Hatchcanyon]

SADW and Hatch - my goal is to work slower and spend more time on each task. I sit in an office chair all day long (I'm an IT architect), so getting a tool in my hands and slowly shaping something is like a deep breath of oxygen to me. I'm trying to turn off the power tools so I can spend MORE time on each project

Mark,

being an electronics engineer I understand your approach. It's fine if it works for you, it didn't for me. Maybe I'm focussed too much on repeatable results. For me it is much more important what results I can get in a given, limited period of time. You never have enough time.

My last step to reduce manual work had come in the moment my wife bought a Tormek T-7 for her turning tools. She's the turner, I'm the machinist and therefore I had to test the setup I tested my chisels and planes too. The result is I will never fall back to manually sharpening irons. Even if I use those tools only by less that 20% of the time (estimated) in the shop I want to have them sharp and equally important precise.

Today I try to learn a manual technique cutting dovetail joints. Not for using them extensively but for understanding if I'm able to perform the task precise enough. (With a router it works well.)

Rolf

[mark1]

My last step to reduce manual work had come in the moment my wife bought a Tormek T-7 for her turning tools. She's the turner, I'm the machinist and therefore I had to test the setup I tested my chisels and planes too. The result is I will never fall back to manually sharpening irons. Even if I use those tools only by less that 20% of the time (estimated) in the shop I want to have them sharp and equally important precise.

Today I try to learn a manual technique cutting dovetail joints. Not for using them extensively but for understanding if I'm able to perform the task precise enough. (With a router it works well.)

Rolf

Hatch, you are right. I have after all converted from doing hand sharpening to 100% Tormek! I guess for every tool I turn off I may end up turning one more tool on It is the balance between doing satisfying hand work while trying to eliminate the drudgery (like hand sharpening) that keeps things interesting in the shop.