Replies

1. 
   user-148830 | Oct 28, 2008 07:49pm | #1

   Ziggywade,
   Sounds like you have sharpening issues. Or one nasty planer. I'd first try the hand plane again, sharpen it up, hone that blade, strop it with a good stropping compound and have at that top again. Walnut isn't so hard to plane. You should, with some effort, get those planer marks gone.

   As for the scrapers, you have to make sure that with every step of tuning it, you are ending with the finest polish that you can manage. So polish the face of the scraper. Lie-Nielsen did this for you with the scraping plane. File an edge square to the scraper or at the angle the L-N is at. Dead flat, dead square. I put the file in the vise and move the scraper past it. Then stone out those file marks with a diamond stone. Work on up to your finest stone or sandpaper wrapped around a piece of maple or beech. Then and only then can you think about turning a tiny tiny burr for a final scraping. You might even try it first without turning a burr just to see what kind of finish you're getting.

   A final possibiity is that your field of peanuts on that walnut is caused by some real wacky grain. In which case you might have to retune all your plane irons with a back bevel for a high angle cut so you can scrape/plane the nastiness out.

   Finally, and I hate to bring this up, you could use sandpaper. Start at 220 grit or whatever will take out the marks of the planer, hand plane, or scraper and go up to 400. Even Lee had to retreat.

   Gary Rogowski
   http://www.northwestwoodworking.com

1. 
   Chrismitchell | Oct 30, 2008 05:06am | #2

   I do honestly appreciate your unselfishness ability to take time out for the many who have the passion to want to learn this beautiful art. I am sure that I speak for the thousands of individuals who are in the same boat as I am .  Imagine that, You are able," and" in a position to do just that. If only everybody would just use the resources that is available to them instead of just wishing and dreaming of the impossible or at least what they think is the impossible. This would have to be a very rewarding feeling. Back to the subject of "retreat" very quickly, I am sure Westpoint Taught that retreating was a way of life back then,but these days, and this time of again, all the resources we have at our disposal, as Mr. Churchill very well put it Never, Never give up. With that in mind, Instead of retreat I will cheat. I purchased the Verities Card Burnisher and it works oh so well for an amateur like me. So until I can learn the skill,cheat I will. Another question!, I watched your video on how to straighten twisted lumber and you said to use the FEE system. But I noticed that you started out jointing the sides first so I got a little confused, "Which is not hard for me ok".  I have problems sometimes with this situation and often I end with stock that is 50mm on one end and 42 mm on the other. How can I eliminate this from happening? I mean I can fix it by using my planer and get both ends the same thickness but I worry that I am using up too much of my expensive Lumber. Ya know. What can I  do Master. Chris

1. 
   user-148830 | Oct 30, 2008 10:46pm | #3

   Zig,
   I go through two milling stages: rough milling where my first job, as you point out, is to join one edge straight before ripping oversize, and final milling which absolutely uses the FEE system. So in my final milling I face join first, plane to thickness [Faces], edge join one edge square to a face and then rip to width [Edges], finally I crosscut to length [Ends].As for making tapers or even shingles when trying to mill up lumber, the key is knowing what you're starting with. If you have a hollow or a hump in a board it will change the way you apply your hand pressure to it. If it's twisted, it will completely change it. So read your wood carefully first and apply pressure where you want to remove material. Don't just pass it through the jointer. Good luck.Gary Rogowski
   http://www.northwestwoodworking.com