Hi all,
I’m trying to flatten and thickness wood by hand. Unfortunately I’m not very good at it. It takes a very long time to get the wood flat, (if I manage to actually get it flat) and I end up wasting a lot of wood in the effort. Does anyone have some tips or tricks that might help me out? Right now I’m working with pine, because I figured it was the cheapest. I’m using a scrub plane, a jack plane and smoothing plane. Thanks in advance for your help!
Kyle
Replies
Kyle,
There are lots of articles about this subject that can guide you, but here's a quick answer....
You don't need the scrub plane if the pine is milled pretty flat to begin with. If you're using rough sawn lumber and the board is really uneven the scrub plane can save you a lot of work, but the jack should be OK for most work.
Start by planing across the grain with overlapping strokes. You should be taking thin shavings, not trying to get it flat all at once. Otherwise you'll wear yourself out and be disappointed with the results. Keep at it until you're getting continuous shavings across the board and then begin to plane diagonally in both directions. The planing across the board gets it flat across the width, but you also need to get it flat along its length. Once you're getting continuous shavings diagonally, plane with the grain of the wood. Once you have one surface flat, flip the board over and get that side flat too. Then put the board in a vise and plane with the grain to get it smooth. Use an engineer's square to check to make sure the edge is 90 degrees to the face. Then do the other side.
Then use the smoother to remove the roughness from the jack on the show side of the piece..
The best way to become proficient is to practice until it becomes natural. You need to have a sharp iron in your plane, so you may want to work on that first. Good luck and let us know how you're doing.
Jim
While you are building your hand-tool skills on 4/4 stock, would it make sense to concentrate on projects for which 1/2", 3/8" or 1/4" finished boards would be appropriate? ;-)
Seriously, I'd agree with Jim. Unless the stock is really rough or waggly, starting with the scrub is probably overkill. Why take a reasonably flat board and make it rough yourself? It really depends on what the stock looks like in the beginning.
The flip side of the four-square coin can be determined by asking any highschool girl about the advantages of being flat and square. ;-)
Kyle:
Here is a link to an article on Fine Woodworking's website. https://www.finewoodworking.com/fwnpdf/011142096.pdf
Learning to flattening a rough board that is either cupped or twisted is tough on your own. In addition to the information in the link let me add a couple of tips. First make sure you are working on a flat surface since any distortion in your bench top will telegraph to the board. Whether you are handplaning a board or running one through an electric planer it is necessary to shim any areas that don't make contact with the flat reference surface (either your bench or the bed of the planer). By shimming under the the high spots you eliminate the problem of the board flexing while it is being worked. Otherwise, the board will flatten out under the pressure of being planed and will just spring back to its original cup or twist.
Use winding sticks to find the high spots and work them down first. If the board is cupped I like to work the board with the cup down first (which means shiming the raised middle section). I start by planing the middle of the board with the grain to remove the crown. I like to take it down slightly lower (just a shaving or two) than the edges. Then I plane across the board diagonally first one way then the other. Continue checking with the winding sticks after each full pass across the face of the board until it is flat. Then make a couple of light passes with the grain to clean the face up.
Next straighten and square one long grain edge with the flattened face. Mark for width and straighten/square the opposite long grain edge. Do the same with the endgrain edges. Use a marking gauge to mark for thickness (keep the thickness just a little fat at this point) on all four edges. Flatten the remaining face using the same techniques applied to the first face and bring it down to the marked thickness by planing with the grain. Since your previously flattened face is down you don't need any shims under the board to flatten the remaining face. Now that the board is four squared you can smooth either or both faces depending on where the board is being used in the project. During the smoothing I bring the board down to my final thickness.
In addition to reading, it is helpful to see someone who knows what he is doing four squaring a board. If a class is out of the question I would suggest you make a $30 investment in a good video on the subject. Don't get discouraged. It is a lot like learning to ride a bike. Once you get the hang of it the process becomes second nature and goes very quickly. In closing let me add that it is easier to four square a larger board using a jointer than a jack. Since you don't have a jointer I would suggest that you get the hang of the process by practicing on a few 1 by 12s about 18" long.
I hope this helps,
gdblake
All,
Unlike most of the other posters, I prefer to work the 2d face of the board to thickness, then edge, then cut to length.
The reason I work in this order is because in hogging off the excess thickness from the 2d face, occasionally I get some breakout at the edge, or the end of the board. I like to waste away the thickness by planing crossgrain (easier to push the plane) for the most part with a foreplane, then coming to the line with the trying plane diagonally and finally longwise. I'm using wooden bodied planes.
Working the width and length after thicknessing allows me to clean up the skuzzey edges and ends as needed.
Ray
Ray:
If a board is really rough, or I need to reduce the thickness a lot I take the same approach as you. I just hit the edges enough to get a clear reference mark. Otherwise, if the wood is behaving any breakout along the edges is removed by planing with the grain as a part of final flattening and then smoothing the faces at the end.
gdblake
If you are using traditional hand tools to build the project, it's not always necessary to surface all four sides. The faces that don't show are often left rough or only lightly surfaced in spots where needed. That might be done with a draw knife or axe. Trying to get a board to be equal thickness throughout with hand planes isn't easy and in many cases, there is no need to.
This is a mostly old technique that I learned years ago. It works well because the tear-out (spelching) from the face flattening is removed.
A few points worth mentioning:
1. You can not plane through knots, you should only be trying this on clear wood.
2. Pine is in some ways more challenging to plane than a harder wood. Your plane blades need to be razor sharp to get a good cut in pine.
3. Do not sand the wood and then go back to planing, the sand paper will leave grit in the wood that will quickly dull your plane blades.
John,
I would amend your first point to read:
"Knots are significantly more difficult to plane to a satisfactory surface than clear wood, and ought to be avoided if possible."
It is not impossible to hand plane knotty wood, like Mark Twain famously said about giving up smoking, I've done it myself, dozens of times.
Ray
Plane over knots? maybe
Ray,
Yes, knots can be gone over with a hand plane but it is brutal on the blade, and generally doesn't lead to a smooth or level surface. Also for someone just learning to handplane and having problems, like the original poster, the stock should certainly be knot free until they have a lot more experience. I have a book about spotting fake antiques and one of the first clues to a fake is that there are knots in the piece. So it is possible to run a plane over a knot but it is, and was, not commonly done, and best avoided.
John,
Ray has far more experience working with originals than I do, but I do know that the inclusion of knots is not an indication of fakes.
Right now, I'm looking at a photo of a desk and bookcase attributed to the Hays shop in Williamsburg, and the back board has an oval shaped knot that must measure 3 1/2" by 2". If I were to run such a knot through the surface planer it would almost certainly explode. This is just one of several such examples, I could find of knotty wood being used in period furniture, and in some cases, in very high end pieces.
I completely agree that using knotty wood is not the way to learn to plane wood.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
Rob,
I knew I would get in trouble with that comment about knots in antiques.
The question is was the back board planed smooth, by planing over the knot, or was the board sawed to thickness and then possibly cleaned up a bit by planing roughly around the knot but not over it? I have seen that often on secondary wood that won't be visible in the finished piece, but you rarely, if ever, will see knots on any piece of wood that was visible and needed to be planed to a finished surface.
John,
Your're "knot" in
John,
Your're "knot" in trouble.
I guess I didn't read the full context; sorry about that.
One doesn't see knots on finished surfaces very often, but it's "knot" unheard of. (okay, I have wrung out ,as much as I can with the knot puns).
Look at the November 1997 issue of the sadly missed Home Furniture Magazine, for the article titled, The Two Faces of an American Masterpiece. Oddly this piece doesn't have any knots, that I can see on the secondary wood, but does have several on the primary surfaces.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
John,
There are plenty of examples of antiques here in the Valley of VA that have knots on visible surfaces. In the Winchester area, stock for drawer fronts was apparently chosen for figure, which often included the knot that spawned the wild grain.
A piece that featured wild knotty grain in its drawer fronts is a highboy that was on display at Kenmore, the Fielding Lewis home, in Fredericksburg. Every drawer front on that piece, and there were near a dozen, had at least one knot, and some of them several. Such esthetic choices are evident in many Philadelphie area pieces in the Chippendale style.
Ray
I would reccomend Rob Cosmon's Rough to ready DVD. It was reccomended to me and it worked. I'm no where near as fast as him, but I got to where I could get a piece flat pretty quick. I purchased it when I bought my scrubb plane and #7 from LN (I had the LAJ). His methods worked great for me and Did not waste a lot of wood. Now part of your issue may be trying to flatten a long piece and then cut it down to finish parts. I found that cutting the pieces closer to finished dimensions then working it down is a lot easier and with improved results.
Hi Kyle
Here is a pictorial that may add a little to the excellent postsalready made ...
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/Preparing%20a%20board%20without%20a%20thicknesser.html
Regards from Perth
Derek
Kyle, The first step in
Kyle,
The first step in dimensioning a board is to saw it fairly close to its finished size; perhaps 1" longer and 1/2" wider. Doing this will result in less waste and effort. As an example, more material would have to be removed to a get 6' board flat, than it would to get 2 3' boards flat First, you have to get rid of any cupping or humps in the board. I do this most often with a portable power plane, (see links below) Even with the cupping and humps removed, the board may not be "flat", so winding sticks are employed to check for flatness. The winding sticks will make it readily apparent which are the high corners and these can be planed down, checking frequently to measure the progress. With pine, it will be easy to plane with the grain, but some species do not plane easily with the grain, so you can plane diagonally from high corner to high corner to make it easier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK0DB63Tg3U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwaZlapWMls
With a true face, a line is struck with a marking gauge to establish the thickness and it is planed to that line. On this face you can go across the grain for most of the work, which even in hardwood is easy to do. Just make sure your board is wide enough that the inevitable splintering that occurs as the plane leaves the edge, won't matter.
Next comes getting one edge straight and square. I like to eyeball the edge and use a scrub or jack plane to quickly remove any humps or beveling. After your eye is satisfied, you can switch to a straightedge and square for absolute accuracy. Also, you should use the longest plane you have for this step. Where you stand has a significant affect on achieving this straight and square edge. It depends on your bench height and body shape, but for me I like have have the end of the board closest to me, about 6" in front of me, and my arm, shoulder, and wrist in line with the center line of the board. Even with this stance, I have to make an effort to avoid planing the board to a beveled wedge, with the high side sides closest to me. It seems that it is more difficult to keep the edge square than it is to keep it straight. To square an edge, requires an intimate knowledge of the plane, which comes after a short learning curve. I can kind of "feel" square and I get feedback from the plane to assist in knowing what is square without checking, but of course I do check it. Another technique that works well for squaring an edge is to allow the plane to overhang on the high side, taking a just a narrow shaving. Then progressively move the plane over in small increments until you have a good bearing surface for the plane, that is square and then the whole edge can be brought into square.
Now, the board can be cut and planed to length. I use knife to layout the cuts; this is much more accurate than a pencil, and gives a visual reference when when you get to the line. When size permits, I like to use a shooting board for squaring the ends. No matter how you plane the ends, misting them with water will make the planing easier.
The final step is to rip/plane to width. Leaving this step for last, allows you to plane straight across without concern for the splintering as the plane leaves the wood.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
Here's what I've Done--
Hi Kyle,
Sharpen sharpen sharpen!
I pretty much agree with everything written here-- I start with my jack-- working across the board with an open mouth and a thick shaving.
One thing not mentioned is grain direction. Mark your grain direction on the board right away. Always plane with the grain. If you're seeing a lot
of tearout, you probably are planing against the grain. Sometimes I work against the grain if I have a LOT of material to pull out.
Use a straight edge and mark the high spots for planing
After it's roughed out, I go lengthwise with the jack, finer shaving to pull the roughness out. I might go with a jointer plane, but a lot of the time the jack gets it. Then the smoother.
Now move to an adjacent side. Use the jack across the board to get the roughness out, using a thick cut, then pull out a square. Plane the areas that aren't square until the board sits flush in the square. Then go to a finer setting lengthwise. Use the smoother to finish. Then do the opposite sides in the same manner..
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled