Replies

1. 
   flairwoodworks | Feb 13, 2008 08:35am | #1

   Jeff,

   So basically, what you are saying, is that each plane is set up differently to work specifically for one part of flattening/smoothing the top.  Unless I am mistaken, one plane (preferrably a long one) could be used for the entire job with different settings (blade depth and mouth opening) and possibly different profiled blades.

   Chris @ flairwoodworks

    - Success is not the key to happines.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

2. 
   flairwoodworks | Feb 13, 2008 08:51am | #2

   Jeff,

   Thanks for clarifying the smoothing process.  Now I can rest easy!

   You make is sound like so much work to change a blade.  I can probably change the blade, set the blade depth and mouth opening of my Veritas LA Jack in less than 30 seconds.  No tools required

   My Veritas #4-1/2 would take a little longer because of the cap iron screw, which requires a screwdriver.  No other tools are necessary to adjust.

   Chris @ flairwoodworks

    - Success is not the key to happines.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

3. 
   BossCrunk | Feb 13, 2008 03:14pm | #3

   In theory, I suppose, a jack would be set up with a very open mouth and a pretty heavy camber both much in excess of what you would want from your smoother. However, if you can change out an iron and close up the mouth in a matter of seconds then it doesn't matter at all.

   A shorter plane will plane into the very slight hollows which are perfectly acceptable on handmade furniture but longer planes will continue to ride over these hollows until they are planed flat. In my opinion this takes too long and results in the machine-like perfection I was trying to get away from in the first place by using a hand plane.

   I don't think I've ever planed a panel to the point where a jointer (and sometimes even a jack) would take a continuous shaving from end to end at all points on the panel. I put the long planes down when I know the workpiece is flat enough for a smoother to pretty much take a continuous shaving (which is pretty darned flat, really). Once or twice over and I'm done with the smoother.  If I needed or wanted machine like perfection, I'd use a machine or hire some anal-retentive fool/professional planer of practice boards and put an L-N No. 7 their hands and tell him or her to plane until I said stop.

   Keeping a long plane on the project is basically going to make the wood look like it's been run through a power planer. Long planes are more fatiguing, relatively speaking. I put them down as soon as possible as I suspect did the woodworkers of yore who had no choice but to use hand tools.

   I don't handplane wood for a certain "look." That's just fakery.  I try to stop when expediency and efficiency suggest it's time to do so.  More often than not that results in a slightly undulating, smooth board that is flat *enough*

   Always remember that "flat" is a geometric concept and "smooth" is a surface attribute.  A slightly wavy board can be smooth as a baby's butt.

   
   

   ---

   Edited 2/13/2008 10:55 am ET by BossCrunk

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Feb 13, 2008 06:00pm | #4

   And that's exactly what the eighteen century cabinetmakers did.   At an auction or antique store you can always feel those undulations with a light graze of your finger tips.  Of course the standard for "good enough" changed over time, with Queen Anne pieces much less flat than later ones.  But even in the Federal period with very shiny (French polished) inlayed surfaces you can feel the variations in the surface.  It affects the way the light reflects from the surfaces.

   That's a principal reason why you can tell factory "reproductions" from across a large room particularly if there are period pieces in the vicinity.  And that's why there is a market for hand made reproductions.