While scanning the tube with my Pete’s Wicked in hand, I ended up on a rather pathetic “everything you wanted to know about planes, sharpening and chisels in 30 minutes flat” by Woodsmith on PBS.
It started with flattening a board. The rustic dressed fellow starts with a round bottom wooden scrub with a more or less standard scrub blade in it. Followed by the use of a metal flat bottom scrub and then on through the rest ….blah, blah blah.
I’ve been using scrub planes for a lot of my woodworking life but this is the first time I have ever seen a “round bottom” Scrub. Its rounded from side to side, not fore and aft – not a compass plane. Almost hand made but I don’t think so.
He used it on the theory of really fast skipping and bashing the high spots.
Any one have input on this style and technique?
Replies
Hi Boiler
I saw a post of something similar a while back .. somewhere. I recall it being a retreaded gutter plane. Anyway, it seemed a useful variation. It was not a special type of scrub plane.
Regards from Perth
Derek
I had to read your post twice. At first I thought you said "retarded"
gutter plane - which made sense to me. :)A gutter would equal the shape of what I saw.Boiler
Any one have input on this style and technique?
Hey Boiler
Yes I use the round bottomed plane to flatten the underside of all of my windsor seats(with pine). It is super fast and it adds a bit of authenticity. Many of the original windsors I have examined had rough planed bottoms. Some of the chairs I looked at while attending a FWW/CW conference were rough sawn on the bottom-- no plane work.
Input- it works. I think Phil Lowe did a video here on FWW where he takes a metal scrub plane and grinds the straight edge to a slight arc. He gives a demo I imagine was similar to what you saw. It does remove wood quickly.
dan
Edited 4/14/2009 8:37 pm ET by danmart
Dan,The input is appreciated. I think perhaps what you have may be it. Do you have a design source for it? I was specifically referring to heavily cambered blade on a wood body plane where the plane's sole had a matching camber. The entire bottom of the plane is curved. I have used regular scrub planes for years. This one was different.
In practice, when I saw it, it was handled like a Stuka dive bomber. After which the artisan then went to a standard scrub.
Phil Lowe's piece was just on routine metal scrubs.Boiler
boilerbay."...like a hot knife through butter". I bought a box of wood planes at an auction a few years ago that included a plane similar to the one you describe. The heavy blade is incredible and sharpens beautifully. it's like taking a timber framing gouge and building a hand plane around it. I've used it a few times but generally my rough work doesn't require such extreme shaping. I watched at Plymouth Plantation, last spring, the craftsman split the log and quickly shape the results with a similar plane after a little broadaxe work.
B
I can send you a photo of what I use. Its a wooden body plane that's fairly wide. Its a workhorse. When you scalope the bottom of a windsor, it feels handmade to the untrained. The bottom has a feel to it. Some builders don't care for that and they go over it quickly to smooth it up. Either way its a great way to get rough sawn stock to a level pattern quickly. I use a criss-cross technique to work the surface and get back to the business of shaping the seat and boring 60 holes for the chair. Fun right?
dan
Dan,
Yes, I would like to see the photo. Maybe include in a post so others could also.
ThanksBB
Dan,Yes, I would like to see the photo. Maybe include in a post so others could also.Thanks
Hopefully this will be of some help. These are round bottom planes that I use a bunch to flatten pine seats for my chairs. They cut very nicely. I set the blades so that I get a fine cut when I lean to the left and an aggresive cut when I lean to the right. This way I am not tapping on my planes all day and I am "getting it done" so the kids get new shoes.
later
Edited 4/17/2009 8:07 am ET by danmart
Dan,Your photo "plane.jpg" was what the bottom looked like, the top being more like a default Krenov. Not so much a molding plane style. The blade in a very open mouth and the look of downright nasty if I were the wood looking up:)Thank you for the photos,Boiler
"Any one have input on this style and technique?"
I can't comment directly on the use of such a plane, as I use a wooden fore plane (with a flat bottom) and an iron cambered with a 10" radius to dress rough-sawn boards, but the round-bottom jack that you describe shows up fairly often at tool auctions, and (I think - I can't find my copy at the moment), there's a picture of one in "Working Wood in the 18th Century" (the Colonial Williamsburg book on period tools and techniques).
I'm definitely guessing here, but I can see how having the plane bottom match the heavily curved iron would be an advantage. On a flat-bottom plane with a heavily cambered iron, the iron's center is largely unsupported when the plane's set for a heavy cut. Having the sole match the iron's curvature would allieviate that difficulty, and might even protect the iron from bending if the plane strikes a knot. Most of those big irons from before about 1870 or so are thin steel laminated to soft iron, on a really heavy cut, I could certainly see the iron bending badly if it strikes something hard like a knot or a piece of embedded metal.
I think I'd switch to Fat Tire or Blue Paddle. That ought to take care of it! :) Tom
"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
Edited 4/15/2009 9:03 pm by ctsjr82
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