Hi folks,
This is the first time I’ve been over here to knots, but I’m a regular over at breaktime. I work mostly on houses from the mid-19th century in upstate NY doing remodeling and restoration.
I occasionally come across early plank doors or board wainscot that have very pronounced undulating hand-planed surfaces, and am looking for a simple way to replicate that surface when patching or when making a plank door or board wainscot from scratch.
I had thought that a scrub plane was what created that effect, so my wife got me the Lie-Nielson scrub plane for Christmas. Looking at it now though, I can see that the radius in the scrub plane is much tighter than what I’m seeing on these doors and wainscot boards, so I’m thinking it’s not the right tool for what I’m trying to achieve.
I’ve done a search here of “scrub plane” and have read a fair amount of posts that came up in the search results about the use of the scrub plane and the use of the jack plane and/or other smoothing planes with a radius ground into the iron.
My question is this: if you were starting with a contemporary piece of machine-milled S4S white pine and wanted to achieve the undulating hand-planed look, what plane or planes would you use and how would you go about it? I haven’t used the LN scrub yet, and can still return it if it’s not going to be useful for this particular goal.
Thanks in advance,
Steve
Replies
That's because the scrub plane is a late 19th Century addition to Anglo/American woodworking. They didn't use them and, to tell the truth, I don't find much use for one at the bench. You will find your scrub plane useful in carpentry for leveling studs, backing out trim and other job site tasks. I think you're looking for a fore or trying plane with a slightly cambered iron.
Just as a counter balance, I find the scrub routinely very useful at the bench. I use mine to begin the flattening process of rough sawn planks, especially where there are significant cups, twists, etc. Works great. Mine's a 40 with Hock replacment blade.
As with all things woodworking, there are other ways to the same ends. A cambered fore plane would no doubt do the same job. Different strokes, so to speak.
Steve,
If the surfaces are scalloped rather than grooved, they may have been created with an adz. There are still furniture-makers working in Britain who size all the flat components of a piece with an adz (we have several such oak pieces in out house). Green woodworkers making framed buildings still use the adz to shape the frame members, also. The member being sized is secured and stood-over whilst the adz is swung two-handed between the legs. The blade is near (but not quite) flat.
Unfortunately it's no easy thing to learn adz-swinging to the point where you have enough skill to size components accurately and with a decent finish. I tried the technique on a greenwood stool and managed to shape it - but not with any great accuracy or with a good-looking finish (too much chipping and many adz-bites). My green woodworking friends are much better at it but even they struggle a bit.
Still, the adz-using furniture makers eventually get good enough. Presumably they spend a good portion of their apprenticeship swinging and cursing until the scallops are just right. :-)
I've tried using a very large gouge but it doesn't really look right - I find it impossible to get large enough scallops or ones that are "neat". It seems that the large momentum of the adz head is needed to carry through the swings - one swing per scallop.
I know a bloke who reckons he can do a decent simulation with a festool electric planer having one of those curved blades in it but I've not seen the results personally.
Lataxe
mmoogie,
It depends on how the old worker's tool was ground. Your scrub plane's iron may be ground too "round" to be a good match. As Larry suggests, a traditional foreplane (wood body) with its wider, shallower radiussed iron may be a better match. Or you might be able to regrind the scrub plane's iron to a shape that matches better. (Depends on the marks in the surface you are matching--both the radius of the old plane iron, and the depth it was set at, have an effect on the tool marks it leaves behind.) I've had to regind the curve to both foreplanes and scrub plane irons to get a match on pieced-out backboards, replaced drawer bottoms, etc, in restoration work on furniture.
Ray
Hi Steve
As others have said, you want to match the camber of the blade to the scollop in the wood. A scrub plane has a narrow and highly cambered by default in order to remove as much waste as possible as quickly as possible. It will scollop too deeply and/or radically. I'll use a Stanley #5 or #5 1/2 with a blade ground to match the surface finish you want. This is probably some where around a 10-12" radius.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Thanks everyone. After an afternoon scouring the internet I'm concluding pretty much what derek said. A scrub plane, while it might be useful in other ways, seems not to be what I would need to accomplish this particular task.Steve
I'm a little late to the discussion, but you've gotten some good advice. I build quite a bit of rustic furniture, and finish the tabletops the same way. I use a #6 plane with a cambered iron. The extra weight of the 6 over a jack plane helps alot with the process, and the blade is wider, too. You could also use a 5 1/2 to do the same.
The blade on a scrub plane is too skinny with too much camber to leave the desired finished effect that you are looking for.
Jeff
If you want to spend a large amount of money Festol makes a cutter head for their electric planer that will give you this effect. I have not tried it but if your doing a lot of this it might be worth considering. If your doing just a small amount of this you might try an old wood plane (you can open the mouth of these really easily if you have to) and putting curve on the edge.
Good luck
I've seen that Festo head advertised. I have a hard time believing the results wouldn't look machine made. It's got to leave some knife marks.Steve
It would be interesting to see how well it works. I wonder how much of a learning curve there would be for using it also it might be one of those things that if you are not to close to the finished product it might look great. There are a lot of old (1920s and 30s)tudor style houses in the Oakland CA area that have exterior trim with that "hewn" look and I have always wondered if it was a machine made product from the lumber yards or something done on site.Good luckTroy
Are you talking about a surface like this? I've done it with an axe, adze, scorp, bent knife or a belt sander, just using the front roller. I think you would have a hard time with a plane for this surface look. Most of the original stuff was done with a small carpenters adze.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
No, not that rustic. What I'm talking about is pretty subtle. I have one door in my house that I don't think would even show it in a photograph. It is definitely an artifact of planing rather than adze work...long parallel ripples.Steve
My question is this: if you were starting with a contemporary piece of machine-milled S4S white pine and wanted to achieve the undulating hand-planed look..
I would say a hand scraper!
FYI - It makes little sense to use S4S white pine as the starting point for your restoration, unless it's something you've already got. S4S is considerably higher priced than rough stock, and by surfacing it with a fore plane (either about a 16" long woodie or a #6 Stanley), you're essentially removing the benefit of the millwork that makes it S4S (some may debate whether there's a "benefit" to S4S, but the lumberyard nevertheless charges for it).
You might wish to review articles on 4-squaring stock by hand. It might not be necessary to match the surface characteristics left by the fore plane on both sides of the plank, in which case it won't be necessary to completely process it by hand, but that is what was done originally. The good news is that you only need a fore plane, a marking gauge and a flat bench to 4-square lumber by hand.
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