Hand Plane setup, sharpening & how to plane properly - in person course

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Anyway.

@Ttrees I think it might have been an article from that bijou kumbaya carpentry mag that I get from the states.

I'll dig it out later after tea.

You guys all have better advice than Nicholson. You're savants! Plus, Nicholson probably wasn't a masters student or a political expert, so what would he have known.
 
All I'm saying is that you don't need to flip the wood over, unless it's really rocky then a wedge or a bit of clamping might help. You work on the chosen first face, then the edges, then the back.
Brain isn't flipping it. Cosman's vid is about prepping for the thicknesser with a bit of hand planing, which he does perfectly well on a loose board. He could hand finish the side he started on without flipping it.
I'd try and forget about the "reference surface" idea if I were you, though it comes in handy sometimes.
Show me an example of what you say on video, the flat bench method is a lot faster and easier and requires no skill to learn.
Just a long straight edge to make a straight surface, cleat on the end, and 3 planes for anyone who wants an easy life.

Pity Cosman doesn't do a retake of rough to ready, his methods using the bench is the fastest way, use the winding sticks if you like the other techniques are utilized if you look.
Charlesworth mentions them should I need to get some snippets from youtube, same deal.
Combine using the cap iron and it's about as good as you can progress planing flat timber without faff.
 
@D_W was that you in the plane/ cap iron video attributed it to David W a couple of pages back?
The video made in Japan was very interesting but totally frustrating in not being able to understand what they’re saying lol, would’ve liked to have seen that set up extended to show the front of the mouth of the plane holding the timber down and changing the distance from there to the blade. Ian
 
You guys all have better advice than Nicholson. You're savants! Plus, Nicholson probably wasn't a masters student or a political expert, so what would he have known.
He wasn't an american amateur occasional woodworker either
Nicholson doesn't say much about cap irons, just in a brief sentence that they can be set back a bit for easy stuff. Which we all know.
 
What's wrong with a workmate to start? If it slides, clamp a board under it and butt the board end against the wall.
Well done D_W that seems to be the first bit of useful advice ever coming from you! :ROFLMAO: A first!! It's been a long wait!
Better still is to clamp a biggish joist between the work mate jaws, jam this against the wall and use the joist as the workbench, like a Japanese planing beam. Good for site work too.
 
Show me an example of what you say on video, the flat bench method is a lot faster and easier and requires no skill to learn.....
It can't be faster and easier than not doing it! If you can plane at all you can plane a surface flat on the ordinary way like everybody else. You've been listening to too many gurus!
 
He wasn't an american amateur occasional woodworker either
Nicholson doesn't say much about cap irons, just in a brief sentence that they can be set back a bit for easy stuff. Which we all know.

I don't think you read Nicholson.
 
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@D_W was that you in the plane/ cap iron video attributed it to David W a couple of pages back?
The video made in Japan was very interesting but totally frustrating in not being able to understand what they’re saying lol, would’ve liked to have seen that set up extended to show the front of the mouth of the plane holding the timber down and changing the distance from there to the blade. Ian
I think you must’ve missed this David
 
It can't be faster and easier than not doing it! If you can plane at all you can plane a surface flat on the ordinary way like everybody else. You've been listening to too many gurus!
You're gonna have to prove me wrong on that.
I thought you'd jump straight to Follansbee and pick out a video, instead youd rather speculate .
If you could find something which might retain 4 corners that would be great.

I'm not saying I'm an expert, just as easy for anyone should they try, but for anything benchsized and somewhat manageable using the bench instead of winding sticks and a straight edge looks like a tedious process from every video I've ever seen on the matter.
Not saying I'd be as quick as others when planing much beyond the bench, say a big 20foot column...if there was only one.
Flat bench principal can be utilised for more.
 
Getting well of topic here lads, and spoiling the thread. Admins could delete the last dozen posts and no loss.

@ArtieFufkin in the absence of courses, you could do worse than dropping into the local mens shed, altough you still run the risk of running into another bunch of cantankerous opinionated old men. ;)

Other than that,
A) work on your sharpening skills (I can just about get to the 'shaving hair' level if I take sufficient care),
B) maybe it's the wood you're using (I use a lot of cheap soft wood and there's no comparision to quality hard wood)
C) stop screwing about with the setup of the plane, i.e. you should never have to adjust the frog.
in respect of members vastly more existing than i, I withdraw this opinionated bit!
 
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You're gonna have to prove me wrong on that.
I thought you'd jump straight to Follansbee and pick out a video, instead youd rather speculate .
.......
No speculation involved I've been planing bits of wood for 50 years or more.
Flat bench obviously useful yes but the reference plate idea belongs to engineering not woodwork.
 
Getting well of topic here lads, and spoiling the thread. Admins could delete the last dozen posts and no loss.

@ArtieFufkin in the absence of courses, you could do worse than dropping into the local mens shed, altough you still run the risk of running into another bunch of cantankerous opinionated old men. ;)

Other than that,
A) work on your sharpening skills (I can just about get to the 'shaving hair' level if I take sufficient care),
B) maybe it's the wood you're using (I use a lot of cheap soft wood and there's no comparision to quality hard wood)
C) stop screwing about with the setup of the plane, i.e. you should never have to adjust the frog.
Cantankerous, quite possibly, opinionated? Well I do have an opinion and I have an opinion about never adjusting the frog, dear god, I am not even going to try to educate you.
 
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Cantankerous, quite possibly, opinionated? Well I do have an opinion and I have an opinion about never adjusting the frog, dear god, I am not even going to try to educate you.
I’ve never adjusted the frog on any of my infills, since making them anyway, and I adjust the mouth of my two low angle block planes not the frog. What’s your opinion on that? I actually only have two planes that have a frog that can be adjusted.
 
I think you must’ve missed this David

That was me though I'd make little out of ash that runs out as you can plane it, but it's coarse planing. The settings were a bit exaggerated...it should never really be that physically arduous.

The Japanese video just talks about grain and surface quality, but the test is for the super surface, and there's a separate paper translated later where the professors prescribed hand plane setup. They basically said you set the cap iron in a hand plane and when the shaving shortens, it's set right. The shaving shortens when it's compressed and straightened.

The mouth opening is minimally effective compared to a cap. I tried this by making two infills- one with a 55 degree iron and 4 thousandths mouth for smoothing and a panel plane for coarser work with a .011 mouth (48 degree bed).

The smoother was effective but the shaving has to be half of the aperture, and that means a plane with limited capability. The mouth on the panel plane was better than nothing but not close in ease and control to the cap iron and I eventually refiled the inside of the mouth to accept a close cap and the plane was much better. I think once you get larger apertures like a hundredth or larger, the shaving gets long enough to tear below the surface ahead of the iron and the cap holding the shaving down is far more effective.

The function of the panel plane was surprisingly poor with a tight mouth on glued panels.

That plane and a very good vintage single iron jointer drove me to figure out the cap iron to be able to drop using power tools on hardwoods. We still try to get ideal quality wood if it's available but fas cherry here still often has reversing in it.
 
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