Rob Cosman Planing Technique

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Dynamite

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Im a big fan of his work and avidly watch his videos. However… OMG! Every single plane push, he removes every shaving before doing another pass and then repeats, pausing to take each shaving out, over and over again.

Is it me or does it annoy anyone else?

To be fair, I will never be anywhere near Rob‘s amazing talent but still… OMG! 🤣😂

Kind Regards..........Rob
 
It might be because he doesn't lift the plane on the return path, so it's more likely to drag a shaving back through the mouth. I usually lift and even then often remove the shaving after each pass. I find it usually helps give me a cleaner/easier start for the next shaving. Depends on the wood though.
 
It does look a bit OCD but we all develop a way of working. I guess he sees the whole shaving being made and knows by the look of it that things are right. He may also just be performing to the camera. I am bit on the slack side and just remove them when a handfull has gathered however when I am correcting say an out of square edge it is good to see the shaving coming from where you want it.
Regards
John
 
yes it's hard to watch him plane, I think he over analyses everything and goes too far in most cases, his work is good though but I am not a fan of his approach, it's like watching a snail/sloth/tortoise beast that at the same time as going as slow as possible it's trying to hard sell you tools for insanely high prices.
 
Less irking watching him pinch the shaving, rather than the bad habits I see elsewhere.
Agreed though, that there is a large sales pitch involved, and or two videos are a bit daft on the subject, however one of his old videos (omiting the scrub planing cross grain) is about as good as I've seen on the tube.

He loves to do that party trick, so much so, that I can only guess,
doesn't work as well if the cap iron has more influence, as I've quizzed him on the matter before, which he did mention he must try some time.

Rob's mentioned setting his cap to about 1/32" away from the edge for his no.5 1/2,
and makes no suggestion for either making the leading edge steeper, nor setting it closer, and instead has suggestions of back bevels and whatnot on other videos regarding planing troublesome grain.

Have a hard time believing that he hasn't tried honing the cap steeper on one iron, as he always has a few spare irons in the toolwell, plenty of Stanley's
and plenty a minion at hand, some of which do appear to have some chops.

Maybe its just a case of not needing more tools once you can make do with three planes, and nothing to do with the pinching of the shavings?
That I think? is the reasoning for not lifting the plane, and looks to me a good way of pulling your back out planing longer work.

On the other hand... some good habits to make note of, which he might be trying to convey here...
That there is no need to have a hand or weight down on the front of the plane.
Which demonstrates two things...
The somewhat influenced shaving will still have enough downforce in the cut compared to a non influenced shaving which might not work so well if that were attempted.
And good habit not to nose dive off the ends of the work.

Imagine getting asked the same question multiple times a day,
That might well be the reason that he decides to keep things the way they are.

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he will show this to the masses, eventually ;)
but only when he sees a valid way of being able to keep the income the same, rather than selling fancy planes with flat soles which can guarantee a fine shaving,
which for a cap iron that's set for less influence,
makes for a time consuming and frustrating way to try and plane timber,
leaving one wanting more from the tool.

Plenty of other reasons one might want a more accurate unbreakable ductile iron Bailey,
but tearout isn't one of them.

Well, that's my 2 cents on the pinch and drag.
:whistle:
 
I will give him credit for getting good work done but..,,,,

1). Aside from his work bench project I cannot recall any major projects or pieces he has done. But to be fair, I rarely photographed or videoed my work either. Something I need to get going on.

2). years back, when getting serious, I would look forward to going to the woodworking shows. Cost me a ton of cash. I remember those slick snake oil salesmen! “Have you ever had issues cutting dovetails…. Well now you do it like a pro with our new wacky tacky router enema jig!”.

Wow Mates! Mortise/Tenon joints and dovetail joints date back to when Jesus was a teenager! While some modern innovations like the Mico-Fence fence router fence are extremely useful, many other recent developments pervert the craft. You should always ask yourself critically about the value of them. How did your grand dad do this decades ago?

Rob Crossman used to sell Lie Nielsen in Canada years ago until a falling out occurred. Now he sells many tools and video support of his tools. Note the absence of vintage tools and the absence of Lie Nielsen tools. To me there is an objective disconnect here.

Festool makes some excellent modern tools but their marketing program projects the Festool Method as the Ultimate or only way to work to wood. Objectively you and I both know this to be invalid.

Now everyone is supposed to buy the Sawstop table saw. What if I don’t want one? I am quite happy with my 1956 Wadkin PK. Does that make me a relic from a bigone era?

Veritas makes some quality tools but they have introduced some modern spins that I personally don’t like. That’s me. You may have a different view and that’s OK. Where you as a craftsman need to be leery of is Limited Edition tools. As a craftsman you need to be able to get a tool when and if you need it…. Not on the schedule of a tool vendor.

So much of Crossmans approach is showmanship and ultimately the sale of his tools. He likes to show off his fine shavings from wood river planes and we all oggle those shavings. I can do it to using my 1930s Stanley Bedrocks after hours of repairing decades of abuse.

In the end you need to establish a goal of what you want to do. Objectively determine how to meet that goal and pursue it. If that means buying new tools or restoring old ones, it comes down to what you want. Not what a modern salesman forces upon you.

just my humble experience of having been down this road.
 
Ah, Mr Marmite himself. Or Rob Salesman as I like to call him.

I've sadly listened to one to many sales pitches from him to take him to seriously these days. Which is shame because he has talent.

As someone mentioned above - what has he actually made 🤔
 
Made himself it seems.
This is quite lovely I think, although I'm not sure if piston fit drawers would work in my gaf.

Video clipped for your convenience
 
Made himself it seems.
This is quite lovely I think, although I'm not sure if piston fit drawers would work in my gaf.

Video clipped for your convenience

Another circus act. Imagine a pair of clowns working their way through those drawers looking for something, drawers popping out, bits dropping off etc. :ROFLMAO:
And 2 hours long. 10 minutes would do.
No doubt it is very well made but it's also very over designed. "Piston fit" drawers are a big mistake - they'll sieze sooner or later.
Classic Cosman.
 
Cosman mentioned, Alan Peters often used to have to travel around to sort that out.
I wonder if this is still the case with more modern homes?
 
I have managed to get this far in life without seeing a Rob Cosman or Paul Sellers video 👍

I've seen them. I can't say there's a single thing I do that has ever originated in either one, and neither understands the cap iron or pretends to (maybe they do, but in their alternate reality version, they don't want to contradict anything they've said).

Rob pulls shavings out of planes because he's used to doing it for "wood show planing" (where you sharpen a plane and just happen to have a board that's already flat to the plane and narrower than the iron, as if that's the kind of thing we continue to plane with tiny shavings). If you don't pull the shaving out, you'll get a discontinuity in the surface that may take a pass or two to remove and that won't look good on video when you're trying to draw in beginners).
 
Is it me or does it annoy anyone else?

Guys like Rob and Paul exist to sell their videos. When they're working with a plane, their habits are going to be the habits of someone who makes videos professional and not someone who has made goods professionally in the last several decades.

When you watch Rob's video about how he makes saws, there's not a whole lot there that you'd recognize as hand tool anything (actually, he just has employees make most saws - the rest is just fixtured power tool stuff with little hand work).
 
I like paul sellers despite a lot of people disliking him on here, he's 100% genuine and no nonsense and just gets on with it, what you see is what you get, I wouldn't have gotten into woodworking without his youtube videos so have a lot to thank him for.
 
I like paul sellers despite a lot of people disliking him on here, he's 100% genuine and no nonsense and just gets on with it, what you see is what you get, I wouldn't have gotten into woodworking without his youtube videos so have a lot to thank him for.
I can say the same for Cosman, thanks to Steve Maskery name dropping him on a bandsaw video.:)
 
I can say the same for Cosman, thanks to Steve Maskery name dropping him on a bandsaw video.:)
Don’t get me started on bandsaws. I watched in awe as guys at the shows would cut out animals at warp drive without a template. Then they try to blame your issues on your saw and proceed to sell you new guides, special blades and extrusion fences. Totally Sickening!

What derails them is when they select you out and ask…. What kind of saw do you own? “ Ahhhh… a 30 in 1938 Yates American Y30 Snowflake. Took me ten years to restore in my off time”

SILENCE!!!! I wish I could post their facial expressions! Then they pick another sap in the audience.

I guess this was when the penny finally dropped. That there are no short cuts and the best roads are often those least travelled.
 
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