Scrub plane-sharpening and set up.

Anima · 4 Jan 2013

Hi,
Starting to use my SS gift for sizing some timber and was wondering if anyone had any top tips for set up.

Which way should I be planing in relation to the grain?
How do I sharpen the blade - circular motion, straight strokes in different directions etc.
Is the technique the same as a Stanley type plane?

Cheers
Martin

Richard T · 4 Jan 2013

Hi Martin,

In general scrubbing is across the grain. It's a good idea to plane a steep angle down to the line on the far side before you start, to stop tear - out.

I know there was a recent (heated) thread about how to sharpen a deeply cambered iron - I just use the standard figure of eight pattern on the stone while moving as necessary to to take in all of the curve.

Fromey · 4 Jan 2013

Planing across the grain has the risk of spelching the wood on the far edge (i.e., having it splinter). Thus, as Richard T has suggested, bevel off the far side down to your scribe line, and this should help reduce the spelching. Also, plaining diagonally with the grain will help reduce the spelching (something Rob Cosman advises). Either that or just resign yourself to significantly reducing the width of your boards (again with the scrub plane) after you've cleaned up the faces.

The good news is, because of the shape of the iron and the way it typically planes wood, the iron doesn't tend to get blunt as quickly as normal plane irons, so sharpening isn't as frequent. You can sharpen it the figure of eight way (see video here; http://youtu.be/lAq3hgSRVKM ) or in a tight circular swirling motion as Rob Cosman advises (see this video at about 4:35, but you'll need to rock the blade from side to side to get all of the camber; http://youtu.be/Rvop_JCfZGI ), or with the blade stuck in a vice and use a piece of wood with sandpaper glued to it (a bit like filing it), or.....

No matter which way, it is a bit of a bother to sharpen but you don't have to get a scrub plane down to the same tolerance levels as normal blades. That's why they are often made out of simple HSS.

I'm sure those much more knowledgeable than me will chime in here (in fact I learned most of the above from the people here).

Kalimna · 4 Jan 2013

If you have a Tormek-style sharpening device, make up a blank bit of wood approx 1/4"thick (doesnt need to be terribly accurate here) the same width as your blade and trace the shape of the end of the blade onto one end. Cut/file/sand/however the end of the bit of wood to the line so it's a replica of the cambered shape edge-to-edge (i.e. some portion of an ellipse). Now DS tape this to the blade at a distance behind the blade edge so that, when placed on the bar of the Tormek-style-sharpener, the bevel meets the grinding wheel. It is now just a matter of rocking the blade side-to-side with the 'jig' in contact with the bar, and you will have a pretty well sharpened blade.
This is a lot easier than it sounds! As mentioned above, fineness of blade edge is not as important with a scrub plane as it is neither a finished surface nor a glueing surface that is the end result - which is merely rapid removal of timber.

Adam

p.s. If you dont have a grinder-thingy, then I reckon the blade-in-a-vice would be the easiest way forward

snikolaev28 · 4 Jan 2013

Hi,
Because I have not machine for wood dimensioning I always use scrub plane. Old good Soviet scrib plane, just a copy of German made Ulmia or ECE planes.
Probably you can sharpen blade with Veritas sharpening jig for cambered blades, but it seems to me the camber radius will be not enough for real scrubbing.
I sharpen scrub plane blade 'freehand' only because the Rischard Kell sharpening jig is useful only for straight blades.
So freehand it will be enough good solution for scrub plane.

As regarding splintering the far edge of board, no problem. As always I start to plane diagonally from close edge to center of board. When I scrub all board from one end to other, I turn board, and far edge become a close edge - close edge so is the far edge.

Again a row of motion by scrub plane from one end to other one.
Again turn a board and follow this way until you receive board with thickness suitable for jack or foreplane.

As always I control thickness on the edges because if the edge have equal thickness nay other plane than scrub can take off the concave (I am right? - in this method the center of board will a little higher than edges) from center.

Apolologize for grammair and other nmistakes.

revwayne · 8 Jan 2013

snikolaev28":33ic00xd said:
Hi,
Because I have not machine for wood dimensioning I always use scrub plane. Old good Soviet scrib plane, just a copy of German made Ulmia or ECE planes.
Probably you can sharpen blade with Veritas sharpening jig for cambered blades, but it seems to me the camber radius will be not enough for real scrubbing.
I sharpen scrub plane blade 'freehand' only because the Rischard Kell sharpening jig is useful only for straight blades.
So freehand it will be enough good solution for scrub plane.

As regarding splintering the far edge of board, no problem. As always I start to plane diagonally from close edge to center of board. When I scrub all board from one end to other, I turn board, and far edge become a close edge - close edge so is the far edge.

Again a row of motion by scrub plane from one end to other one.
Again turn a board and follow this way until you receive board with thickness suitable for jack or foreplane.

As always I control thickness on the edges because if the edge have equal thickness nay other plane than scrub can take off the concave (I am right? - in this method the center of board will a little higher than edges) from center.

Apolologize for grammair and other nmistakes.

snikolaev this is exactly how I flatten a board using my ECE scrub plane - working from opposite sides and then using a smoothing plane for the final flattening work prior to card scraping and sanding if needed.

sharpening the scrub plane blade is tricky however thanks to some good video links on here the manual techniques of 'zig-zagging' the blade down the stone works quite nicely, remembering to run the back of the blade down the stone after each 'cutting edge' pass.