Side Sharpening and the Sharp Skate Honing Jig

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Yes, I can second Rob's comments. I just remove any slight tracks with a cab scraper. Being pedantis (a fault I must admit to) I would ask how you can get a surface flat with a cambered blade. It must surely result in a surface with, an albeit small, wave form.

Jim
 
None of my blades have cambers just rounded edges and if very fine cuts are taken I don't think even that is necessary?


Rod
 
My cambers are very fine. They show up as flat on a flat surface.

However, you guys are having to scrape after smoothing - now that is evidence that all is not well with a flat bevel.

Regards from Perth

Derek
 
However, you guys are having to scrape after smoothing - now that is evidence that all is not well with a flat bevel.

Regards from Perth

Derek
No Derek...I don't scrape. If the blade isn't set dead true then yes, it will leave a small track, but two swipes with a card scraper and they're gone. However, as Richard and I have said, the corners of the blade must be knocked off and nicely rounded. I suggest you have a go as it saves an awful lot of faff getting a half decent camber - Rob
 
Dead right, Rob. I was taught by a very fine and thoughtful professional cabinet maker of 30 odd years who has never used a camber and certainly doesn't spend time getting rid of tramlines. But, in the end, it is what works for you.

Jim
 
Now I understand, I would have included nipping the corners off as cambering - a broad interpretation I grant you. Just a difference in nomenclature rather than a whole technique missing from my ken.
 
...you guys are having to scrape after smoothing - now that is evidence that all is not well with a flat bevel. Derek
Derek, I don't know anyone doing all prepping by hand that doesn't do a bit of scraping and sanding between planing and applying polish anyway... so your point is moot.

However, I'll grant there are some woodworkers out there that claim they polish straight after planing, but I've never met a single one that can actually do it. And at the horny handed money making end of furniture making everyone I know does at least some sanding, and probably some scraping too before polishing (in hand prepped work). There generally just isn't the time in a paying job to fiddle about with planes to get a polish ready surface and make money. Slainte.
 
How do you straight blade, (with the corners eased), guys deal with truing out of square or even twisted edges?

David
 
David C":1umojwwk said:
How do you straight blade, (with the corners eased), guys deal with truing out of square or even twisted edges?

David
Very difficult to describe David, but again, I've never encountered any problem in planing a true and square edge. Probably I think by using the index finger underneath the sole to guide the blade so that it only ever cuts on the bits where it's supposed to cut. Easy enough to do, much more difficult to explain 'how' - Rob
 
I do not understand that, surely that depends more on how you plane. I cannot see where the camber comes into play on an edge?

Also on an edge where it is narrow than the blade, a completely flat blade will be fine - no danger of tramlines there?

Rod
 
Hi Rod,

Using a cambered blade on an edge enables you to mark any high spots / high sides with a pencil as you check the edge with a square. You then drift the plane left or right as you work along the edge to remove more material with the centre of the blade where your marks are.

This way you can saw nearer to the mark and hopefully get everything dead square just before you drop onto the finished dimension.

A straight blade will show that everything's flat when you get a full width shaving and is sufficient for jointing two mated boards, but flat and square are two seperate objectives.
 
David C":c5m5j0po said:
How do you straight blade, (with the corners eased), guys deal with truing out of square or even twisted edges? David
Three techniques David.

* Take a third, half or three quarter width shaving-- it works much the same as a cambered blade because the corner is rounded, and is a relatively easy technique. You can also switch from one side to the other mid-stroke, or two or three times in a stroke if required.

** Tilt the plane a degree or two-- a bit trickier than above but works with practice, especially if you place your thumb on top of the front knob (or somewhere in the channel of the casting on the top side) and hook your index finger under the sole of the plane so it rubs along the face of the board. This technique gives lots of physical feedback leading to quite good control.

*** Adjust the projection of the blade with the lateral adjuster; sometimes a single adjustment followed by a full length cut works, and sometimes making side to side adjustments as you go is needed. The latter, adjusting depth of cut side to side as you make a cut is quite difficult and can be a bit hit and miss if you aren't very familiar with the plane, ie you need to be very familiar with the slop in the mechanism.

Then there is bending the sole of the plane a bit along its length as you push by the technique of wrenching the knob and handle up towards each other or down towards each other, and twisting the sole a fraction by similarly wrenching the handle and knob in opposing sideways directions to each other.

Lastly, of course, there are easier and quicker ways to prepare a straight edge, eg pass the edges over a surface planer and just tittivate if and when required with a hand plane. Slainte.
 
David C":1bod9p4y said:
How do you straight blade, (with the corners eased), guys deal with truing out of square or even twisted edges?

David

I suppose a shooting board, or a plane with a fence attached, would allow a straight edge from a straight iron; but apart from that I'm also puzzled.
 
I tend to hone some of my plane blades dead straight, some with a hint of a camber and some with a heavy camber. My LN #9 (used mainly on a shooting board) is honed dead straight, as are my shoulder, rebate and combination plane blades. My scrub planes are obviously honed with a heavy camber. Most of my bench planes are honed with just a hint of a camber. My honing guides have wide rollers but with just a little extra pressure on the edges of the blades I get a very slight camber which I prefer these days.

When jointing boards, I like whenever possible to plane the boards together, so in that case I will use a straight blade.

I don't find it difficult to plane a twisted edge with a straight blade. It's all about how you control the plane. If you plane without thinking, then the plane can easily follow the twist. However, if you carefully use your fingers as a fence under the plane and concentrate on what you are doing, it's easy enough. With a shooting board the plane has a flat base on which to run so you will get a square edge - when planing freehand, I find it helps to keep that in mind and control the plane so that it's kept square to the edge of the board.

As Rob said, it's easier to do than to explain.

Cheers :wink:

Paul
 
Out of interest I had a look at some of my Plane books.
Record's Planecraft recommends straight across with rounded corners to maximise the irons width and Garrett Hack uses it for most of his planing.


Rod
 
David C":3g05pfd2 said:
How do you straight blade, (with the corners eased), guys deal with truing out of square or even twisted edges?

David

Have you never seen Jim Kingshott's planing Videos? He demonstrates what we probably ought to call "the other jointing technqiue" :)

I don't know if they've been put on DVD.

(searching...) Hmm. This thread says "sort of"

http://www.woodworkuk.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=868

BugBear
 
Harbo":32n47woq said:
Out of interest I had a look at some of my Plane books.
Record's Planecraft recommends straight across with rounded corners to maximise the irons width and Garrett Hack uses it for most of his planing.


Rod

Robert Wearing recommends a straight blade with rounded corners for finishing, but a shallow camber for truing an edge. This was also the way I was tought in the 1970's.

I think David Charlesworth recommends a camber height of 0.25mm on a 2 3/8" iron (which by my calculation works out at a radius of about 1.8 metres, so I suspect a lot of old timers with worn oilstones were getting a similar camber without realising it), and ideally having an iron that projects about twice the thickness of the edge you're truing.

Hey, whatever works for you!
 
Richard,

Thank you.

We both teach, and mine are mostly beginners. I feel that it is easier for them to true an edge with the slightly cambered blade, as the plane does not have to be displaced so far to the side, as in your method 1.

Hampton (straight blade) was a plane salesman but I'm not sure if he was a craftsman. Wearing (cambered blade) was taught, just after the war, by the likes of Edward Barnsley and Cecil Gough. I believe Gough was foreman in the famous cotswold workshops where utility furniture was first designed and made. Gordon Russell.

Do you think that both techniques were in use at the same time or that one was more universally used than the other?

Enjoyed your comments about sanding. The current american obsession with "finishing straight from the plane" seems crazy to me. A little sanding is essential for any finish which will be sanded between coats.

best wishes,
David
 

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