Archive for ‘Planes’

The Beauty of Wood

By john, 12 May, 2010, No Comment

For the true lover of wood, beauty lies mostly in the visual feature. But for many, other senses and emotions are stimulated. Most wood emits an odor when the surface is abraded or cut. The typical worker of wood loves the smell, and enjoys feelings evoked by the aroma.

Some woods contain properties that stain the hands when worked. Oak contains tannin which was used to tan animal hides, and leaves a blackish stain on fingers that rub against the bare wood. Some woods are toxic and create dermatological issues for the worker, which heighten the awareness of the nature of the variety of the wood. Such woods often contain properties that make them a pleasure to work.

Which brings me to the tactile beauty of wood. Wood feels different than other materials. Most feel creamy smooth and wonderful to touch when smoothed. Many posses open grain that is less pleasant, but enjoyable to feel none the less. Those who dry the wood naturally over the years and not in kilns swear the wood feels different than wood dried in a kiln like most of us know.

But mostly, there is the visual feature of wood that distinguishes it from so many other materials. Once it lived, and while alive the life of the tree was recorded by growth rings, decay, abuse, weather, pests and disease. Some of the most spectacular pieces of wood exhibit characteristics that are labeled, but the reason for them is still unknown. Curly Maple is such a wood.

Sometimes, even the shavings of wood made by my hand planes captivate me, and I occasionally have to stop and take a photo. I will include a couple that I think could easily make a desktop background. From a recent tuning of a Stanley #4, I took shavings from walnut, poplar, purpleheart and pine.

Enjoy!

Crib Shaping

By john, 26 April, 2010, No Comment

Shavings From Crib Legs

This weekend, I decided that I better get back to the crib if this baby might show up early. I glued the legs together a few weeks ago, each one made of three pieces of walnut. Finished legs measure around 42 inches at the moment, but the front two will be cut shorter. Before I ran the legs through my power planer and possibly messed up a blade, I decided to get out the plane that belonged to Judy’s dad. With Curt’s No. 7, I cut down the dried glue areas and then flattened two sides of each leg so that I could run them quickly through the jointer before I rand them through the planer later on. As you can see from the photo, I created a pretty pile of shavings after working all four legs.

Sized Slats

If you compare this stack of slats to an earlier picture that I put up, you might not seem much difference in a quick look. However, each slat is now exactly the same size, smooth and each has a 1/8 inch round-over on every side.

I cut floating tenons too to fit into the ends of these 42 slats, so pretty soon, I should be ready to glue these things to the rails.

But first, everything needs a final sanding, and some stain before the glue comes close. I want to avoid any glue spill over on this job, and there is way too much to tape off to avoid glue bleed.

I think I will wait for a nice day, and then take these pieces outside and let the sanding dust fly to the wind. That will keep the whole house a lot cleaner.

Making shavings

By john, 25 March, 2010, No Comment

Plane Full of Shavings

The shelf underneath the drawers for my desk needed flattening. With some experience now in getting a plane sharp and flat, planing is more fun. So much fun in fact, that I found it hard not to get carried away.

Right away, I loaded up the throat of the plane with a pile of while oak shavings. I knew then that this could get away from me quickly. It sounds funny to say that, but it really is a satisfying feeling.

Bedrock and Shavings

Flattening remained the goal though, and I stuck to the task. These pieces were glued together several weeks ago, and the entire piece began to cup a little. Now that I want to fit it to size, it needed to be worked.

The plane in the foreground was not the only plane that I used, but it is my favorite. The plane is an older Bedrock. The ear on the tote was knocked off when I bought it, so it has a purple heart replacement. Now that the planes have done their work, I am ready to cut to size and then apply stain and finish to this shelf.

Tuning My Planes

By john, 12 March, 2010, No Comment

Some of my family and friends know that I collect Stanley or Bailey planes. The better planes made by Stanley were made after 1890 and before WW2 which makes those planes in the neighborhood of 70 to 120 years old. Due to high price of the best planes being made today, many wood workers choose to use those older planes in their shops. Obviously, 100 year old planes come with defects.

Curt Regehr's No. 7

Some damage results from normal usage, and some from abuse. Often the wood parts sustained a break or abuse, but the worst enemy of all is rust which causes deep pitting. An older plane needs a tune up however, no matter what the condition of the plane when it becomes yours. I have several that I like to use repeatedly, including one that belonged to Judy’s father, Curt Regehr. Each of them needed a sharpened blade and some cleaning. Any reading on the subject convinces you that a plane cannot perform well without flattening the sole.

Shaving from Bedrock

My favorite plane is a #5 Stanley Bedrock. These are considered to be better than the typical Stanley because of a better support for the blade, which is known as the frog. I don’t think anyone really knows where the moniker came from, so join the speculation about that term. Another plane I use a lot is a small block plane with an adjustable mouth. Recently, I spent some time working the soles of these two planes, Judy’s Dad’s plane, and two others sitting on my shelf. The test of a well tuned plane appears to be the ability to cut a whisper thin shaving of wood. After working with the Bedrock, I succeeded in getting a nice shaving. You can see from the photo that the shaving is very thin, and the red of the vise jaw shows through the wood.

Tuned Bottom of the No. 7

The plane that formerly belonged to Judy’s Dad is a very large plane. I used it several weeks back to work the top of a desk that I glued up, but I could see that it needed tuning so I stopped. Flattening a metal plane involves a lot of elbow grease. Curt’s old plane was already fairly flat, but a lot a rough, low spot existed right in front of the throat. To get a nice shaving, it must be flat and clean right in that area. I worked the plane over a couple of days, taking breaks to rest between the efforts of sanding it down. To get it perfect would require more effort yet, but a plane this size is not intended for final finish work, so I only needed to get close to smooth.

Shaving from the No. 7

The final result shows that I got a pretty good shaving with Curt’s plane. I replaced the blade a few weeks ago, since the original had been sharpened about as far as you could go. The combination of a nice sharp blade, and a flattened sole produced a shaving that was about as good as my smaller favorite plane. I look forward to getting back to that desk top and finishing it with these tuned up planes.

Building a Desk – Part 2

By john, 20 February, 2010, No Comment

This picture shows the well used plane that I purchased when Judy’s parents left the farm and retired.

Curt Regehr Plane

I am using this number 7 plane to joint the boards that form the top. Normally, you would use a power joiner, but I don’t have one at the moment. So, the old fashioned way of doing that was to get a longer plane, like Dad’s and to use it to produce straight boards. The other part of the trick, is to plane to boards side by side so that they glue up without gaps between them. That is happening in this picture, and it why that plane sits there so steady, but you cannot see the second board.

Here is the top mostly glued together. The overall dimensions will be 60 inches by 32 inches. I am not sure yet that I am happy with it, because it is exactly 3/4 inch thick and I really wanted something thicker. 3/4 will bow and warp if I don’t do it right. So,

The top mostly glued up

I might change and cut these boards up for smaller panels that I will need later. The board laying across the top is to be ripped and added to the ends in what is called a breadboard. That helps keep the longer pieces from warping and splitting.

Here are the legs all cut out and the piece of wood that I am using for the front.

Legs and front piece

There will be a low profile 12 inch wide drawer on the left which you can see being proportioned in the next photo.

Since I am doing my own plan, I took the pieces and laid them out so that I could get an idea of how the proportion was going to look. The desk will have a drawer on the one side, and I will sit under the rest of the desk length.

I decided that the general size for the drawer would be 12 inches wide and maintain a low profile.

Spacing the legs and finalizing the proportions

I have cut out and shaped the front piece under which the person sits in the next photo. The Greene and Green style requires a lot of hand work, and I found it helped to use small planes and a lot of work with files. You can see the jig saw in the background, and a bunch of files. Since the piece has an arch, there was a limit to what I could do with a plane smoothing plane.

Cloud Lift Cut Into Front

I like the ‘cloud lift’ that was used in the most popular of the Greene and Greene pieces and architecture. It works very well for me on this desk since I have a long leg and it is sometimes difficult to sit under some desks and still have the chair up to the full height. The arch that represents the cloud lift is ideal to give me a little extra room for my legs.

I found that this very small plane was very helpful on this arch work. Originally Stanley sold these as toys for tool sets for boys. I discovered that it helped me get into small spots and take off wood quickly so that I did not have to use my files quite as much.

Small Stanley Plane Used in Tight Area

I mostly work an hour or two a day on this project and several hours on the weekends. My daughter Jodi and spouse Tyler want to build a crib too, so there will be some competition for space and time once we start on that project.

Patina Reflections