Using Planes To Make A Plane – Part Two

“The venerable woodworker stood, trembling – looking into the abyss of his ‘to be wood plane.’  What he saw scared him speechless – no cross-pin.”

Yes, this is where the last post, part one of this saga, ended.  Finck actually warns you to remember to install the cross-pin during glue up and I was so proud of myself that I had done so when I did the dry fit and assembly walk-through.  But…stupid is as stupid does is an expression that originated in my shop.

But, the budding novelist that I am, I wanted to build tension into this scene.  So, what did I do?  Quickly disassemble this and start to pry one cheek off with a chisel.  Then the chisel slipped, taking a gash out of my thumb.  Sometimes sharp isn’t all its cracked up to be and I started bleeding like crazy.  So, while holding a finger over my new thumb hole, I continued.  I got the side off, inserted the cross-pin, and slapped the plane back together and reclamped.

I “knew” the plane was ruined but my brain suddenly switched to the blood on the table, blood on the floor, and blood dripping from my thumb.  Remind me why do we do woodworking, again.  Up the stairs, two at a time – tough for an old man like me.  While washing out the cut I realized that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, that I could move  the joints on cue and so I wrapped it up tightly and went back to the shop.  I had cleaning to do. The blood came off the table with a few spritzes of alcohol.  The concrete floor, however, will remind me of plane-making for some time to come.

Analysis of my RE-glue up suggested that things might not be so bad if the glue hadn’t set up too quickly.  If only I’d been using my preferred hide glue.  I could have just heated/wetted the joint and fixed the problem at my leisure.  But, alas, I’m trying to use up the Titebond I have hanging around and I used their quick-set veneer glue because “this was an easy glue-up.”  Sigh.

I suppose you see this as an unfortunate accident, brought on by my stupidity.  Nope..it was all part of the plan.  I needed to mark a reference face from which to check squareness of the sole as I did the final work on this plane.  My pencil was all the way on the other side of the shop, you see, and I innovated.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

With the reference face marked, it comes time for flattening and squaring the sole.  Here Finck uses a jointer.  I used a plane to plane my plane, which was plain easy.

During this process you want to get the sole square to the reference surface, flat along its length, and you want the mouth to be square to the reference surface.  Using Finck’s approach, you need to remove around 1/8″ of wood to open the mouth sufficiently for the blade to protrude.  Nevertheless, go slow.  Check and recheck as you remove wood.

As you proceed, insert the blade regularly, looking at how close it is to being able to come through the mouth.  When it gets close, switch to sandpaper.  At this point the sole should be flat and smooth so you’re just removing stock more slowly so you can obtain an opening in front of the protruding blade  of just a few thousandths.

Here’s my fancy set up for sanding.  I used 80-grit paper until the mouth opening was just large enough to let the blade come through.  Then I switched to 150 and finally 220.  I used a file to micro-adjust the mouth opening and shape according to Finck’s instructions.

Finck uses a bandsaw to cut the curved front/rear and to cut the dip to relieve the blade opening.  I used my bandsaw for the later.  I could have used my bowsaw just as well but, at this point I was discouraged, thinking that the glue up would surely have made a mess of the joints.   If not for this blog I may well have given up and started over.  Thank goodness I write this blog as things turned out just fine.  Never fret over things that ‘might’ be.

I used rasps, files, and spokeshaves to remove everything else that didn’t look like a Krenov plane.  This was fun as there are no rules.  I used sandpaper to smooth all the curved surfaces, applied 3 coats of boiled linseed oil, and then some wax.  While this wasn’t a fancy piece of wood, I was happy with the results.

In conclusion, making wood planes using these techniques is much easier than I thought it would be.  And in spite of my best attempts to scuttle the project, the plane works very well.

If you’ve never used a wooden plane that’s properly set up with a keen blade, you’re in for a treat when you try one.  They glide so nicely over the wood.  They provide a ‘feel’ that you don’t get from metal planes.  Try one, you’ll like it.

Oh, I mentioned how proud I was of my dust collection system.  Thought I’d gloat with a close up view of it.

I will conclude with a few comments about using hand tools to build planes while following  Finck’s instructions.  It’s my belief that some of the dimensions should be thought through and adjusted for how you work and what tools you’re going to use.

Finck assumes you’re going to take a 1/16″ kerf when you cut the cheeks.  He assumes you’re then going to run the cheeks and center block through your jointer. My handsaw takes nearly the same 1/16″ kerf as Finck’s bandsaw but smoothing the resultant faces wit hand planes doesn’t require the amounts of wood his jointer removes from the four surfaces.

This resulted in two outcomes when I used Finck’s dimensions but worked with hand tools.  First, the blade ramp and mouth is wider than it should be, at least by 3/16″ in my case.  Also, the overall width of the plane is considerably wider than necessary, probably 3/8″ to 1/2″ too wide, making the distance from the blade edge to the plane edge much greater than normal.  These things are no big deal, I guess, but when I make my next plane I’ll adjust the dimensions somewhat.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Using Planes To Make A Plane – Part One

Sometimes my buying habits are embarrassing.  At last count I owned 4 books and a DVD on how to build wooden planes.  I have a Hock blade for making a chisel plane, bought as a “response” to the Fine Woodworking construction article.  I have a Hock blade/chip breaker, bought shortly after I bought David Finck’s book.  I’ve  also bought a whole pile of O-1 steel in all of the sizes necessary to make a set of hollows and rounds.  But I haven’t made a single wooden plane – ever.

A recent Twitter discussion about David’s book,  Making and Mastering Wood Planes, inspired me to do something about this silliness.  If you’ve never seen David’s book, it’s a fantastic text on how to make and use Krenov-style wood planes.  It’s gone in/out of print several times and the current edition, the “revised 2nd edition” was welcomed when it was released as the older versions drag down prices that require a second mortgage.

I decided to build a basic plane following Finck’s instructions, but with a twist.  Finck assumes you have a shop full of power tools and depends upon them to make his wooden hand planes.  I find more than a little irony in that and thought I’d try to make one using, mostly, hand tools.  I’m not going to replicate David Finck’s instructions here; that would be unfair to him.  Rather, I hope I can outline the steps, show you how easy it is, and get you to buy a copy of David’s book and build planes yourself.

Choosing the Wood

Traditionally wooden planes were made from beech, oak, maple and other hardwoods.   More important than species, though, is a need to choose a block such that the grain runs along the length of the plane and you want to orient any deviation of that such that the grain descends from front to back.

If you follow Finck’s instructions, you need a block that’s 2 1/2″ thick and as wide as you need to accommodate your blade choice.  The only 10/4 wood I had in my shop was a piece of red maple so, from that, I cut a piece the proper width and about a foot long (I wanted a 10″ plane using a 1 3/4″ Hock blade/chip breaker.

I marked the block with the triangle and on each side I put the line indicating front-back grain direction.  I then cut the cheeks off the block.  This approach (the Krenov approach) allows you to cut all of the internal angles and work up the ramp without a lot of fancy chisel work.  What is important is that the cheeks and center pieces form tight face joints as otherwise the seams will show in the finished plane.  Finck uses his jointer to smooth these surfaces after cutting them with a bandsaw.  I used a smooth plane after using a handsaw.  I took longer; he makes more noise.  My seams are not visible in the finished plane.

Cutting Front and Back Block Angles

The standard angles are 45-degrees for the blade ramp and 62-degrees on the front block.  The ramp angle will determine the angle of cut and while 45-degrees is called the “common angle” for a bevel-down plane. If you want a plane to use on highly figured wood, you might want to increase that angle.

Once the cuts are made, I used a low-angle block plane to smooth and square up both of the angled surfaces.  You need a really sharp blade here as you’re planing a fairly large end-grain surface.  Particular attention is given to the ramp as it needs to be very flat as it must support the blade.  I must be square as otherwise the blade will not present square to the work when you use the plane.  Just to avoid confusion, I’ve laid the center over on its side in the photo so you can see the angles.   In the plane the angles would face upward.  You can test the ramp on a flat surface and see if you can rock it in any direction.

Assembly Dowels

To create the plane you sandwich the two center blocks between the two cheeks.  To facilitate this dowels are placed in the top corners on each side.  Pretty is not the goal here as these dowels aren’t part of the end result.  What’s important here is that the dowels need to be tight enough to align the sides with the center blocks but not too tight as you’ll be opening and closing this assembly.

I drilled 3/8″ holes in each top corner, fitted dowels, and cut them flush with a flush-cut saw.  Nothing much to say here.   Mine were tight enough that I had to hammer the dowels into the holes and use a chisel to get between the cheeks and center blocks to pry the joints apart.  I think this is a good thing as they do loosen up as you move through the creation process.

Oh, you might notice my dust collector in the background.  I’m mighty proud of it.  Works great.

Cross Pin

The blade is held by a wedge that fits under a cross-pin that bridges between the two plane cheeks.  This cross-pin must be allowed to rotate, though it doesn’t need to be a loose fit.  Finck shows several ways of making the cross-pin; I used my lathe.  The distance between the cheeks (leave a small amount of room for expansion) plus the thickness of the cheeks determines the length.  I turned the pins on the ends of 1/2″ square stock.

I laid out the location of the holes for the cross pin according to Finck’s directions.  Finck suggests that that you drill one side, assemble the plane, and drill through the first hole to make the second, ensuring that your drill bit is vertical.  I used a drill press for this and drilled both holes at the same time.  A bit of test fitting is in order here.  Make sure the cross-pin can rotate and that there is no side-to-side binding.

Finck recommends using a chisel to round over one side of the pin (the side away from the blade).  I used a rasp and a bit of sandpaper for this.  The shape here is up to you as what’s important to operation is the flat side that will hold the wedge/blade in place.

Chip Breaker Screw Relief

At this point the plane is almost ready for assembly.  But if you’re using a blade/chip breaker combination, you need to provide relief in the ramp for the screw that holds the chip breaker to the blade.  Dimensions of the relief channel are determined by the size of the screw and how far down the ramp it will be when the blade is extended.

I marked this out and treated it as a mortise, chopping out the material.  Easy peasy.

Finally…Assembly

The time has come.  This is where those phrases, like “pulling it all together”, “the hard work is about to pay off”, and “oh how I wish I had 3 hands” flow freely.  Final assembly is both scary and exciting but in this case, mostly easy because of the assembly.

You need three clamping cauls, one for each side of the plane and a third to ensure that the bottom is flat.  This last one is the most important.  Notice that there is only one dowel in the corner of each center block.  Thus, they are free to rotate around them.  The “sole caul”  helps you align the center blocks to form a flat sole.

I clamped the sole caul in place using a couple quick clamps.  Then I used the other two cauls and three clamps to clamp the plane together.  And at this point I’m going to do what is rare in blogging…a cliffhanger.  Look careful at this last photo and see what I saw.  I’ll be posting the second part of this sequence “real soon.”

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Making a Plane Mallet

Sometimes I’m asked where I got the plan for this or that project.  Most times I don’t have a plan but in this case I do.  Here it is:

Bob Roziaeski, chief cook and bottle washer at the Logan Cabinet Shoppe produces some of the finest podcasts you’ll ever see on the use of handtools to shape wood.  His recent podcast, Hand Plane Tune Up goes through the process of fettling a typical steel-body plane as well as a wooden-body plane.  During this second session Bob wields the hammer you see in the photo.  As Bob is so much better at adjusting wooden planes than I am I know this is because of his jazzy hammer and that the one I use is one step up from a tack hammer.

And so it began (phrase stolen from Lord of the Rings), I gonna make me a jazzy hammer too.  I got the idea not only from Bob’s podcast but the fact that I was rummaging in my scrap box and right there, on top of everything was a block of paduak that looked almost like a Roziaeski hammer head ™.  Now I wouldn’t recommend padauk as the ideal hammer material but gosh, I had it and all it took to get it to proper size was a short time on a shooting board to get the ends square.  I added to this a stick of maple for a handle and I was, as they say here in Quebec bien equipped!

I began by working over the surfaces of the headblock with a plane and scraper.

As this was a through-tenon I marked out the mortise on one side and then drilled two small holes on each end so that I could reference them while chopping from the other side.  I chopped a shallow mortise from that side so that I wouldn’t get a bunch of tear out and then started the heavy mortising from the other side.  On to the handle.

The first step was to cut it to length.  My “plan” suggested this to be somewhere around one-foot so that’s what I cut.

I marked the base of the tenon.  This was determined by the depth of the hammer head plus a bit.  You choose the size of your bit.  It doesn’t really matter, though, as it will be cut off before the day is done.

I then marked the tenon sides.  Some might only mark two sides at this point as you really lose half the markings when you make the first two tenon cuts.  I prefer to mark the whole thing so I can compare it to the mortise before I start cutting.  Remarking is quick as the gauge is already set.

This is where your ‘cut to the line’ practice pays off.  I cut the two sides and then use a bench hook to cut them off at the shoulder.  I remark the short sides of the tenon and cut those as well.  Easy peasy.  If you don’t have a lot of practice with this, it’s best to cut the tenon fat and use a shoulder plane to bring it to size.  It’s likely that you’ll have to use that plane to fit the tenon to the mortise in any case.

Before worrying about fitting the tenon, I shaped the handle.  Most of this was done with a spokeshave, followed up by a rasp.  This is really the fun part as it happens quickly and you get to play with the shaping.  I finished up with some sandpaper.

Now’s the time to slow down.  You need to clean up both tenon and mortise so they fit together.  Repeated checking of this fit as you remove material is better than wishing you had when you find out that you’ve removed too much material.  The end of this process is to clean up the shoulder of the tenon so that it fits snug to the bottom of the hammer head.

Once all that is done, cut a slot down the middle of the tenon for the a wedge.  The parts should look like this.

I used this little scrap of padauk for my wedge.  Notice the bit of wood I put between the padauk and my bench hook fence.  This provided an angular cut that you can see in this photo.  I then flipped the piece on the left and cut it straight, providing me with a thin wedge-shaped piece.  Sorry, my photo of the wedge was out of focus.

Because your mortise and tenon fit so nicely together, when you pound the wedge into the slot is should produce a very strong handle/head connection, leaving you with almost nothing else to do.  I used a flush-cut saw to remove the protruding tenon and then applied a couple coats of boiled linseed oil and a bit of wax.  I tend to use either oil or shellac as a finish on my tools as 1) it makes them feel good in my hands and 2) they are very easy to freshen up as they age.

Thanks, Bob, for both the plan and the inspiration.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Build a Saw Bench

For the past few years my “saw bench” was a crate with a piece of 2×8 screwed to it.  It was sufficiently ugly and disfunctional that it hasI’ve never let it wander in front of a camera lens.  It is no more as I gave it to the neighbor to put in his outdoor fireplace.

And why, might you ask, would I endure such a device so long?  Procrastination, plain and simple.  On my ‘to do’ list was “Build a Schwarz Saw Bench” but this became a haunting ’round to-it.  Chris’s saw bench has the virtue of being stackable but it has the drawback of being designed with the notion of teaching hand tool joinery classes and, as nice as it is, it’s more complex than it need be.  Worse, it requires 2x4s and I didn’t have any in my shop yesterday morning when I was cussing at my crate-based saw bench.

But what I did have was an 8′ 2×10, left over from a porch step project.  It looked a lot like a saw bench to me and very quickly I was making sawdust and shavings.  Unfortunately, it completely slipped my mind that I had a blog where step-by-step photos would be nice.  Oops… So here is what I can tell of the saga.  I hope you find it useful as it’s an example of “molding wood” rather than starting with an exactly plan and cut list.

“Design” the bench

I put “design” in quotes as I’m not sure this qualifies.  Saw benches work well only if the bench height matches that of the sawyer.  A rule of thumb is to set the height at knee height, which for me is 20″.  This not only lets you put a knee on the bench while you saw but also makes sitting on the bench comfortable.  I also, somewhat arbitrarily, decided that my bench would be 32″ long.  This seemed neither too long or too short… “it was just right” to quote a favorite fairy tale.  Besides, this would leave me 5-feet of 2×10 for the legs and stretchers.

I vascillated for a few seconds, deciding whether to set the legs vertical or at an angle.  I decided that an angled approach would provide better stability.  In thinking about use, I decided that the legs needed to be less wide than the top.  I also realized that if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t have enough wood in my 2×10 to make two legs and two stringers.  I reasoned that I could rip 2 1/2″ off my 5′ 2×10, leaving 7″ wide stock for the legs, and thus I finished the “design” of my bench underpinnings.  Let’s cut wood.

Build the bench

Cutting the 5 pieces

The first thing I did was cut the top, 32″ long.  Because this was construction-grade lumber, the edges were chipped and dented so I decided to lop off 1/4″ off each edge so I shoved it through my table saw a couple times, giving me nice, smooth edges.  I used a block plane to slightly chamfer the long edges so they wouldn’t be sharp.  Top finished.

I ripped the remaining 5-feet of 2×10, removing 2 1/2″ to be used for stringers.  Then I set the table saw to 10-degrees and cut 2, 20″ legs, with 10-degree angles on each end.  *Note that I’m living loose here.  I wanted a 20″ bench, knew that the top was 1 1/2″, knew that the angled legs would reduce the leg height by some amount, and knew that the user of the bench wasn’t going to be too picky.  Yes, I could have done the trig to figure out exactly how long the legs needed to be but… lazy am me.  The punch line here is that my bench ended up 20 1/4″.

I put the top on my workbench and positioned the legs, moving them back and forth, trying to decide how close to the ends to put them.  I settled on 24″ stringers between the legs as that looked about right.  Using my carcase saw, I cut a couple 24″ long stringers with appropriate 10-degree ends from my 2 1/2″ x 1 1/2″ piece.

At this point, I realized that I hadn’t taken any photographs and so I did shoot a couple photos of the single “hard” step of this bench.  You could just screw thinner stringers (1×3) to the edge of the legs but I had 2×10 stock and I also feel that you achieve considerable strength by notching in the stringers into the legs.

Notching the legs for stringers

This is a lot easier than it looks.  I used a bevel gauge set to 10-degrees to draw appropriate lines where the notches needed to be.  I used a  marking gauge to cut a line indicating the depth of the notches.  Using my Wenzloff carcase saw, I cut to that depth on each side of the notch.  From this point there are numerous approaches.

For myself, I just grab a chisel.  I don’t cut out any of the waste.  It may look as though that’s a big hunk of wood to chisel out but the truth is, it’s simple.  I took these steps for each notch:

1) Lay the leg down and pare a shallow groove that stops at the cutting gauge mark.

2) Stand the chisel up in that groove and hit it with a hammer.  Pare back to the new, deeper groove.

3) Repeat step 2.

4) Flip the leg over and do steps 1, 2, and 3.

5) Continue deepening the groove.  You won’t have to go much further with 1 1/2″ thick pine.

6) Be surprised when the entire piece of waste pops out and you’re left with the notch you’re after.

If you look closely at the block that popped out you can see how both sides of it show a ‘”curved” portion.  This is all the wood I actually chiseled out.  I don’t know the exact time required but from the first pencil line to looking at four notches probably required no more than 15 minutes and I was in putter-around pace.

One last thing is to relieve the bottom of the legs.  I took a roll of masking tape, marked a centerline and drew a ‘half-roll’ circle on the bottom of each leg.  I used the turning saw I built recently and cut the reliefs to create 4 feet.

Assemble the Bench

The initial goal is to achieve a dry assembly of the bench.  Without glue or screws you should be able to achieve joinery such that you can sit on the dry-assembled bench.  To achieve that I fit the ends of the stringers into the notches by planing thin shavings off top and bottom of the stringer ends until they would fit.  An alternative approach would be to work on the notches themselves using a paring chisel.  If you’ve made good saw cuts, you shouldn’t need to do much in either case.  Once this is done, assemble the bench, checking everything for square and level.   Sit on it if you want.  I did and deemed it ready for screws and glue.

Apply glue to the four notches and assemble the leg/stringer assembly. Pay particular attention to getting it square.  I sat the top on top and ensured that it sat level.  Once I was happy, I put a 2 1/2″ screw in each notch joint.  I attached the top using 2 screws for each leg.

Oh…after I was done I decided that I wanted a ‘beak’ opening on one end so I put a rip saw to work and cut the opening.  As this was a shop accessory, I didn’t worry much about finish.  I slathered on a bunch of boiled linseed oil and considered the job done.

I think my hand sawing just got better.  It’s certainly gotten easier.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Making a Turning Saw

What little shop time I’m getting right now is coming in very short segments. Casting around for a smallish project, that didn’t require juggling large pieces of wood resulted in my indulging a desire to own a turning saw.

What’s a turning saw you ask?  It’s a small bowsaw, of course?  Oh…and a bowsaw is a handsaw where a wooden frame holds a blade under tension.  I think its fair to say they are more popular in Europe than in North America, though more and more of us are coming to understand to their virtues.

Bowsaws come in many shapes and sizes and are used for everything from cutting tree limbs to cutting coped mouldings.  If a coping saw is a Pinto, a turning saw is a Ferrari.

A turning saw is on the small end of the bowsaw size continuum.  The photo above shows one in action as a luthier cuts the headstock on a guitar.   Notice that he’s able to turn the blade relative to the frame as he makes his cut.  These saws not hard to make, particularly if you take advantage of the hardware (blade and holders) from Tools for Working Wood.  They also have a great set of plans/templates that you can download for a turning saw.  Of course, if you don’t want to build one, they’ll be happy to sell you one too (grin).  If you don’t have a lathe or lathe skills, you can always create handles that are either square or hexagonal (using a drawknife or spokeshave to cut the flats).

To build a turning saw requires a small amount of wood.  From the top left, this small block of mahogany (1/2″x3/4″x6″) became the tensioner, the larger mahogany block (2″x2″x8″) became the handles, and the three pieces of maple (3/4″ cut to template length) was used to create the frame itself.

Step 1: First step is to print the templates.  For this you must print without fit-to-page and you need to print to 8.5×14 paper.  This will give you full-size templates.  If you don’t have 14″ (legal size) paper, you can tape a couple sheets together to create some as you only need a couple sheets.  Once you have templates, attaching them to the frame pieces with a spray adhesive will give you the required outlines.

Step 2: Before shaping the parts, I cut the mortises in each of the two frame sides and the tenons on each end of the spreader piece.  These joints are a bit different from most M&T joints as they have to be somewhat loose as the frame pieces rotate slightly as tension is placed on the arms.

A) I marked out the mortises according to the templates using a marking gauge.

B) I drilled out the bulk of the wood to create the mortise.  These small motises required drilling a couple 1/4″ holes next to one another, controlling depth as you do it.  I used a brad-point bit for this to help with location.

C) Using a chisel I pared the sides smooth andsquared up the corners.

D) While there’s no photo, I also drilled the holes through which the blade holders fit.  This is much easier to do while the frame pieces are still square.

Step 3: Now you take your turning saw and cut out along the outlines.  The ultimate Catch-22 I suppose.  As I didn’t have a turning saw…yet, I used a band saw, followed up by some rasp work to get the basic shapes.

Step 4: Knowing that the frame shaping was the major task ahead, I procrastinated by turning the handles.  Turning stuff is just kewl and this process always gives me a thrill.  I’m easily amused.  The Honduran Mahogany I used is a really nice mahogany for handles.

Step 5: The shaping portion of the frames is the most work.  It involves rounding over of the edges and the creation of pleasing curves.  I ran a pencil around all the perimeters, keeping the distance from the edge the same in all cases.  These lines served as guidelines to allow me to remove equal amounts of stock off the edges.  I used both curved- and straight-blade spokeshaves to do most of the shaping, finishing up with a cabinet rasp.

Then there was some sanding involved….lots of sanding (grin).  Ultimately I sanded everything to 220 grit.

Step 6: This is where I realize that I forgot to take a photo of the creation of the tensioner.  I wasn’t too particular about the shape, simply tapering the piece in both dimensions.  Then I used a file to round the top and to cut small indentations where the tensioning string sits.  I used sandpaper glued to dowels of proper diameter to smooth the edges of those grooves.  Sorry for the lack of photo but you can see it on the finished saw, particularly if you click on the photo to see the larger version.

Step 7: On to the finish step.  I prefer my tools to have a ‘soft’ finish so I applied a couple coats of boiled linseed oil to bring out the grain a bit and then applied a couple coats of shellac.  I’m pretty happy with the results.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

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