Smoother for Curly Maple

[Sam Takeuchi]

First of all, what you are concerned here is higher cutting angle. You don't gain anything by giving steeper micro bevel on bevel down plane when it comes to how it planes the wood. Second, ruler trick adds around 1/2 degree or so of back bevel if you use 0.5mm ruler on somewhat standard size stone.

What you need is higher cutting angle and back bevel adds exactly that. You need a way to add consistent angle for uniform performance and probably a honing guide would be handy here. 10 degree back bevel would give 55 degree cutting angle, 15 degree back bevel would give you 60. What you could aim for is lowest cutting angle that gets the material smooth and clean, but you don't need to be precise and if you decide to go with 15 degree back bevel, that shouldn't be inferior to a surface achieved by 10 degree back beveled blade.

It works quite well, but once you are done with it, you need to get rid of that back bevel by grinding it off. Or you can dedicate that particular blade as back bevel blade and get a new blade for ordinary planing needs.

[Josh Rudolph]

First of all, what you are concerned here is higher cutting angle. You don't gain anything by giving steeper micro bevel on bevel down plane when it comes to how it planes the wood. Second, ruler trick adds around 1/2 degree or so of back bevel if you use 0.5mm ruler on somewhat standard size stone.

What you need is higher cutting angle and back bevel adds exactly that. You need a way to add consistent angle for uniform performance and probably a honing guide would be handy here. 10 degree back bevel would give 55 degree cutting angle, 15 degree back bevel would give you 60. What you could aim for is lowest cutting angle that gets the material smooth and clean, but you don't need to be precise and if you decide to go with 15 degree back bevel, that shouldn't be inferior to a surface achieved by 10 degree back beveled blade.

It works quite well, but once you are done with it, you need to get rid of that back bevel by grinding it off. Or you can dedicate that particular blade as back bevel blade and get a new blade for ordinary planing needs.

Sam,

This makes perfect sense now that I have actually taken the time to think about it. I was heavily favoring buying a smoother from LV, but am now heavily leaning on getting another blade for one of my smoothers and dedicating the blade to a back bevel for figured woods. (I know it is blasphemy to pass on getting a new tool!)

Now...the hard part is which smoother do I get another blade for...the 3, 4, or 4 1/2.
BTW, the project will be a crib for our second child. The spindles are going to be 1 1/2" wide, so I am thinking the #4 may be the one getting the new blade.

[Terry Beadle]

LN and LV are not the exclusive suppliers of knarly wood solutions. The HNT Gordon ebony palm smoother I own has always performed extremely well and cost considerably less than a HA Frog LN. Also, I have a Japanese kana with 47 1/2 degree bed and an excellent iron. It too costs less than half the cost of a LN and just slightly more than a LV.

I mention these other options because I'm tight with a buck but I have to have good results.

Scrapers, either card or plane based, will take care of knarly wood scenarios ALWAYS...IMO. They be cheap too !

If you have access to David Charlesworths video Furniture Making Techniques - Five Topics, he has a solid segment on how to take care of knarly wood situations with standard planes. Back bevels, shaving settings, and sharpening tips are included. Recommended.

[Jim Belair]

The steeper the angle the more difficult the plane is to push so the #4 would be a good choice.

Jim B

[Paul Ryan]

I own all 3 LV BU planes. If I could only keep one it would be the smoother just by a hair. The jack is really useful as well. But I have a hard time using the jack to smooth some panels because it end up taking off too much material to get into some of the low spots. I really despise sanding. So I try to smooth everything and just avoid sanding. I have not found a wood that my 50 degree blade will not smooth without tear out. The jack is very useful as well. But to long for low spots like planer snipe areas and seams between panels. The smoother comes with a 38 degree blade but you can have LV change that to a 25, 50, or toothed blade if you like. There is considerable more force required to push the 50 over the 38 but the 50 does a better job on goofy grains. The 25 blade is only good for soft woods, end grains, and heavy stock removal IMHO.

[James Owen]

James,

As much as I would love to jump into a LN setup the budget does not allow for a $400 investment. I am having enough of a conflict with myself over the LV smoother. ....

Thanks,
Josh

Josh,

Completely understand about the investment and budget part. Have that problem, too.....

Another possibility are the 63˚ Chinese-style rosewood planes that Japan Woodworker sells. They run in the $50 to $65 dollar range (+/-) -- depending on size -- have really nice quality irons, and work very well on gnarly woods like bird's eye or curly maple, curly Jatoba, mesquite, etc.

[Jim Belair]

Another possibility are the 63˚ Chinese-style rosewood planes that Japan Woodworker sells.

+1

Lee Valley sells them too.

[Chris Fournier]

Planes can be like rabbits and the population can rise dramatically in a hurry. This is money tied up in tools that may no really be earning their keep! I'd go for another blade and the back bevel - the cheapest path to the results you're after; unless you just buck up and try the wet cloth approach and that's free!

[Zahid Naqvi]

how about just using sandpaper for the troublespots.

[Josh Rudolph]

how about just using sandpaper for the troublespots.

Zahid,

Please quit using those bad words (sandpaper) in my presence. Just kidding.

I actually placed an order with Craftsman Studio a little while ago for another blade for my #4. Gave me a chance to get a Hock setup for the #3 also. Been wanting to do it for a while now.

I have been milling the curly maple most of the afternoon with power tools. I have the carbide indexed heads in both the jointer and planer and have been getting tearout with them. They are usually good with the gnarly stuff, but the more figured it gets, the harder it is to get a good clean pass.

The new blade with the back bevel should help tremendously.

[Josh Rudolph]

I received the blades yesterday and sharpened them last night with a 10* back bevel. I just tried it on a scrap piece and the results so far are awesome. I will try on a bigger and hopefully gnarlier piece this evening and give a report back. But so far so good.

[Josh Rudolph]

The 10* back bevel is definitely the trick. Works like a charm. Just to verify, I try smoothing some with my #3 and get some light tear out. I come behind it with the back beveled #4 and it cleans it right up with no problems. Been using it on and off today and no tearout so far.

[Garth Jones]

Another option - make a plane with the angle you want. Last year I made myself two Krenov-style planes. One is a regular jack, and the other is a smoother (about the size of a #4) with a 55 degree bed angle. It has a Hock iron in it (they're great!) and I always have it set to take a light cut. It will plane just about anything without tearout. The planes are purpleheat, which I just had laying around, so the only cost was the irons/chipbreakers (about $50 each).

My $0.02.....

Garth

[Eddie Darby]

Try some back-bevels for a start, to see how things clean-up. If it works, then you may want to try a dedicated blade sharpened with a back-bevel.
The back-bevel need only be thicker than the shaving being taken.

[David Keller NC]

Josh - If you're getting tearout with carbide-insert planer/jointer tooling, you might want to examine the inserts to see if they need to be rotated 90 degrees. Carbide insert tooling isn't foolproof, but unless you're taking off a large amount of wood in a single pass, I'm surprised you're getting noticeable tearout.