Smoother for Curly Maple

[Josh Rudolph]

I am getting ready to start a project that will be a lot of curly maple. Power tools will do the brunt of the work and I will cleanup with hand tools.

I have a 3,4, and 4 1/2 that works great, but I still get some small spots of tearout here and there. My blades are sharp and polished, I just get a few trouble spots every now and again.

Would I be better served to try one of the low-angle bevel up smoothers, a higher frog, or just stick with a scraper.

Any inputs and opinions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Josh

[Tony Shea]

I recently went through the same issues with some curly birds eye maple I have had kicking around. I just never did much with it because I didn't have the right set-up to get good results from it with having to scrape the hell out of it. I recently took the plunge in the BU Jack plane that LV offers mainly for shooting with the low angle blades. But I also thought I'd order a few extra 25* blades to throw different micro-bevel angles on. All I have to say is WOW. This plane has become the most versatile tool in my shop. I've honed on of those blades at a 45* micro-bevel with plenty of camber due to the BU physics, which creates a planing angle of 57*. I have yet to come accross some crazy stock I can't plane through with this blade. Very simple plane to change blades on and simple to hone different angles with the 25* blades. I highly reccomend it and can't figure out why I waited so long to get one. Oh, and it is a shooting machine with the lower angle blades.

The higher angle blades can wear much faster and can wear the back of blade more than a BD plane. After a while of this wear on the back of the blade you will need to grind past this point and start your bevel over again. Therefore this config. is better suited for final smoothing and not heavy stock removal, in my experience.

[Chris Fournier]

I've used an awful lot of curly maple over the years and I personally have always reached for a bench plane. A freshly sharpened bench plane I should add.

Where you just can't seem to beat the tearout try this:

Identify the problem spot and use a very damp cloth or plant mister to moisten the area. Let the water soak into the maple a minute or two say. Now set your plane for a very fine cut and I have found that you can reduce the tearout almost completely. Sometimes you need to finish with a scraper - carefully, too much scraping on curly woods tends to telegraph the figure on the surface.

[george wilson]

As many of you know,grinding a steep angle on the front edge of the iron,so that it scrapes as much as it cuts,is a good way to plane figured wood. However, I had excellent results with the BU LN plane we had at work,without any modifications to the cutting angle.

In the millwork shop near my shop,they had a Northfield thickness planer that used carbide inserts that had an extremely steel cutting angle. Not the usual type inserts that you see with spiral heads. These required grinding with a grinder that mounted on the planer. They stuck up at a very steep angle,so that they scraped the wood. It did a remarkable job on curly maple I ran through it. A normal planer would have ruined the wood that their planer planed smooth. Same with a hand plane.

[Nelson Howe]

I've had good luck with a 50 degree Steve Knight infill smoother with a tight mouth and sharp iron.

Nelson

[Jim R Edwards]

I use a LVBUS for difficult woods with great results. I also had good results with a LN 4 1/2 with a 50 degree frog at the LN tool show in Tampa. They had curly maple there and their planes worked very well too! I do no not own a LN 4 1/2, only used it at their show. Another tool I think is great for tear out is a LN 212 scraper. It doesn't get a lot of attention but it is one of the best tools I own. Highly recommend it.

[John Tallyn]

I've been working on some birds eye maple and some ribbon stripe mahogany,both were tearing out until I went to the LV low angle jack, bu, with the 50* blade. I've had no tear out since using that. I thought I was going to have sand my way thru both of these woods, love the LV low angle jack.
John

[Josh Rudolph]

I have been considering the LV low angle smoother. Would I be better suited for an all-around plane by going with the jack? Or should I stick with a smoother for removing mill marks and finish prep?

Just so I am not overlooking its benefits, is the toothed blade more intended to be used with the jack plane, or does it equally have its place with a smoother. The way I use the smoother is for removing mill marks, so the wood is essentially flat only needing cleanup. I don't know that I understand the use of a toothed blade with that plane in this application.

Am I overlooking a potential benefit? Or would the 50* be my best bet?

[James Owen]

Try the 50˚ or 55˚ frog for the LN 4-1/2 or 5-1/2.

[Josh Rudolph]

Try the 50˚ or 55˚ frog for the LN 4-1/2 or 5-1/2.

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.

Almost all of my hand planes are old Stanley's (I have 3 LV planes) that I have tuned up and get good performance out of. The only times I wish for more is when I hit gnarly or figured grain. There always seems to be some spots that I can't get with my Stanley's.

Thanks,
Josh

[Curt Putnam]

IMO, the LV BUS will handle smoothing jobs as well or better than other planes. I believe it comes with a 30 degree blade, buy some additional 25 degree blades and then micro-bevel them to 50 degrees or higher (whatever you desire.) The toothed blade (I've not used one) has 2 uses that I know of: one is prepping a surface for veneering and the other is for handling really gnarly grain. Apparently it simply does not tear out. One cleans up afterwards with a very finely set smoother or a scraper. Derek Cohen thinks very highly of the BUS - check out his website.

[Eric Brown]

I have the LVBUJ with several blades including the toothed one. It does a great job preping rough cut lumber. No tearout. I also had an interesting realization of one limitation. It will not work well on a shooting board. Once it makes the initial cut, that's it. After that it bottoms on the cut grooves. In order for the toothed blade to work it must be moved around. Silly me!

Live and learn. Eric

[jamie shard]

I am having enough of a conflict with myself over the LV smoother.

The only times I wish for more is when I hit gnarly or figured grain. There always seems to be some spots that I can't get with my Stanley's.

Seems like you should try a back bevel before spending money on a LV smoother. Adding 10 degrees to the back will give you the angle you are looking for... and it might save some money that can be spent on more curly maple.

(I admit I'm curious if it will work for you for my own reasons... I have a stanley #3 that I'm going to back bevel, I think. I just haven't had the pleasure of such nice wood to require it yet.)

[Josh Rudolph]

Seems like you should try a back bevel before spending money on a LV smoother. Adding 10 degrees to the back will give you the angle you are looking for

I do back bevel my planes. Not to a set angle, more of the "ruler trick" to remove the burr. You think a set 10* back bevel would make a difference? How would that be different than adding a few more degrees to the microbevel and still doing a "standard" back bevel?

[David Weaver]

Adding 10 degrees should make a big difference. The bevel can be very small, like just a few swipes on a stone, so that it doesn't leave you tons of work to do to remove it. The steeper it is, the easier it'll be to keep it short.

If the chipbreaker is tuned well, you have the option of setting that within a few thousandths of the edge (like sheet of copy paper thickness for a gauge). Careful of the edge of the iron when setting it, though. If you're going to do a lot of work, i think this is more fidgety than just back beveling the iron.

If you go with a back bevel, 10-20 degrees is probably a practical working range for a bench plane. Less than 10 makes little difference. You can go steeper than 20, but there's no need to and the finish will be worse the steeper you go.

Wet cloth like Chris says works well, too.

No need to do two tricks at a time, some of them can create trouble if used together (i.e., closely set chipbreaker and super tight mouth can create feeding problems)