Help choosing my next tool.

[jamie shard]

For what it's worth, I just sold my RIs and bought LN mortise chisels. I just found the RI's overbuilt for such small mortises and although I wear a men's large glove, the RIs felt really too big in my hands. I felt the handle (and having to hold it with a whole hand) even kinda blocked my view. I can tap the LN mortise, basically holding with two fingers and kinda micro-steer it as I tap on it with a hammer. I also like the parallel sides of the LN -- that was my main requirement for the chisel -- I agree with a previous poster that it helps prevent twist. I will also say, I don't really notice much of a difference overall in the quality of the mortise, but I just like the feel of a smaller chisel. The steel seems really tough in the LN, but I haven't really broken them in. In theory, I would have considered a japanese mortise chisel, which is also small and with parallel sides, but that was another level of investment, maybe twice the cost. So there ya go, one more data point for your consideration.

[Mike Holbrook]

Where might one find a Japanese scraper plane? I looked around on Tools from Japan, but did not find any.

Since I am building 4 wooden planes from kits it might be a good time to try one. I was just using a card scraper which was working quite well on the Purple Heart even though it was not well sharpened. My fingers are a little tired...

[jerry nazard]

I've had the exact same problem with working with oak, specifically quartersawn white oak (I had significant tearout issues on the flatsawn edges as well). I have a friend who has been making a couple projects with flatsawn red oak, and he is having a lot of trouble with tearout. So, I would say that your issue is the wood and not the tools.

I got a Stanley No. 80 in desperation to finish my project without resorting to power sanding. It worked really well. Maybe there is a benefit to having a variable blade angle, but my No. 80 worked so well that I don't see a reason to upgrade to a scraper plane. I didn't have an issue with the surface coming out fuzzy, but I would have been ok with a little hand sanding if that's what was necessary.

Jim S.

I have recently had a similar experience as Jim's: white oak w/ bad tearout. The #80 saved the day for me, after I sharpened at ~40 to 16000 and applied a very small burr. All of a sudden, the #80 became one of my favorite tools - but only after it was ultra sharp. (16000 was probably overkill, but I had the stone....)

-Jerry

[Pam Niedermayer]

Where might one find a Japanese scraper plane? I looked around on Tools from Japan, but did not find any.

Since I am building 4 wooden planes from kits it might be a good time to try one. I was just using a card scraper which was working quite well on the Purple Heart even though it was not well sharpened. My fingers are a little tired...

You could try Hida and Japan Woodworker, both have scraper planes; although JWW calls them sole flattening planes.

Pam

[Mike Holbrook]

Thanks Pam,

The one I found at JWW appears to be the same one in your picture.

I have a Ryuma small plane w/chipbreaker, 42 x 150mm on order through Stuart Tierney too. Maybe the two of them will give me a feel for Japanese planes and an introduction to tuning them. At leas there are suppose to be tuning instructions with the sole flattening plane and Stuart has information on his site...

[Pam Niedermayer]

...The one I found at JWW appears to be the same one in your picture.

I have a Ryuma small plane w/chipbreaker, 42 x 150mm on order through Stuart Tierney too. Maybe the two of them will give me a feel for Japanese planes and an introduction to tuning them. At leas there are suppose to be tuning instructions with the sole flattening plane and Stuart has information on his site...

Those Japanese scrapers work just like you'd expect a scraper plane to work, at least when using short strokes on dai. Feel free to ask for help here if you need to.

Pam

[Terry Beadle]

I was working with some African Mahogany which has some fuzzy burly stripes running through the material. The only way I found to remove the fuzzies was to change may attack angle with a card scraper ( sharpened ala Ng ) at about a 35 degree attack angle going with the grain. I used both a card scraper and a Stanley #80 ( sharpened ala D. Charlesworth ) and both were effective.

Another thing you can try is to do a back bevel on your best smoother and take a 1 thou shaving with the grain. That usually avoids the need for a scraper treatment. I would think in red oak it would give it a almost buffed surface.

Just a guess, but you might try resharpening your scraper blade all the way up to a 8000 grit and give it the most slightest of burr.

Just some thoughts ! Good luck and enjoy the process !