Look Ma, no tracks!

[Paul Cahill]

As a relative newcomer to planes I have struggled with my technique. I am very much in the mode of “the more I learn, I realize the less I know”. For some time I have been trying to eliminate my smoother tracks. I got to where I could get a nice polished surface on the wood, and couldn’t really feel the tracks, but they were plainly visible. I use the Veritas Mark II guide and initially tried to get a camber by just putting more pressure on the corners of the blade. No success. Next up, was the barrel roller for the Mark II. I tried it first with my stones, starting from the Shapton 1000. In my mind I was visualizing a barely perceptible crown on the blade. No success again.
I then went to 200 grit sandpaper with the barrel roller, putting most of the pressure on the two edges and pretty much ignoring the center of the blade. I finally started to feel like I was removing metal from the edges of the blade. I then went up through the stones. The result was a crown that while very slight, was now clearly visible. The other difference I noticed was that when I adjusted the blade depth in the BU smoother, I could see the blade taper to nothing on the edges. It was quite a thrill to get a good wide shaving without leaving the dreaded tell-tale tracks.
Now that I have one “golden” blade, I am wondering if should put the same slight camber on the jack and jointer planes (also BU)? My inclination is to do so, but is there any reason why I should stay with a straight blade for those planes?

[Jim Koepke]

My thought is if the smoother is removing the tracks the others leave, why bother to camber them?

What is of interest to me is only one of my planes is difficult in this area when taking smoothing cuts. I think it has to do with problems the plane has and not the blade.

I usually do not camber my blades.

jtk

[Chris Vandiver]

The problem you were running into regarding camber/grit size, really had much more to do with the fact that you were intoducing camber to a bevel up plane blade. Much more camber is required of a bevel up blade then a bevel bown blade. But I quess you just figured this out.

[Marko Milisavljevic]

is there any reason why I should stay with a straight blade for those planes?

You will prefer straight blades for jointing two boards in tandem and probably for shooting (although some people use curved blades there as well)

[John Dykes]

The problem you were running into regarding camber/grit size, really had much more to do with the fact that you were introducing camber to a bevel up plane blade. Much more camber is required of a bevel up blade then a bevel bown blade.

This...

I recently re-read an article by Derek Cohen regarding this very topic. The short of it is - as Chris says - you have to remove more metal from the bevel-up plane blades to achieve this camber. That is why he suggests buying only 25 degree blades - it takes less time and effort to achieve whatever camber and angle you are looking for. The higher bevel plane blades (like you probably have in your BUS) takes quite a bit of time to get right.

I slightly relieve the corners of my smoothers - just enough to eliminate the tracks. Though some feel that light plane marks give a piece the authentic look and feel of being handmade.

Should you camber your other BUS blades? It really depends on how you work. I camber my jointer plane blades. I'm a David Charlesworth devotee and this method makes sense, is taught by others, it makes sense to me - and I can get it to work reliably. This method requires a cambered blade. If, like Marko, you joint two boards at once, I would never camber the jointer blade. Nor would I ever camber a shooting blade...

Again with the jack, how are you looking to use this tool? Scrub'ish work? Fore plane'ish work? "Pre"-smoother? Shooter? Each one of these purposes requires a different amount of camber (from the most to none). And remember, you can swap blades between tools and have additional blades for various functions...

What operations do you want to perform with each tool? How do you want to do that operation? Configure the blade as needed... That's the beauty of it; there's no wrong answer really. What way works best for you?

* On a side note, that's my first post in nearly 3 years!

jbd in Bamberg, GE

[Paul Cahill]

I slightly relieve the corners of my smoothers - just enough to eliminate the tracks. Though some feel that light plane marks give a piece the authentic look and feel of being handmade.

Thanks for all the replies. Most of my blades are indeed 25 degrees, having read Derek's article on camber on BU vs BD. To a certain extent I think that is why I originally thought I didn't need to remove very much metal. What I learned, is that I still needed to be what I felt was aggressive to make any difference in the performance of the blade.

One thing I am curious about is the comment on relieving the corners of the blade. I have seen this a number of times. Is it simply a case of holding the corner as a point and taking the point off? Or are you talking about more of a smooth radius on the corner?

Thanks,
Paul

[Bill Haumann]

I have two jack planes that get regular use, one has enough camber to eliminate tracks, and the other has a pronounced camber like a fore plane. I also have a jointer with a cambered iron to eliminate tracks, and one with no camber which I use for edges that aren't wider than the blade - no issue with tracks when the corners of the iron are outside the edge of the wood.

[Terry Beadle]

Sharpening tip : When you put your blade to a coarse stone for curved edge shaping, say a 800 grit or lower, then you should always check the shape of the cutting edge to a dead flat surface held up to a bright light. I use a specially prepared piece of scrap rock maple for this purpose. I use a micrometer to make sure it's dead flat.

What I'm saying is that one should actually look at what the stone is doing to create the curved cutting edge and not just assume your pressure on the stone at the edges of the blade is doing the job.

Some times the center of the blade gets more wear than you would expect between sharpenings. So the edges of the curved cutting edge are actually even or even slightly proud of the center of the cutting edge.

Regarding plane blade settings for curved edges, a smoother will usually be set to a very very slight curvature where as a jack will have more than 4 thou recessed at the edge of the curved cutting edge.

A jointer or fore plane is usually set some where between what the smoother and the jack are set to as they take a thicker shaving than a smoother but less thick than a jack.