planing beach

[Matthew N. Masail]

Thanks George ! they also call a table saw here a "cryzik" and a shaper a "fraizer"... drives my nuts ! it took my a while to understand what the hell they were talking about, meanwhile I was getting these "oy this kid knows nothing looks " and "what you don't know what a cryzik is!? " ....... sorry I'm not German, and neither are you!

I just clamped the piece firmly which allowed me to have both hands free to guide the plane, with right tecnique it is going very nicely.. zero tear out even using a low angle block plane, and a glass like surface. I guess it just takes a much force than I intecipated.... honestly all this sharpening (just got my first waterstones) and working with hardwood is taking some getting the hang of until it moves smoothly... up until now I've known nothing but softwood with hand tools.

[John McPhail]

It sounds like it's going to be a concentrated course in honing then

Off on a tangent with this question - what is the reason to steam beech?

I have some 8/4 beech acclimating in my shop right now, I haven't touched it yet but have been reading this with interest, thanks everybody.

[Shlomo Hoffmann]

Thanks for the lesson George....

Talking about linguistics, "Beech" in German is "Buche", which also stands for "Book" in English... Always knew about the books, but not about the beech... Now the name "Buchenwald" makes sense! Beech Forest!... and I used to think it was all about books...

BTW, "Book" for Beech is not an original Hebrew word; probably just an adoption from German/Yiddish... Might also be the source for our own Beech in English...

[Mike Holbrook]

Here is a picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1689105...3974/lightbox/

The two end pieces on the right are European Steamed Beech (form Germany I was told). The heavily grained wood in the middle is Ash. The board on the bottom left with a darker center is Hickory. They are getting a little time to adapt to the humidity in my basement shop.

[James Owen]

The word "book" comes from the German word for beech. Beech was used on early book covers. So,I don't think Matthew is off track using his Hebrew word for beech correctly. German benches aren't made of hornbeam anyway. They are 99% of the time made from steamed beech.

Yes, but only indirectly.

The modern German words Buch (plural Bücher) -- "book" -- and Buche (plural Buchen) -- "beech" -- are somewhat related, but one has to go back to the Old Teutonic to find the connection. In those earlier times, the word Buch originally denoted the runes inscribed on a fruit or beech tree, and became associated with both "beech" and "letters"; the modern German word Buchstabe, meaning "letter of the alphabet", also derives from this early Rune/Tree association. See Friedrich Kluge's An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, for more detail.

[Matthew N. Masail]

It sounds like it's going to be a concentrated course in honing then

Off on a tangent with this question - what is the reason to steam beech?

I have some 8/4 beech acclimating in my shop right now, I haven't touched it yet but have been reading this with interest, thanks everybody.

I'd also like to know what exactly is the process of steaming beech... I assume it has to do with stability and maybe quick drying.
your right about the honing... it's been stone holder and strop making few weeks, and then learning how to use to damn things, but I'm finally getting comfortable. the unsettling part is, I have no idea if I am getting anything very sharp! although the chisels and planes slice through things nicely... I have no reference point... I am using the Veritas honing compound. I know "the proof is in the putting" bla bla bla it would still be nice if someone could give me some live feedback on that... anyone in the mood for visiting the holy land ? (-:

Mike, I like the Hickory the most. is it a hardwood? the beech looks about the same as I have .

[Mike Holbrook]

Matthew,

Ahh yes Hickory. Roy Underhill has a video on it on his Blog. It is a tough hardwood. Most wooden tool handles and many old solid wood tools in the US are Hickory as it has some spring to it as well as being very tough. The tree is a nut tree that grows wild all over the southeastern US. Hickory is a very durable hardwood and often under rated. It is most famous in the southeast as a wood to cook/smoke with. Hickory smoked turkey, ham, salmon, cheese......which is why I think it does not get more use for cabinets, furniture...

If my supplier has enough of it in shorts I will be making my workbench base out of it.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Mike, that sound like some great wood..... but wouldn't a little flexibility be a bad thing for a workbench base?

[Zach Dillinger]

Mike, that sound like some great wood..... but wouldn't a little flexibility be a bad thing for a workbench base?

It's flexible in a "thin axehandle with 4 pound head on it" kind of way. As a strongly built workbench base, with properly sized framing, it won't be flexible enough to notice, but will be nice and strong. A fine choice, if you can get it cheap enough.

[Chris Fournier]

Steamed Euro beech isn't quite as dense as our hard maple and given the way it grows the grain is very predictable in most all instances. I an awful lot of it and it is pleasant to work with hand tools (the odd ornery piece excepted). Now our native North American beech is a horse of another colour and it can be challenging at times.

[Mike Holbrook]

Since I am making my workbench top out of Euro Beech I thought it would be interesting to make the base from the quintessential Southern hardwood, Hickory. When I was checking out the hardwood at my supplier they suggested the Beech. Once I saw it and the predictable grain that Chris refers to it just looked easier to work than the grain in the Ash, the other hardwood I was considering. Plus I have a compact Hammer workbench with a German beech top that I have been very happy with.

Right, Hickory is flexible in a handle as compared to steel, iron or other very hard wood like hard maple. Even in steel the knife guys talk about tough steel vs hard steel. A steel that has a little "flex" in it stays sharp and often makes a better tool than steel with a very high hardness that ends up being brittle under certain pressures. In the 5 3/4 x 3 1/2" legs of a bench I think Hickory will be a very sturdy base. I suspect it might be a chore to flatten a whole bench top made of Hickory though. Maybe a little more test than I want to give my recently made Purple Heart planes, even with my HNT Gordon HSS steel iron.

Here is Roy's Hickory video. I think since it is educational it is ok to post the link:
http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/video/3100/3103.html

[george wilson]

Buch is associated with beech ,at least. I just Googled it to be sure,though I already knew it for years(but sometimes old info can get confused in my old head). It can mean someone living near beech trees,or beech itself. What's the problem? I am not an expert by any means on Yiddish,but it seems like a lot of Yiddish is based on German words. A German might say "Dunkaschern(sp?),while in yiddish they say "Dunkashane". Matthew's word for beech fits the German very closely.

The derivation of the name for books coming from German roots in beech is still true.

[Zach Dillinger]

English itself is a Germanic language, so lots of words sound similar. I believe Yiddish is as well.

[george wilson]

Correct,Zach. We got lots of German based words from early influxes of Germanic peoples into the British Isles. Kirk (sp?) is German for church,our word. There are many other associations.

Since books were invented a long time ago,perhaps earlier German applies? I'm not bothering to Google this further. Matthew's word "books" was close to beech,books,etc..

[Jack Curtis]

English itself is a Germanic language, so lots of words sound similar. I believe Yiddish is as well.

Really about half Germanic, usually the most common words. The other half is Latin.