Like David says - paraffin wax works best - in my experience, paste wax tends to actually make things stickier rather than slipperier in some conditions!
Member
Like David says - paraffin wax works best - in my experience, paste wax tends to actually make things stickier rather than slipperier in some conditions!
" Be willing to make mistakes in your basements, garages, apartments and palaces. I have made many. Your first attempts may be poor. They will not be futile. " - M.S. Bickford, Mouldings In Practice
Contributor
Old candles work fine for me. Sometimes J & J paste floor wax from a shop rag.
Wax isn't going to fix chatter if it is caused by something else being out of adjustment.
Wax will only lower the friction. Try pushing the plane across a piece of wood with the blade retracted. Rub a candle on the bottom and try it again. That can be a big difference, but that is all it will do, make the plane slide easier.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
Frederick,
I'd go with paraffin wax or beeswax. I stay away from the auto waxes. I have used ordinary furniture paste wax but it's easier to just swipe a bar of paraffin wax across the sole every few minutes.
Member
All good recommendations so far, except for the "you need to replace the blade" bit. Stock irons can work just as well once the plane is tuned. A thicker iron will be more forgiving, but a well tuned plane will work with the stock iron just fine. Don't get to hung up on how tight the mouth is at first, and don't worry about full width shavings. You just want a smooth surface. The full width shavings has a lot to do with the condition of the wood itself as well. There is a learning curve in setting a hand plane, but once it "clicks" its all worth it.
Guest
I'd say don't get hung up on how tight the mouth is at all. Control the tearout with the chipbreaker instead, leave the mouth open some so the plane can feed shavings freely. The chipbreaker is far more effective than the mouth at controlling smoother tearout, anyway.
Stock iron should work without chatter on anything up to and including cocobolo. If you get into heavier work, then there might be some chatter, but nothing that slows you down or makes work uncomfortable, and it's not on a finished surface so it doesn't matter.
Contributor
re: sharp
I don't like the "shave hair" test. An edge will remove hair without really being sharp. My test for a sharp blade: Hold the blade 90 degrees to the edge of a sheet of paper. PUSH the blade straight. If it cuts, you're good. If you have to slice through the paper, you're not near as sharp as you can be. I can take my paring chisels and literally shave slivers from the edge of a sheet of paper.
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Yeah the problem with any hair test is that is varies from person to person. My arm hair is super fine so it really doesn't shave unless my blade is really sharp, but even then if it isn't uniformly sharp that test won't show it. An extreme example of this when I hone my razors, I can pop a hanging hair from my wifes hairbrush off of them before I can pop one of my own.Originally Posted by John Coloccia
Anyway, I prefer paper or endgrain as well when sharp REALLY matters. If I can push cut paper like John describes I know the edge is sharp, then a quick slicing motion give me an indication of weather or not the blade is uniform. If its dull some area it will cat a bit during the slice. Similarly, when paring endgrain, dull areas show up as dull streaks. I don't do these tests everytime and still often just use the arm hair test as a quick and dirty check, but if sharpness is extra important and/or if I'm not sure how uniformly sharp my edge is they (paper or endgrain) are far more enlightening then shaving arm hair.
Woodworking is terrific for keeping in shape, but it's also a deadly serious killing system...
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If someone wants to really test their skill, you can hold the chisel about 2/3rds of the way from the arm hair height (not against any skin, obviously) and see if your chisel will pass the hanging hair test by catching the hairs and popping them off. That is an arm hair test that would show sharpness for certain if there was any quantity of hair being severed.
No, I don't do that. It's a razor test. But offered for anyone who wants to entertain themselves.
(i don't do it with razors, either, and don't really test any of my plane or chisel edges, the easiest way to tell if any of them are good is to use them).
Last edited by David Weaver; 05-09-2013 at 10:49 AM.
Contributor
I can get my straight razor to do that, but I've never succeeded with a woodworking tool EXCEPT I got my Japanese chisel to do it ONCE.
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There's a fair bit of total angle influence. It works on older chisels at 25 degrees or so, and it will work on newer chisels at 25 degrees or so if they are stropped on a clean strop that is razor quality (that's a loaded statement, no strop that resides in the shop for more than a day when it is not in use is razor quality). Almost 100% of the time, the discussion about new steel not getting as sharp (when it's modern abrasives being used) is a wire edge issue. Not a big fanned out wire edge, but bits hanging on, but a strop that isn't razor quality may just wear the edge any way and scuff it up, especially one sitting around the shop with abrasive or dust, etc.
Not surprised to hear a japanese chisel would pass the test given their hardness and ability to dispense of most of the particles that hang on with less plain steels.
Member
Yeah, for most stuff I don't find a reason to test unless I encounter problems in use; though testing edges is not a bad idea until one gets confident in their ability to get consistent result sharpening.
Same here. I've never gotten any of my tools to pass any type of hanging hair test....pretty easy to get my straight razors there though (though I don't hone my tools up to the .1 micron stuff that I finish my razors on)
Last edited by Chris Griggs; 05-09-2013 at 11:06 AM.
Woodworking is terrific for keeping in shape, but it's also a deadly serious killing system...
Guest
Er...I forgot to finish my thought with that. I've seen Warren Mickley say (about just about everything) that a craftsman's experience is more valuable than academic discussion (as in, once you have the experience, you don't need to test the edges much), but the edge tests are excellent to use until someone has the experience. Some folks like to do them anyway, just out of curiosity, nothing wrong with that.
Member
I like the paper test, simply because it's easily repeatable, and I sharpen in a different room than I work wood ( although it's not really that far ) and it gives me a quick indication of if I've done the job, rather than going back to the vise and trying some wood. This is only when a blade is getting a fair amount of work. If I'm just touching up chisels on my finest stone or a strop, I don't worry. But it's a nice quick sanity check to realize if I left a wire edge or was asleep at the wheel and polished a bevel but didn't hit the edge. It's most useful now that I know what sharp is and what it feels like in the paper.
" Be willing to make mistakes in your basements, garages, apartments and palaces. I have made many. Your first attempts may be poor. They will not be futile. " - M.S. Bickford, Mouldings In Practice
Member
If by shave you mean pound, and by slivers you mean ragged confetti - So can I.
I didn't really have sharp tools until just after Christmas, this year.
I could tell by all the leaks I was springing - I was liberally applying the same finish made famous by "The Red Violin".
In Memoriam
I think Frederick said a single bevel at 25 degrees?
In my view this is madness. Even if very sharp the maple will degrade the edge in a very short time.
30 degrees is traditional.
I do weird things, grind at 22, coarse stone at 33, polish at 35, but it works for me.
best wishes,
David Charlesworth
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