Plow plane question

[Joe Skinner]

You need a groove on a board. Easy, peasy, you look at the grain and choose the best direction to plow. Clamp the piece to the bench and plow your groove. But what if you need another groove on the other side of the board. How do you do this? If you just flip the board around, you will be going against the grain, and make an ugly cut.

Am I missing something? How do you get a groove on both edges of the same face of a board if you can't afford a right hand and left hand plow plane?

[Frederick Skelly]

Joe,
Im still learning to use my plow, but I take shallower cuts (i.e., thin shavings) when I have to go against the grain. Especially as I approach my desired depth. It takes longer, but it seems to reduce (not eliminate) the tearout. YMMV.

Fred

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

If the groove is centered, you could flip the stock around and register off the other end. In practice, though, you generally aren't going for a show face in the bottom of the groove, so if you take the first few passes carefully (a marking gauge can help, too) once you're plowing below the surface, just go ahead - as long as things aren't tearing out so bad as to make structural issues, or make the work difficult, it doesn't really matter. As Fred says, light passes can help.

In practice, I find I make most of my grooves in things like the rails and stiles of door frames, where I'm generally trying to pick quartersawn, straight grain stock, for appearance if nothing else, so the going is a bit easier.

[maximillian arango]

As Joshua said a marking gauge can help... for me it helps a ton by splitting the fibers and making a "knife wall" as Paul Sellers puts it.

[Jim Koepke]

Joe,

What are you using for a plow plane?

I have an old woodie, Stanley 45s and a #55 that can all be set up for left or right handed use.

If need be use the plow without a fence and run left handed against a batten.

Sometimes even running with the grain on some woods it is best to score the edges first.

jtk

[Michael Ray Smith]

Joe,

What are you using for a plow plane?

I have an old woodie, Stanley 45s and a #55 that can all be set up for left or right handed use.

If need be use the plow without a fence and run left handed against a batten.

Sometimes even running with the grain on some woods it is best to score the edges first.

jtk

I agree. Scoring the edges of a groove before starting with the plow plane can keep the edges clean. I've also done a few grooves (probably when I was getting desperate after ruining a piece or two) the same way I usually do dadoes -- Score the edges as deeply as I can, and as perpendicular to the surface as I can, with a marking knife using a batten of some sort (being careful to keep the batten on the outside of the cut and the flat side of the knife against the batten to keep the edge of the groove/dado as clean as possible), then going back with the knife and cutting into the score (from inside the groove/dado, of course) at about a 45 degree angle to form a half-V-shaped groove. Then I use a stair saw (I keep two of them just for this purpose, one filed cross-cut and one filed rip) to cut a kerf into the half-V groove, using the original knife score as a sort of wall or fence to register the saw blade against. The stair saw lets me cut the kerf to the depth I want without going too deep. Do the same thing to both sides, and then take out the waste with a plow plane (with or without the fence), a router plane, or chisel.

[William Adams]

I just reverse my Stanley 12-250...