Shoulder planes

[David Weaver]

that one is pretty bad, and beyond what I'd expect a little bit of glue to solve (of course, the problem is only on one side). If you mark things well, you should expect you won't see many like that.

If I have problems with tenons (shoulders at least), it's because of sloppy marking or a sloppy job jointing the stiles are going in to.

Speaking in more detail than should be said, I guess, I prefer to saw close to the line without it being so close that the wood crumbles between the saw and the line. That leaves enough wood to get the chisel to stay in the cut, but not so much that the chisel is wedged back pushing the cut past the marking line when taking off the waste in one pass.

Someone paring the shoulders would want less wood left on than that, though - sean's picture is a good guide for paring.

[Christopher Charles]

Came across this last week:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-t...t-joinery.aspx

enjoy,
C

[Jim Koepke]

Put me in the chisel most of the time column.

It is a bit more controllable than a shoulder plane.

My shoulder plane is often used on rabbets or lap joints.

jtk

[David Weaver]

Came across this last week:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-t...t-joinery.aspx

enjoy,
C

Phil Lowe is top shelf. It seems like he's got a special chisel for paring the shoulders like that (one at a shallow angle).

[Kees Heiden]

Wow, he leaves a lot of material to be removed! I've never thought about that method. always try to saw as best as I can. Often I can fit them witout paring the shoulderline. The cheecks usually need a bit of work. When it doesn't quite work out as expected, I'll use either a chisel or a shoulderplane.

[David Weaver]

Presume he's working genuine mahogany there, and most of us don't get our hands on that too much. It's more forgiving to that kind of removal. I generally try to saw to the line, too, but half the time or so need to pare the faces of the tenons to get the joint to fit. I'd like it to be 0% if the time!!

I like his method, though, and will try it on cherry, which is the common as water wood here.

[Steve Voigt]

I hadn't seen that video before, but I read the accompanying article (4 chisel tricks) a couple years ago, and I've been doing tenons his way ever since. Much faster than a shoulder plane or a router plane. I have a couple shoulder planes, but they are thick with dust. I should really sell them.

That's pretty funny when he chucks the router in the trash.

[Daniel Rode]

I've never worked with real mahogany but I think the shallow angle on the chisel made a big difference, too. I'm often working in pine with an angle around 30 degrees so removing that much material at once would just tear chunks.

I have duplicates for many size chisels, so I'm mulling sharpening a few just for paring. Maybe 25 degrees or a bit less? It's not that I want to take bigger bites, I want to make smoother, more controlled cuts.

I have some cherry on the rack, I'll have to give it a try to see how differently it responds. I might seem easy after so much pine

Presume he's working genuine mahogany there, and most of us don't get our hands on that too much. It's more forgiving to that kind of removal. I generally try to saw to the line, too, but half the time or so need to pare the faces of the tenons to get the joint to fit. I'd like it to be 0% if the time!!

I like his method, though, and will try it on cherry, which is the common as water wood here.

[David Weaver]

I've never worked with real mahogany but I think the shallow angle on the chisel made a big difference, too. I'm often working in pine with an angle around 30 degrees so removing that much material at once would just tear chunks.

I have duplicates for many size chisels, so I'm mulling sharpening a few just for paring. Maybe 25 degrees or a bit less? It's not that I want to take bigger bites, I want to make smoother, more controlled cuts.

I have some cherry on the rack, I'll have to give it a try to see how differently it responds. I might seem easy after so much pine

Try a few degrees below 25. If you tried what he's doing with that chisel on something like white oak, the edge of the chisel would get beat up. I'd guess looking at the chisel, it's 25 degrees or a few below. it stinks to pare with any higher angle than you have to, but it also stinks to start paring stuff and have the edge getting beat up and the corners disappearing off of the chisel.

Doesn't need to be a big long chisel, either. Any vintage chisel you can find for $10 is a good candidate, as is a piece of O1 stock in a shop made handle.

[Jim Matthews]

If you're truing a shoulder on a crosspiece in an assembly
(like a door), make sure that both pieces are trimmed to the same length
once you've made an adjustment.

Shoulder plane blades must be sharp, both on the cutting edge
and on the side of the blade, to properly trim a shoulder.

I was trained to plane in toward the middle of both sides of the shoulder.
If the plane is drawn all the way across a shoulder,
the potential for "blow out" at the end of the pass.

Me, I use a shoulder plane on rare occasion,
now that I can get a chisel genuinely sharp.

[Greg Berlin]

Owned a shoulder plane once. Used it one time. Sold it a year later. Haven't missed it since.

[Brian Holcombe]

I use a shoulder plane for shoulders. However, I do like undercutting for situations where the tenon is going to be pulled into place by a wedge, or draw-boring.

[Reinis Kanders]

Last weekend I did some tenons in soft pine and very soft white cedar and unintentionally ended up using Lowe's method. It worked fine as long as chisel was sharp. I previously had tried sawing to the shoulder line, but definitely liked this method better because shoulder scribe line was much better defined. My chisel was around 30 degrees, maybe 28. I also prefer splitting the tenon instead of sawing it, seems to be faster as long as grain cooperates. Paul Sellers has some good videos about it.

[ian maybury]

Guess it depends a lot on the type of wood. Cutting mortises for butt hinges in the edges of a marine ply cabinet (across the laminations/glue lines) last week almost instantly knocked the edge off the cheap CRV chisel i was using and led to the router being pulled out instead - with the chisel just being used to clean out corners.

I guess one big advantage of the chisel is that it at all times provides a clear view of what's happening at the cutting edge - not to mention a lot more manoeuvrability for undercutting tenons etc. You don't really see what you have under the plane until the cut is complete. It's do-able, but it tends to lead to a need to line up before you shoot, and to sneak up on a line using very fine cuts...

[Rob Luter]

I generally cut tenons on my table saw with a dado set. I use a shoulder plane for any fine tuning that is required.