Jointer planes-size, chip breaker or not?

[Nicholas Lawrence]

My main goal is to figure out the best way to make chair/table legs with hand planes. Some may not consider this jointer plane work. It is a little difficult to tell edges from top & bottom surfaces when you start with a 2x2" board that winds up an octagon. On the other hand, we might end up with eight edges on a single board.

Here are my thoughts, taking into account that I think you indicated a lathe is not an option. I would make a jig to hold the legs. Rip two strips at a 45, and glue them to a board, so you end up with sort of a trough, with a 90 degree "V" in the bottom of the trough. Orient everything so you can put the square leg blank in the "V" with a corner sticking up. Put a stop one end. Glue a piece of scrap to the bottom so you can clamp it in your vise, or figure out some other way to hold it on the bench. Start by squaring your stock as you normally would. Then put it in the jig, and plane the corner that is sticking up. When half of the original "flats" are gone, rotate 90 degrees and plane the next corner, and so on.

As with so many things, the devil is in the details, and getting those eight sides pretty close to the same size so you come out with a respectable octagon, and not something else is going to take some attention to detail. I have done this with smaller pieces, and found counting "strokes" worked to get things the same size. With larger stuff, I think I would mark the centerline on all four faces before planing. Either way it is going to be a little bit tedious.

In terms of the plane setup, I would use whatever I have that would give me a moderately decent cut without making a mess. In my shop that would probably be my No. 7, and I would look to finish things with a couple of very light strokes from my smoother. I would not get too aggressive on the cuts, even if the first one seems to be going well, because the grain is going to change direction on you as you rotate.

I don't know if this is really what you are looking for, but hopefully it helps, and good luck.

[Mike Holbrook]

Good thoughts there Nicholas,

In the past I have just locked each leg in a vise with the corners straight up, which works decently. Maybe I could make a set of add on jaws to hold the legs in the vise...

Sounds like most people feel board edges for glue ups are not visible so not worth getting too worked up over appearance wise. Show surfaces get a final pass or two with the smooth plane.

I have odd wood planes, made from some of the last patterns that Steve Knight used. Think of something between a Japanese dia and a typical American/British design. They are not nearly as thick as many of the beech planes I see people making lately, more like a transitional. They are light compared to my metal planes. I have been trying to decide whether or not to adapt them to double irons. The problem being they are more designed for short irons. One is 15 1/2" long but lighter than a 5 1/2. I may add some camber to the single irons on this large Jack and experiment with it for heavy work, where tear out isn't a big deal. Kind of a trade off between weight helping and being tiring.

The other option is working green wood with a drawknife. A drawknife works many times faster than a plane on green wood, and the shave horse holds the work. If you have not seen Curtis Buchanan or Peter Galbert work a large blank, check it out on YouTube. In the chair classes I took we dried chair legs in simple kilns in a matter of days. I could at least "rough" out blanks and then decide how much refining I want to do to them with hand planes. The "issue" with this style work is everything is done by eye, there is never any set dimensioned board to work from. I am guessing a great deal of furniture was made like this a few centuries ago though.

[Stewie Simpson]

http://www.jefflefkowitzchairmaker.c...t-2-front-legs

[Mike Holbrook]

Thanks for the link Stewie (bookmarked). Good info. there, even though I prefer Windsor/stick chair designs to post and rung designs. For some reason I like the octagonal planed legs. I liked his legs best before he made them round.