In the last few months, I’ve used my 2 planes (4, 7) to essentially do final flattening and smoothing of panels and projects – nothing terribly sophisticated. In that time I’ve been working on my sharpening skills – learning, bit by bit. When I’m not “outside” in my 10 degree garage with hands on practice – I re-read articles and view my Charlesworth videos repeatedly - trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong, and how I can make my planes sing as his do.
I’ve learned something, or I think I have. Thus far, I’ve never “curved” my blade. I sharpen on stones, and while I’ve tried – this curving skill eluded me a bit (I also never took the time to work at it – “straight” was good enough). Yes, a straight blade leaves tracks in the wood, but I also have been learning about the card scraper (albeit slowly for some reason).
I’m in the process of working 6/4 rough lumber into a round table top. It’s been run through the jointer and planer “hit and miss” to this point. I’d like to depend more on my planes moving forward.
I’ve watched those Charlesworth videos to the point of memorization – much to my family’s confusion… Charlesworth always mentions you need a curved blade to edge joint stock – “I don’t have a spirit level built into my body.” This has always confused me – “Curved plane blade to “flatten” a glue line????” Yes, with previous projects I’ve run stock through the jointer, and run the straight bladed #7 across to “clean up the mill marks.”
But on my dining room tabletop, that isn’t good enough. I want to understand – I want to learn why the curved blade is needed to joint lumber accurately. So, I pull the portable DVD player next to the sink (again to my wife’s groans) and two hours later, I’ve got a new Hock blade curved quite nicely…
I have a practice piece of walnut – 4/4 rough, 20 inches long. Practice piece yes, but also my “go out after sitting in the office for 10 hrs wishing I was a woodworker and take a few shavings” piece. One face of the walnut is pretty flat. Not officially been “flattened,” but it’s pretty flat (the other side is still rough). I need to be able to joint edges square to a flat face for my table. I pull out my cheap square and notice how bad off my edge is – huge gap under the square. (For my evening “unwinding” shavings, I usually take cuts from the edge. Apparently, poor technique with a straight blade has really tilted this edge.) I grab the #7 with the straight blade and try to get a square edge. I hold it at a angle trying to shave down the high side. After 15 minutes, I can’t seem to get a straight square edge – trying to shave down just the “right spots.” I then try my newly refurbished #5 with the freshly curved Hock blade. As soon as I put the plane down on the edge of wood – the light bulb goes on. I can put the plane down “squarely” on the edge, and position the curved blade to cut only where I want it to. Within a minute, I’ve got a square edge to my flat face (with my cheap square).
I giggle – I beam with pride – and have another one of those moments where I feel like I “worked the wood.” Doing this on a 20” piece of wood is one thing – 42” board for a table top may be a whole different type of challenge….
That was the easy lesson. The hard lesson hasn’t been so pleasant…
In the last 2 weeks, I’ve taken the ebay route to build my plane collection. Every day, I’m out searching the same 850+ ads for the diamond in the rough. I hit gold on my first try – #5 type 13 that was rock solid and very rusty for $20 (Marcus’s advice of fuzzy pictures really paid off). It works better than I dreamed it could with the Hock blade.
In my euphoria – thinking I could find all the gems no one else could see – I won a $22 #5 that I thought was a 15, but is really a 19 with an old cap iron (And I learned what a “broad raised rib” is) – with broken wood. And worse - $25 #6 that has nearly been eaten away… With shipping, $70 worth of mistakes. I’ll probably practice my cleaning, tuning skills and put them back up – try to recoup a bit.
eBay is pure insanity…. Not sure I need a #2, or #3 (I have pretty big hands), or a Bedrock.
I’ve got a 4 (LN), 5, 7. Maybe find a 4 1/2c, and a 5 ˝ (ala D. Charlesworth) – and I’ll leave the madness to the collectors. (Maybe a scrub… and if a cheap #3 is out there…. Maybe a 6…)
Learning comes in many ways….
Better get to work ~
Regards,
-jbd in Denver
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Originally Posted by John Dykes
