{"id":1987,"date":"2012-11-30T23:59:49","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T04:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2013-04-19T23:00:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-20T04:00:45","slug":"finish-handplaning-difficult-woods-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/30\/finish-handplaning-difficult-woods-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Finish handplaning difficult woods, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1990\" title=\"IMG_0870_edited-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0870_edited-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0870_edited-2.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0870_edited-2-150x92.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><strong>The #4 bench plane,<\/strong> about 9 1\/2&#8243; long with a 2&#8243; wide blade, is probably the most popular smoothing plane among woodworkers, and will be the focus of this discussion. Some prefer the maneuverability of the smaller #3, and some like the added weight and 2 3\/8&#8243; blade of the #4 1\/2, but all of these bevel-down smoothers can be used in several configurations to effectively work a range of easy to difficult woods. <strong>It is a matter of employing various strategies.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Strategy #1: Choose a 50\u00b0 frog.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bevel-down smoothers are, unfortunately, usually configured with a <strong>45\u00b0 frog as standard.<\/strong> Lie-Nielsen&#8217;s great planes are available with 45\u00b0, 50\u00b0, and 55\u00b0 frogs. Other brands, such as Clifton, Wood River, and Anant, do not, to my knowledge, offer this important choice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why 50\u00b0?<\/strong> This will smooth tame woods, such as plain walnut and poplar, about as well as a 45\u00b0 frog. In some cases, the 45\u00b0 frog can produce a slightly more cleanly severed surface, but the difference is nearly imperceptible and, in most cases, a very sharp blade negates any practical difference between the two.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, wonderfully, <strong>for most moderately figured woods,<\/strong> a high-quality #4 with the advantage in reducing tearout of the 50\u00b0 frog, along with a properly prepared blade and chipbreaker, is all you need. I do not want the expense and hassle of changing frogs, and the 50\u00b0 is more versatile than the 45\u00b0 or 55\u00b0. Furthermore, with the alterations discussed below, a higher attack angle can be created <strong>without changing out the 50\u00b0 frog.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>This presupposes a well-tuned, high quality plane.<\/strong> To digress somewhat, here is a partial list of important features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The sole must be <strong>flat in the key places,<\/strong> especially at the toe and around the mouth.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The frog<\/strong> should be accurately machined and of good design, such as Lie-Nielsen&#8217;s, and adjusted to create a <strong>tight mouth<\/strong>, just enough to pass thin shavings without congestion.<\/li>\n<li>The blade must be <strong>properly cambered.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/21\/how-much-camber-should-be-in-plane-irons\/\" target=\"_blank\">How much camber?<\/a> Ideally, shavings under 0.001&#8243; thick should feather out to nothing toward the sides of the blade edge.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The chipbreaker<\/strong> should be set close to the blade edge. How close? Well, <strong>it depends<\/strong> on the wood, the chipbreaker edge design, and the thickness of the shavings you are taking, so you must experiment a bit. About 1\/64&#8243; gap is a starting point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1991\" title=\"IMG_0863_edited-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0863_edited-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0863_edited-2.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0863_edited-2-150x90.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Strategy #2: Take very thin shavings!<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;But Rob,&#8221; you say, &#8220;that&#8217;s just obvious.&#8221; Yes, but to do this, you must have <strong>all your ducks in a row<\/strong>, as described above, <strong><em>and<\/em> a damn sharp blade<\/strong>. A dull blade precludes very thin shavings and promotes tearout, regardless of all other factors.<\/div>\n<p>So, there are <strong>two corollary tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Taking thin shavings means taking <strong>lots of passes<\/strong>, which leads to using a duller blade, unless the wood surface is properly trued beforehand. In other words, <strong>use your smoother only to smooth, and as little as possible.<\/strong> Set the surface up with your truing planes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Consider an <strong>O-1 steel<\/strong> blade for most of your smoothing in moderate woods. It is <strong>easier to sharpen and shape<\/strong>, and probably can be made sharper, than A-2. It will likely dull faster though, or maybe just differently, so it will need touch ups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Strategy #3: When the going gets tough with mean and nasty woods, try raising the attack angle by using a back-beveled blade.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I keep a separate blade for my #4 with a <strong>10\u00b0 bevel on the back<\/strong> (the &#8220;flat&#8221; side). Because this setup is used in tough woods, the abrasion resistance of <strong>A-2<\/strong> steel is an advantage, and the back bevel facilitates sharpening. <strong>With the 50\u00b0 frog, this creates an attack angle of 60\u00b0,<\/strong>\u00a0which is a big advantage in eliminating tearout. It is much like having a separate plane with a 60\u00b0 frog, which you therefore do not need.<\/p>\n<p>The back bevel needs only to be <strong>very narrow<\/strong> since it is really just the first tiny bit of blade that matters &#8211; the first several thousandths, probably, that are involved in severing the fibers. At the sharpening bench, I use a magnetic angle gauge, in conjunction with a strip of wood on the stone, to make a reproducible back-bevel angle. The front-side bevel should not be too steep; 25\u00b0 is plenty, creating a <strong>total bevel of 35\u00b0.<\/strong> More than that and the blade &#8220;wedge&#8221; will be too thick and, I feel, offer too much pushing resistance in the wood. <strong>The chipbreaker<\/strong> cannot be set as close to the edge with a back bevel but that does not matter as much due to the high attack angle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Going higher than a 60\u00b0 attack angle,<\/strong> by whatever method, does not seem to make planing go better, even in very difficult woods. The cutting action becomes more like scraping. I find that the best course of action for those situations is to simply use a scraping plane or hand scraper.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1992\" title=\"IMG_0862_edited-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0862_edited-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"390\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0862_edited-2.jpg 510w, https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0862_edited-2-150x114.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In summary,<\/strong> with one high-quality, well-tuned bevel-down smoothing plane, with <strong>one frog, and two well-prepared blades<\/strong> (three is a luxury), you are equipped to venture into smoothing lots of wonderful woods.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are more options, and they too work. <strong>Next: Bevel-up strategies.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The #4 bench plane, about 9 1\/2&#8243; long with a 2&#8243; wide blade, is probably the most popular smoothing plane among woodworkers, and will be the focus of this discussion. Some prefer the maneuverability of the smaller #3, and some like the added weight and 2 3\/8&#8243; blade of the #4 1\/2, but all of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techniques","tag-finish-hand-planing-difficult-woods-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2001,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions\/2001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}