Bench & Block Planes

Topic: Bench & Block Planes

Sunday, August 23

The Hand Tool Special Interest Group met Sunday, August 23, with William Johnston acting as moderator/facilitator. 17 Members signed in but there were at least 20 in attendance.

Bill's outline is below; John Beal added additional comments, as needed, in bold type. Participants are welcome to forward additions, changes, or corrections, questions, and comments to William Johnston for inclusion on the Website.

John Beal, Recorder

Program - Robert Young, Jointing Boards and Creating a "Spring Joint".

Mr. Young began the demonstration by noting that boards to be joined edge-to-edge need not be perfectly square so long as the angles add up to 180 degrees. This is most easily accomplished by clamping the boards together when planing the edges. He emphasized the importance of marking the workpieces, as with the cabinetmaker’s triangle, to make sure the boards are aligned properly.

The spring joint is accomplished by planing a slight concavity in the edges of the boards to be joined – just barely enough to see light through the joint for short pieces (24” or less), slightly more for longer boards. The boards are then glued and clamped at the center only (Mr. Young used spring clamps to keep the boards aligned properly at the ends.) The “spring” thus introduced into the joint exerts more force at the ends of the boards, resulting in greater pressure at the ends, where movement is most likely to occur.

	Hand Tool “Show and Tell.”
	Discussion of bench & block planes.
	Demonstrations using bench & block planes.

Show and Tell – Discuss the planes the participants brought in and condition and bring these planes into the outlined discussion.

Discussion:

Difference between a user tool and a more valuable collectible using the three Stanley #5’s.

What is the defining difference between a bench plane and a block plane – block plane is bevel up. Note: Lie-Nielsen low angle jack is a block plane.

Bench plane angles 45 degrees, 50 degrees plus. Purpose of steeper angles? (Useful for difficult grain, hard or oily woods) Bevel 25 or 30 degrees. Must be less than the bed angle of 45 degrees (?).

Block Planes – 12 degrees and 20 degrees plus the bevel means:

Low bed angle of 12 degrees plus 25 degrees = 37 degrees. With caution may be beveled to 20 degrees for 32 degrees.

High bed angle 20 degrees plus bevel of 25 degrees – standard of 45 degrees, same as standard bench plane. What is this used for?

	End grain
	Miters (essentially end grain)
	Chamfering, rounding over

High bed angle of 20 degrees plus bevel of 30 degrees = 50 degrees. Why?

	Works well to prevent chipout on wild grain.
	Grabs better on especially hard or oily woods.

Block planes are usually smaller than most used bench planes allowing the user to:

	Gain a one hand grip.
	Get into smaller places.

Block planes do not have chip breakers (cap iron, double iron). Why? (There is no place for it. The steep angle of the bevel being up acts as a chip breaker)

Block planes do not have a movable frog but some have an adjustable mouth.

On a low angle block used for end grain do you think an adjustable mouth to very small facilitates cutting end grain? End grain does not chip out?

Stanley Bench Planes #3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Major purpose of each

3 & 4 Smoothing

	Slightly crowned blade
	Tight mouth
	Chipper breaker close to the edge
	Why? Discuss tearout and splitting?
	Set for a very light cut – 1 to 3 thousands (.001-.003) about as thick as a sheet of paper.

5 Jack

	Preparing stock
	Planing cross grain (this is not end grain).
	Heaver crown on blade
	Wider mouth
	Deeper cut (.005) (?)

6 Foreplane

	Setup like a jack.
	or as a short jointer.

7 & 8 Jointer

Generally the blade is straight across (no crown).

Demonstrations

Cutting across the grain with a smooth or jack.

Cutting with the grain with a smooth, jack, or jointer.

Removing planer/jointer markings.

Smooth finish with limited or no need for sanding.

Working with

	Difficult woods
	Hard and/or oily woods

End grain and shooting miters with:

Block plane

	Low angle.
	Standard angle.
	High angle.

Bench plane

	Standard plane angle of 45 degrees.
	Heaver plane vs. lighter planes.

Tuning

	Setting the blade depth
	Lateral adjustment
	Full session on tuning?

Sharpening

	Stones
	Water Stones
	Sand paper
	Do we want to come back to a full session on sharpening?

Additional comments:

- Discussion of all the different types of planes is meant to show that you cannot get by with just one plane (Garrett Hack, author of The Handplane Book, says eight.)

- Old wood planes get much of their weight from being impregnated with linseed oil.

- Suggestions for removing rust: One participant suggested using warm Marvil Mystery Oil. Mr. Johnston favors a wire brush, with immersion in a citric acid solution (obtainable at wine-making shops) for 30 minutes for stubborn spots. Wash in warm, soapy water and rinse. When dry (use a blow-dryer) coat with a thin layer of synthetic motor oil. Another possibility is electrolysis. An important principle is to use as few abrasives as possible.

Reference Material (often these and other woodworking books are available at the Half Price Book Stores at very low cost)

Hand Tools - Their ways and Workings Aldren A Watson

Making and Modifying Woodworking Tools - Jim Kingshott

Hand Tool Essentials - From the Editors of popular Woodworking Magazine

Working with Handplanes - The New Best of Fine Woodworking, Taunton Press

The Hand Tool Book - Garrett Hack

Attending: Louis Armstrong, John Beal, Dave Clark, Ken Grainger, Bill Johnston, Jason Newland, Diana Rickel, Dan Soliday, Robert Young, Calvin Hobbs, Dennis Reed, Don Kruse, Gary Embry, John Tegeler, Keith Doel, Mark Waugh, Ron Lomax, Junior Strasil.

Recorded by John Beal ( jbeal3@kc.rr.com )