My friend Ron Brese makes amazing hand planes:
I hope to see Ron in Cincinnati in a few weeks. And if you are also attending the Woodworking in America conference, you can try your hand with Ron’s hand planes.
— Al Navas
August 5, 2011 By
June 20, 2009 By
The walnut hand plane: Part 3, shaping it, and using it!
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Following the glue-up, I clamped the plane for several hours. But I could not wait longer – if you have ever been in the maternity waiting room at the hospital, waiting for your first child to be born, you know what I mean.
I removed the clamps, cleaned up the glue on the bottom, inserted a temporary wedge to tension the plane, and squared the bottom to the best side on the jointer. After that I sanded the bottom using 150 grit paper on the cast iron table on the table saw; this is the first time I actually brushed off the fine dust after every two strokes of the plane on the sandpaper. Finally, I drew some outlines, freehand, on one of the cheeks, and cut to the lines on the band saw. A little shaping with rasps, and I ran out of patience – I had to try it out!
The first trial, on one edge of a walnut scrap:
This shaving looks good, but is it thick, or thin? I wondered, as I looked at it:
The shaving was just under two thousands of an inch (0.002″) thick:
Then I had to tinker with the shape a little more, until time to go to the house:
The mouth is still not quite right, as sometimes shavings will jam. I shaped the mouth opening to run almost parallel to the surface of the iron:
As you can see, I got careless with the file, and chewed up part of the cheek during two misplaced strokes (the unsafe edge…). I can barely see a little light between the tip of the iron and the front of the mouth, so I still have some room to refine the shape. I will keep playing with this new hand plane, and will use it in one of the projects I am working on. I’ve got to work out the kinks in the mouth!
The Brese Plane iron is great – I did not even touch the sharp edge prior to this trial run!
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December 23, 2008 By
#40. WIA: Bevel-up vs. Bevel-down Planes
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Running time: 1 hour, 14 min., 42 sec.
Christopher Schwarz moderated this session on the second day of Woodworking in America in Berea, KY. Robin Lee and Thomas Lie-Nielsen participated. Highlights of items covered during this session:
Summary (from notes I took during the session – but everything is on the video):
- Characteristics of both types of hand planes.
- Questions with Robin Lee and Thomas Lie-Nielsen.
- Questions from the audience.
Now for the good stuff:
Using a Veritas bevel-up plane as an example, Schwarz explained:
- There is no removable frog.
- These have been called “low angle” tools, which can be confusing because they can be made into high-angle tools.
- What changes when using a bevel-up plane? We gain, due to some of the following advantages, and lose some due to a few disadvantages:
- The sharpening angle of attack influences the angle of the tool: Low angle, for end grain, for example; and high angle for “tricky” grain.
- The adjustment mechanisms are vastly different; they result in easier, and more accurate, blade adjustment with the bevel-up tools. Blade projection is easier; but lateral adjustment can be more tricky on the bevel-up planes.
- There is no separate chip breaker. Robin Lee discusses wood failure.
- Some discussion followed on changing the angle of attack by changing the back bevel on the iron; Schwarz does not like this approach, as it doubles sharpening time.
- A major advantage of bevel-down smoothers and jointers: Making adjustments “on-the-fly”, which gives great feedback to the user.
- A disadvantage of the bevel-up tools: Cannot “point” with the index finger, or make adjustments.
Starting about 45 minutes into the session, the panel took questions from the audience. This was a great session with two major players on the tool manufacturing side, an amateur woodworker who doubles as a magazine editor, and an audience hungry for information.
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