End-grain planing

[Jay Pique]

In the land of the penniless, money is no object.

I do plan on having a lathe and a basic set of turning tools, but that will not be my primary focus right out of the gate. If I do need some elaborate turnings there are a couple of dedicated turners to which I'll....uhh...turn.

I'll be using chisels and a few planes on a daily basis, so I'll definitely have a series of waterstones (+/-300 through 8k) to keep these in top order. Having spent a little time with ScarySharp these past couple of months, I'll probably have that setup as well, but for quick touchups I think a stone will be the way to go. Lapping and flatting will be done on a granite surfacing plate with microabrasive paper. Hell, I'll probably end up with a Tormek at some point! Right now I just don't know what's "best". It sure is fun to put a nice edge on a chisel.

Speaking of which, up until today I've been less than thrilled with the Lee Valley honing guide I've been using. The biggest problem has been that you need to hold the chisel or plane blade somewhat square to the jig while you try to adjust the bevel angle. And then, once you get the bevel angle right, you screw up the squareness by tightening the brass screw. Really a PITA, IMO.

If you don't have the jig, you won't know what I'm talking about but here goes....

Basically I milled a hunk of wood to the thickness such that when you set the honing guide flat on it, and then stick a particular thickness blade in it, it sits dead square and at the appropriate depth for (in my case) a 25d bevel. Remember to set the microadjustment to the top prior to setting the jig. All in all it's a block of wood with a smaller block of wood attached dead square so that a chisel with parallel sides sides at the right depth (and square) for honing.

If Robin Lee is out there, you should think about including a couple of these with the honing system. Shouldn't take but a minute with the CNC capapbilities you guys have - and it'll really make the guide much more effective. It's simply a block of aluminum milled to the appropriate thickness with a square reference edge for the side of your blade.

JP

*************************** The cotter pin thingy is rusting as well.

[George]

I'm one of those who doesn't have problems with that jig. If you do, consider making some wooden ramps which straddle your stones, a poor man's dodge.

[Tom Watson]

Prolly got a half dozen block planes around here and they'll all do the trick

Ya gotta unnerstan that most block planes (even the LN skew, which is my current favorite) are kits - and don't run just right, the way they show up at your door.

You gotta tune the suckers up.

First, ya gotta flatten the iron and this may take some time. I like to work the flat down on a piece of roughish paper laid in a bed of water on a chunk of float glass that's at least 3/8" thick.

Keep working through the grits until you get a mirror finish at least an inch back from the bevel.

As a break from working on this, you can tune up the sole of the plane. Same deal, work through the grits until you can see yourself. Some folks will think that's a bit extreme, I don't.

Then do the same thing to the bevel of the iron. Look at the edge under a magnifying glass (a 10X is fine, if you keep going, you wind up with Jonathan Swift syndrome, where nothing looks good - depending on the scale).

Then you gotta tune up the throat of the plane. Most of them are a little rough and need smoothing. You can start with a file, if you're handy with it but I like to at least finish off with increasing grits of wet or dry that I wrap around an old plane iron.

When you get so that the nice flat iron lays on the nice flat throat - you're home.

Now, the throat opening should be set pretty tight to plane end grain.

The iron should project evenly and a minimal amount, to start off with. Set a light up so that you can see that nice shiny iron begin to peek out above the nice shiny sole of the plane.

If'n you get some chatter after all of this, call up Ronny Hock and order a plane iron of decent thickness - you won't regret it.

Now, ya got yaself a decent instrument - it's time to play some music.

End grain is as directional as face grain. You want to ride the waves of the grain so that the iron is riding uphill on the grain pattern. If you go the other way, you'll never get where you want to go.

When you've really done it right, you'll be able to take that 10X magnifying glass and see something that the sanders among us never get to see -clean cut open pores. When you put a finish on that sucker, you'll get to see a play of light on the cut surfaces that has everything to do with why people become Neanders.

Good Luck and Godspeed.

Regards, Tom.

Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.) tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)