newbie howto plane face edge/side

[Tombo]

I dont have a power planer or thickneser (yet) I do have a Stanley no4 plane and plenty of time. Can anyone point me to a site that describes a technique for squaring stock?

Tom

[George]

[Layne]

Hi Tom,

Jeff Gorman's site is a very good site on planing. But, I have to say that a #4 might be a bit too short for jointing edges. When I first got into WWing I've tried to joint a 5 ft long board with a #4 to no avail. My #4 was too short and followed the dip and I went nowhere edge jointing. Depending on the length of the board you need a longer plane. At least a #6. The thing to keep in mind when jointing is to set the plane to shave as fine as possible. This allows the plane to shave off only the high spots first. If your board is very bowed you want to start off jointing the two high ends first, slowly working your way toward the middle.

Using a shooting board is best. As long as your iron is set properly and the plane sides are square to the sole you're fine. Jointing with a shooting board is almost automatic.

Or, you can use your index finger as a fence under the plane using the middle finger joint to guide the plane and your thumb on top of the plane to help stabilize it.

Hope this helps,

Layne