Hand planing around knots

[samson]

I'm having a little trouble hand planing around knots. I'm getting small pits and I wonder if there's a technique that will help. My irons are pretty darned sharp.

Thanks,

S.

[Larry Blanchard]

Have you tried a scraper plane?

[samson]

No, I haven't. But that's a v. good idea.

S.

[eclipsme]

No need for the plane if you don't have one. A hand scraper (sharp) will do.

Harvey

[Phisherman]

Good point. Some pieces I've made use knotty pine, not the easiest of woods to get even and to finish, but definately character so many (somewhat strangely) crave.

[Jeff Gorman]

"samson" wrote

You can get over this with a plane, but you need a very fine shaving aperture, a pretty fine set and a lot of downwards pressure on the plane. Under these conditions, the cap iron setback is immaterial providing that it is not ultra-fine.

As folk have said, you can remove the tearout with a scraper, but this runs the risk of creating a hollow that might be visible on a highly polished surface.

Jeff

[B A R R Y]

Scraper planes don't do so hot on softwoods like pine.

I might try a really sharp low angle plane, or a belt sander.

[Tim W]

I work in building restoration. Recently I have spent weeks and months on some softwood internal panelling which is about 300 yrs old. I can tell you that if you hand plane pine and fir you get tears around the knots. It has always been that way, there is nothing wrong with your technique. In the

19th century they invented planing machines and standards went up, then they invented sanding in the 20th century and standards changed again but on my work I hand plane, I leave the pits and tears around the knots and at the end of the day my work looks like the old work.

Any fool can push the wood through a machine. Leave your tool marks on the timber. It makes it special and precious. I often look at the marks made by the carpenters 300 yrs ago and I am filled with respect for their skill and ability. If you have a sharp blade and a strong arm you are not going wrong.

Tim W

[sheldon.mandel]

as has been said, try a sharp hand scraper. I'll also show my ignorance, and ask "why not sand?"

shelly

[samson]

Sanding gives you low spots, and even with a satin finish it still looks kind of bad. I'm sure no one in my family would ever notice, but I would think about it every time I looked at it for the rest of my life.

S.

[samson]

Thanks, Tim. I'm pretty much coming to that conclusion. The tear out isn't terrible and I would prefer that to low spots.

FYI, the piece is already glued up and that's why I can't run the board through a planer. Some time between cutting and gluing up, I got some warping, probably from the heavy humidity. It's not bad at all, but I wanted to get the side nice and flat. Hence the knot issue.

S.

[Noons]

samson wrote,on my timestamp of 15/09/2008 1:35 AM:

very light cuts might help with tearout on knots.

[Michael Faurot]

As I understand it, this is one of the uses for a toothed blade. The idea being to go over the difficult area with the toothed blade first. What's left behind, by the toothed blade, is supposed to be easier to deal with and clean-up with a scraper or smoother.

NOTE: I haven't tried this myself, just what I read in "The Handplane Book" by Garrett Hack (pg. 181).

[sheldon.mandel]

gotcha...

I'm sure no one in my family

doesn't that suck? recently I redid my bathroo m. I bought some standard tile (lowes) and ordered the rest.Of course it didn't match. OF COURSE I noticed it after I put up about 30 tiles. Lowes was not happy to deal with me that day. My wife told me it looked ok, and that I better NEVER tell anyone we show the house to about it. So far, everybody loves the way it came out.

I think about it every time I take a shower.

shelly