Hand planing foul up

[Dukester]

All, I "Scary Sharpened" my #4 plane iron and practiced on pieces of scrap. After this, I thought I was a 1/2 step above totally inexperienced to smooth my glued up panel of red oak, or at least trying to even out the glue lines (yes I'd removed the dried glue squeezeout beforehand). Aiggggh! My first attempt however I must have had the blade set too deep as it skipped along the surface and left 3 or 4 gouges or ruts about 1/8" wide, 1/2" long, maybe

1/16-1/32" deep - definitely noticeable.

I am not sure how to fix. I was going to try and finish this piece without sanding, but... Should I try and plane the entire piece down to the depth of the gouge? I'm a little gun shy about picking up the plane again... maybe just sand out around the entire area and try to not make larger depressions? The piece is probably 18" across, too wide for my planer, and I don't have access to a wide belt sander. Advice, suggestions!?

Cheers! Duke

[Lowell Holmes]

I have my best luck with translucent shavings. I will start without blade contact and then advance the blade until it starts to make shavings. I may advance it a bit more until I get a definite continuous shaving that is translucent. I then will fiddle with the lateral adjustment if the shaving is not full width. Sometimes reversing the direction helps if your getting chatter. Don't despair, have fun.

[Jim L.]

You might try honing a small back bevel, closing up the throat, and practicing on the reverside side of the top. Regards, Jim

[Patriarch]

"Dukester" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

You know that old saw the finishing gurus use? "Practice on scrap"?

As you've learned, there's more to tuning and adjusting a handplane than getting the blade sharp. And this fellow, Jeff Gorman, has more than sufficient to help you, here:

's a reason that an apprenticeship was longer than 6 weeks...

Patriarch

[GerryG]

As he said, start with Jeff Gorman's site, but don't expect that to solve it all. From the above, I take it your practice scraps were not oak, so that was the first mistake. There are also harder woods to plane, and you need to try an appropriate sample before comitting your actual work to it. And for just removing glue lines, I'd suggest you try a hand scraper or scraper plane, as it's much easier to avoid tearout. Although, of course, you'd need to read how to sharpen and use them, so there's a bit more learning there.

As for fixing, easiest is to use the other side and hide this one, or apply some filler. Failing that, it sound like you'd have to remove maybe 1/16 from the surface, which may be tough with only a #4.

Finally, realize that even the best with everything tuned up will sometimes get some tearout. You have to carefully watch the grain and how the first few passes go. GerryG

[Patriarch]

I have found that scraping red oak leads to a smooth, but undulating surface. At least that 'shows' that the surface wasn't fixed with a ROS. Which is always a possibility.

Patriarch

[GerryG]

[George]

If you scrape, you're going to want to change angles over the same area. The rays on the oak are pretty hard, and you tend to ride up on them, giving an undulating surface.

[GerryG]

[Patriarch]

"George" wrote in news:422849f5$1 [e-mail]:

What George said. And how George fixes it. Just something to which one must pay attention.

Patriarch

[George]

Different angles to be construed as dragging/pushing the scraper across the same point at skew left/skew right to get a better average.