metal bits in plywood

[Eric Yancey]

Yesterday I was planing a 45 degree chamfer on a piece of plywood that I was going to use for mounting a wall cabinet. I was using my 2 month old low angle block plane when I suddenly noticed that it had stopped cutting like it was. I look at the sole of the plane and noticed several scratches along it, and then noticed that the blade had several dings in it. After inspecting the wood, I noticed a piece of metal in it about the diameter of a staple. Man was I pissed!

My plane was finely tuned to the point of producing the kinds of curls you could read through. The dings on the blade were so bad I had to take it back to the grinder and go through the whole sharpening process again. Worse than that though, my new veritas plane now has gouges all along the sole. Is it worth trying to remove these gouges? So far it doesn't seem to be affecting the performance of the plane after I resharpened the blade.

The scrap of plywood I was using was some old 3/4" stock - so not high quality. Has anyone else ever encountered this? I did a quick google search and didn't immediately find anything, but I'm sure I can't be the first person to encounter this.

Eric

[GeeDubb]

I see this all the time in plywood/sheetgoods. The manufacturer/shipper tend to staple all sorts of paperwork to the stack of ply. Sometime not all the staples come out when I pull off the stuff so if somebody else pulled the labeling off chances are there are staples broken off in the edges of the ply. I've run many a staple through my table saw but fortunately for me, never run a hand plane through one.

Gary

[SawEyes]

Yes I often fine staples in the ends of pine boards and once in some plywood. After damaging a blade a few years back, I invested in a metal detector to protect my blades. I ordered the Lumber Wizard which works great and is reasonable priced. Amazon have it for $69.99 at present which is not too bad a deal.

Dean Bielanowski Editor, Online Tool Reviews 5 Reviews:

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[George]

Personally, I'd never use a plane I cared about on plywood, and especially never on a factory edge, which may or may not have been the case with you.

Reason I wouldn't goes back to a sheet I had a number of years back which picked up some grit, probably from me handling and storing it. Too much can hide in those voids and loose end grain.

[Swingman]

Personally, as long as the plane is doing its job, I wouldn't bother ... some of the old Stanley's had grooves along the sole on purpose. I've got a couple of flea market planes that have obvioulsy met similar fates and they all work per design with some pretty deep scratches.

Nice plane, BTW ... its one of my few tools that I would be tempted to go into a burning building to rescue. :)

[Lawrence A. Ramsey]

If anything, it should be slightly easier to use it since there is less metal in direct contact with the wood. If there is a burr around the scratch, lap it on a piece of glass with some 600 grit or higher sandpaper glued to it.

[Pounds on Wood]

Plywood can have all sorts of stuff in it, including metal and sand. They are not particularly careful about cleanliness at these mills. Moral of the story is, expect increased wear on any cutting tools you use on plywood and other sheet goods.

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[Eric Yancey]

Thanks to all for the replies. I'll consider this one a lesson learned. It only cost me about 30 minutes of getting the plane blade tuned back up, and the scratches on the sole will serve as a reminder not to do that again.