Hand Planes

[Jim C.]

Navaja,

I hear you.  Writing about this stuff isn’t as easy as one may think.  Trying to keep it sort of interesting, informative, accurate, to the point, and sensible can be tricky business.  After posting a long write up, which typically took several hours to compose, I’d go back and read, and re-read, and re-read, and still re-read, for errors, clarity, etc.  That took time as well.  So, don’t worry too much about it.  Take your best shot at it and it’s all good.  If questions arise, then maybe make some edits to your post.  I can say for sure that no one here will get out of hand.  Luckily the gang here is full of vintage tool enthusiast who are very knowledgeable and willing to share their experience in a well mannered fashion.  There was one guy that used to keep me on my toes, but that made it interesting.

I’m looking forward to seeing your shop made scraper.  I used Hock blades for the cutting irons in the planes and scrapers I made. You can now find them at Lee Valley.  They’re a bit expensive but you won’t be disappointed in them.  I’d say they’re worth the investment.

Jim C.

[Jim C.]

Just a few posts above, we were briefly discussing a couple scraper planes that I made out in my shop.  Making the planes is fun and sort of rewarding when there’s an opportunity to use them successfully on a project.  Over the years, I’ve come to know that when working with cherry, there’s a very good chance that I’ll get a burn mark or two on the surface of the wood.   It seems like cherry is really prone to getting burned no matter how careful one may be.  It’s unsightly, and can ruin the aesthetic beauty of the grain immediately. While there are likely several ways to eliminate those burn marks, my favorite “burn buster” is a scraper plane.  Outfitted with a thick, well sharpened iron, a scraper plane can remove those burns easily.  When using, I like to pull the scraper towards me, versus pushing it, like is done with other planes.  If the plane is set up correctly, the user should be peeling off less than paper thick shavings that are like fine lace and float to the floor.  In just a few pulls, the burn marks are gone and the beauty of the grain is restored.

Jim C.