# Video comments on working with the plane



## shipwright

Interesting insights Loren. Nice to put a face to the name as well.

I fully understand the need to get the job done with power tools when you are making your living at it. Been there …. I am however really having fun getting into hand tools now that I'm retired and no longer need to count the hours.

I got a kick out of the constant need to check for square. I understand it completely but when I used to plane long planks I was always planing to a line that produced (intentionally) a constantly changing bevel. That and the odd place where an adze was the only tool that would work were my two main hand tool areas. OK, there was a fair amount of chopping with mallet and chisel too but mostly bandsaw, power plane (Skil 100), etc were the workhorses.

I enjoyed the look into your shop and process but I don' think I'll be buying the plane. 

Thanks for the review.


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## Sigung

Hi Loren,

Man, I really hesitate to put in my two cents worth here, you are a far more accomplished woodworker than I am. That being said, my initiation into woodworking started with a fascination with hand tools. I've been studying every aspect of hand tools that I could find for about two years now. As a result of that research, I have a system in place for flattening and squaring hand planes, I have a system in place for sharpening plane irons and chisels, and I have a system in place for sharpening and setting hand saws. I guess what I'm getting at here is that if you are going to use hand tools efficiently, the demands that they place on you to keep productivity at an acceptable level requires that you implement systems and stations to keep those hand tools operating at their best. I have a dedicated sharpening station for my planes and chisels. I have also modified my vintage Stanley - Bailey planes to accept IBC blades available from Woodcraft. You will find that if you use these blades in your planes and sharpen them correctly that you will not have to sharpen very often. Then there is Paul Sellers. This man has the code, and his video on sharpening is worthwhile. I hope you find this input useful and receive it in the spirit it was intended, to be.. helpful.


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## Loren

I have an IBC iron for a smooth plane. What I'm doing
here with the jointer is way more demanding than 
smoothing. Of course I may have an inner ear 
problem or something that makes holding the plane
in perfect relation to gravity difficult for me, but
I sincerely doubt it. I think this is a technical and
challenging woodworking task which will test
anybody who attempts it.

It's possible the L-N iron is inferior to the IBC.
I really like the IBC chipbreaker.

I do have an efficient sharpening system. After
years of honing by hand I went back to the
Burns method which I learned early on but 
abandoned after seeing a teacher show a
Japanese honing technique which at the time
seemed like less hassle. I've also abandoned
water stones for all but the finishing stone. 
Now I use coarse and medium diamond
stones.

As soon as the iron looses that flawless edge
I can feel it and it won't be long before I
start to lose control of squareness. Believe 
me, I tried to avoid doing a lot of honing at 
first but in the last day or two I've discovered 
the edge has to me at 90% or better to 
avoid messing up the squareness of the 
planed edge.

You see how I have to walk to plane this edge?

That changes the game entirely. Way trickier
than planing from a fixed stance. Try it if
you like. Toshiro Odate has an impressive
walking stroke and I'm sure he could shoot
this edge perfectly in his sleep with a 14" 
long plane, but his iron would be flawlessly
sharp as well, and probably cost in the $500
or more range for the iron alone.

I'm learning, like anybody.

Thanks for the comments.

I know there are a lot of videos of people making
a show of how to joint an edge and I hope
seeing a mere mortal do it can help craftspeople
get the results they're after.

I've spent a lot of energy failing at woodworking. 
I hope you all grasp that. I'm just persistent
and curious and sometimes things I do turn
out well.


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## RogerBean

Thanks for the review. I find my interests drifting back to period furniture - and hence drifting back to my planes and hand tools (which have been pretty much unused over the past few years). I'm by no means giving up boxes, or any of my other interests, but I find hand tools creeping back into my repertoire. (And I find myself browsing the Lie-Nielsen, and Tools for Working Wood sites) I guess good hand tools are sort of addictive. LOL Using them well opens a whole panoply of challenges. Something more to work on.
Roger


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## RogerBean

John,
My compliments on your creativity in making the tools. I am amazed at your oak planing form. I followed the traditional approach (steel planing form, Garrison winder, Cavenaugh heat treating unit, Garrison dipping method) These all work fine, but, as you say, can be a bit demanding in the cost department. If your methods work well, then you have added something meaningful to the art of making fly rods, and made them accessible to more folks. And that's a good thing.

For those interested, the Everett Garrison book, written by Hoagy Carmichael, is a fine text as well. It may still be available used on Amazon. It's title is something like: "Masters Guide to Making Bamboo Fly Rods". There are also books out there on Paul Young rods and Lyle Dickerson rods. Helpful.

Might even motivate me to post one of my old rods. LOL

Roger


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## RogerBean

Sorry, above comment was supposed to go to the fly rod project. 
Roger


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## knockknock

It was fun watching the videos and to see someone else struggling while learning (as I do sometimes).


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## ColonelTravis

To me, making a long edge square like that is probably the most challenging thing to do with a hand plane. Crazy, shifting grain can be frustrating, but with that I know I'm dealing with crazy, shifting grain so I adjust my patience level. Squaring up a long edge I tell myself - it's just like a shorter edge, just longer. Gee, no kidding moron? No. It ain't just like that. So what I've been doing, and maybe this isn't the best way, is to plane one section of the edge at a time, like maybe 2-3 feet. Then do another section and make sure it all evens out. So far I've never had to plane an edge more than 7 feet. I don't have any fence attachment.

Do BU planes dull faster than BD? I've only got one BU plane (block), never used anything larger, and since I don't use it a ton compared to my bench planes I haven't been able to tell yet.


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## OSU55

You picked a good, tough example. Figuring out how to step and not affect the cut is near impossible. It's more like do as little damage as possible. I tried jointing w/o a fence - just not gonna happen. A good fence makes all the difference, as does blade skew. I've had to re-joint more than a few edges because I didn't have the blade square. Did you try clamping the boards together and jointing the edges at the same time w/o the fence? With almost 4" of width it would be more like a smoothing operation.

Blade edge life - the more polished the edge is to begin with the longer it will last. Not all water stones are created equal, some will be finer grit than others. I finish hone with lapping film down to 0.3 um, and notice an edge life improvement compared to only going to 3 um. A finer final honing step might help. A common thing folks miss with BU blades is ensuring the wear bevel on the bottom of the blade is removed. If not the edge stops cutting fairly quickly. If you can see any light reflected from the backside edge, the wear bevel is still there. I use a method akin to the "ruler trick" to remove the wear bevel.

The issues you had with the LN 7-1/2 - mouth clogging and the fence not made for the plane - are the reasons I went with the Veritas BU jointer and fence. The mouth set screw allows the mouth to be opened, cleaned, and returned to the same position. The fence is made for the plane, and has an angle adjustment screw to set 0° or a small offset if desired.

Thanks for letting us into your world.


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