Is grain orientation during planing important? When planing, orienting the grain correctly is critical to achieving a smooth finish. Improper grain orientation can cause chips, tear-outs, and/or additional damage. In this article, we’ll discuss how to plane with the grain to avoid damage and how to identify the direction of grain in various common wood types. Each piece of wood …
Common Hand Tools and Plane Cutting Angles
When cutting and shaping wood, using the right tools can make a great difference. However, it depends on how easy the job is and what the quality of the outcome is. Some common hand tools used for wood works include Handsaws, Tenon saws, Coping saws, Dovetail handsaws, hand planes, and Wood Chisels. Each of these hand tools has a special …
A Guide To Intermediate Hand Planes: The Next 3 Hand Planes You Need For Woodworking
Not a Beginner, Not an Expert Whether you’re a woodworker with a bit of experience who’s gone “unplugged,” or someone who began woodworking only with hand tools you probably have at least one or two hand planes. And if that’s not the case, I don’t believe you and I’m very curious indeed as to how you’ve been getting on without …
Making a Small Brass Plane by Hand with Bowmaker Ken Altman
This year, I am finally learning and using my grandpa’s Stanley planes on my home refinishing projects. Seeing my newfound interest in planes, my wife put me in touch with a local master craftsman. Plane-making is not his business, but surprisingly integral to his traditional craft of making violin bows. Traditional Planing Still Used in Bow Making I am learning …
A Guide To Basic Hand Planes
The Basic Three Hand Planes You Need For Woodworking We’re Here For You: A Little Helpful Direction If you’re looking into woodworking with hand tools, the first thing you probably did was search for, well some hand tools. And maybe it was a little overwhelming. The community of hand tool woodworkers (or unplugged woodworkers if you prefer), is passionate and …
What are the parts of a wood working plane?
A commercial promoting woodworking bench planes would simply have to show me with an random orbit sander hooked to a screaming shop vac, wearing goggles, respirator, and hearing protection in a cloud of sawdust. Then, cut to a paper-thin curl of wood whispering off an antique Stanley bench plane, revealing iridescent grain patterns as birds chirp in the background. This …
Is a Japanese Polishing Plane Better Than a Western Smoothing Plane?
While doing some research on wood finishing, I came across an article praising wood planes from the far off country of Japan. I was intrigued. This article enumerated some interesting points. One of which I wanted to address here. The Japanese Polishing plane is objectively better than the Western Smoothing plane. For the skilled woodworker, the Japanese polishing plane is …
What’s The Difference Between a Japanese Wood Plane and a Western Wood Plane?
If you’re looking into purchasing a wood plane, then you’ve probably come across Japanese wood planes and wondered how they compare to western planes. A wood plane is a tool made up of a sharpened metal blade or plate attaches to a wooden or metal body. “Planing” is moving a plane across a wooden surface to create uniform shavings in …