# Hand Planing



## redraider (Jan 11, 2016)

Good Morning,

I am new to the forum and had a question in regards to hand planing. I picked up some old reclaimed pine flooring and to clean up the top from the lacquer and other again I used a small hand planer. It gets the job done in removing shavings and I have a clean board, but I get ridges and cuts when you can easily tell it has been hand planed. Is this something that is normal and will sand out, or something that is in the technique or possibly that I bought the cheap planer from Home Depot?

I intend to run the edges through the table saw (I havent invested in a jointer yet) and make a desk and will probably have to plane again since it wont be uniform thickness and I want to avoid ruining it with these cuts again. It may also be time to invest in a large jack plane for the tabletop as well?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.


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## mako1 (Jan 25, 2014)

I assume your talking about an electric hand held planer.These are made primarily for carpentry and not woodworking.They are made for things like taking the edge off of a door to fit them.The problem is the bed is to short and narrow to give good results on wide boards where as a surface planer made for woodworking has a wider and longer bed and will give you 2 parallel sides on a wider board.


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## redraider (Jan 11, 2016)

I am referring to a block planer. Thanks.


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## redraider (Jan 11, 2016)

I believe what you are saying applies to this as well though. It works well on the edge of boards but not so much on the wide boards. Would a jack plane (much larger) be a better fit here?


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## Toolman50 (Mar 22, 2015)

redraider said:


> I believe what you are saying applies to this as well though. It works well on the edge of boards but not so much on the wide boards. Would a jack plane (much larger) be a better fit here?



A hand plane is a machine that is very hard to master. In an effort to help, I recommend you first practice in some soft pine wood prior to tackling your new desk top. 
When planing the face of boards, it helps to hold the plane at about a 30 degree angle and plane in the direction of the grain. 
The plane iron needs to be razor sharp for a clean cut on the face of the board and your depth of cut should be so shallow that your shavings are transparent. Literally see through the shavings. 
If your adjustments are right, you will not gouge or leave lines in your work. 
Planing lumber by hand is hard work and you need to adjust your work height to be comfortable. 
Good luck to you.


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## Jig_saw (May 17, 2015)

What is the size of your hand plane? A Stanley no.4 (or equivalent) can be set up as a smoothing plane by putting a camber on the blade while sharpening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBqMZCeVoxc

Also, reduce the extension of the blade below the chip breaker, apply a smaller pressure on the toe, and always plane in the direction of the grain.

These steps will reduce the tear out and give a smoother finish.

However, if you are levelling a rough board you need a larger plane (no. 5).

Happy shavings!


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## redraider (Jan 11, 2016)

Thanks everybody, this was a big help.

I think I can attribute the problems to 2 things
. 
-Not having a large enough plane for the job I am trying to complete... going with a No. 5 would be a better call.

-Going with a higher quality planer, and practice sharpening. (any suggestions on which brand planer to start with?)


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## mako1 (Jan 25, 2014)

First thing to do is stop calling them planers.They are hand planes.
You can check flee markets ,garage sales and auctions for some old Stanley/Bailey planes for a lower price on quality planes and learn how to tune them.This is what most of my collection is .
Or you can go here for some of the best modern planes:

https://www.lie-nielsen.com/nodes/4065/bench-planes


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

I have a Stanley Bailey #5 . Every once in a while, I really need a flat surface in wood carving. This plane is a dream of a tool to use, even for convex surfaces, building knife handles, all sorts of things. Starting with sawmill-rough birch, lots of physical effort sometimes!

+1 toolman50: twisting the plane some 30 degrees to the direction of travel changes the attack angle of the blade so it isn't as hard to slice the wood open with the edge bevel. Lots of wood carving knives are used this way.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

One problem you will have planing any paint or lacquer off wood is the finish is very abrasive to the plane blade. I don't see how you can keep the blade sharpened long enough to get very much done.


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## hts1965 (Jan 19, 2016)

I know from experience, that most people will grab a block plane for almost anything, because it is easy to use, (but actually difficult to master). A block plane is made for "blocking in" or planing end grain. They come with the blades at two different angles, one for soft wood, one for hard. To surface plane boards the correct plane is a jointer plane, about 24 inches long. A very slight angle taken off each corner helps prevent ridges. Some are sharpened very slightly convex. If you look at old hand made doors, cabinets, etc. you can see rows, with the grain, of slightly curved passes of the plane that probably didn't even need sanding. Most important, NEVER, ever, put a plane down on it's cutting edge. Always ay it on it's side.


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