What tool to use....

Either...

Ted Owen, Pittsburgh

>buy a combination plane, such as the Record 405, and it will have a bull-nose blade for that very task. Or you might find a wood bull-nose plane; check eBay or some of the reputable used hand tool dealers.

Best, Ted

Re: What tool to use....

joel

>You can get nosing planes and other molding planes that will cut the bullnose perfectly and for a lot of tread it may be the answer. But you can do a pretty fine job with a regular bench plane - first plane champhers, thenchamper the champers and so on - refining the flats till them form a curve. Maybe using a scraper or a scratch beader for the final shaping.

Re: What tool to use....

George Makowski

>Dean, Classically this job was done with a dedicated plane, a nosing plane, that cut the specified profile on the front of the finish stair tread.

Radius edges on stock in the 1" range can also be produced quickly with bench planes by planing off the corners of your edge in gradually finer flats. That is from square to two flattened corners, then flatten those corners...until you have the curve you want. This is much faster than it sounds on relatively short pieces once you have your planes set the way you want. You can clean up the final profile with a scraper and sandpaper.

To be consistent you could prepare a template of the profile and work to that. You could even make a scraper to match the profile and use that for final shaping and finishing but you could get away withot the latter.

Good planing,

George in AL

Re: What tool to use....

Ernie Miller Topeka

>Joel has the cheapest idea with champering the edges and fallowing up with a scraper. I see a nice hallow on ebay that only has a $5 bid on it so far that will also work. You can make a custom scraper for you treads from the blade of an old hand saw. just grind the radious and put on a bur and it will clean up the champers just fine in one or two passes.

Would one of these help? *LINK*

Dan Donaldson

>The bottom one might be of use for this.


Spokeshave

Wow, just learned....

MikeL in SoCal

>...two things. I never knew that the profile on a stair tread was called a "bullnose" and I never knew how a "nosing" plane got its name. Cool! Just an fyi to Dean; I see nosing planes on 'for sale' lists quite often and they don't seem to command premium prices. Might as well walk on out to the middle of the slope and enjoy the ride.

Cheers,

Mike

Re: What tool to use.... *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I've been shaping some railings for the porch on my Victorian house that have a shape similar to a bullnose (The link below is to the post I put up in January on my progress). I've found that you can get a shape that looks round to the eye, even though you can feel subtle "flats" on it, with a hand plane. In my application, a block plane was more effective, but for your stair treads, I'd use Joel's approach and a bench plane. I'd use a No. 5 jack plane if I had one, and whatever bench plane I did have if I didn't.

Dan suggested a concave spokeshave (I think that's right - can never remember with spokeshaves whether you describe the shape of the shave or the shape it cuts). The concave metal-bodied shaves I've held in my hands tend to have very similar radii from one shave to the next, though I don't know about the Cliftons (never having had the chance to drool on them), and it's too large a radius to make a bullnose.

For rounding over the flats, if you find you need or want a high level of perfection, a scraper would make more sense -- easier to shape it just right, and cheaper.


The prior thread

Tool buying opportunity!

Steve S., Coastal Georgia

>I'd go for a dedicated wooden plane. You should be able to find one at ye olde local antique shoppe I would think. Failing that, a reputable dealer.

Even paying full dealer retail I'm sure it would be far less than a similar profile dedicated router bit. Show your wife how much you saved by going the old tool route instead of the pricey router bit. She will be forced to acknowledge your wisdom and thrift. Work it right and you can also squeeze in the stones to sharpen the blades. (don't get too greedy though)

You have to seize these opportunities when you can.

Steve

Re: Thanks

Dean in Burlington

>Thanks for all the great help!!!! I may take a shot with the bench plane idea. I may even just chamfer the bottom and top instead of puting a full bullnose on...this could even look better.

Re: What tool to use....

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>I managed to do a very satisfactory job of bullnosing a set of steps using a moulding plane (from my set of H & R).

You could also use a Stanley #55 spokeshave (this is the one with the hollow blade). It is a little more effective that a (straight edged) block plane. With both you have to "carve" the bullnose.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Thanks

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>If your design doesn't require the classic bullnose, then I would, with Derek, recommend a concave spokeshave to you. If you get an old Stanley, you should not have to spend much, and the shape will be much more distinctive than a bullnose - it's a very subtle curve. You'll want to knock off the sharp edges that will remain - stairs shouldn't have sharp edges - but you can do this with any sort of plane, bench or block.

My 2 cents

Ron in Kokomo

>You have started at the toughest place to justify hand tool use ( only in my opinion and let me hurry to say "because I want to" is good enough reason for you to do whatever in your shop)

The giants in the craft use hand tools not for the "coolness factor" but because there are just some jobs that hand tools can do better that power tools. Dimensioning rough stock is definitely NOT one of those. Final surface polishing, delicate joinery, making beautiful moldings, the last pass with a jointer plane before glue up are things that really show big returns for hand tool use. If you are new to hand tools I'd strongly recommend sticking with the uses that really make a difference other than the "grunt work" that lowly apprentices did in most shope. Unless... you are looking for a cheap alternative to a health club membership.

YMMV

Ron