My try plane doesn't like the heat..bench update

Impressive collection of shavings

Matti Kuikka

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Re: My try plane doesn't like the heat..bench upda

Richard A.Gillespie, Jr.

>One heck of a pile of shavings there; you've been working. As you suspect, heat and especially humidity affect the wood. You could adjust the sole of you plane to accommodate current conditions and bring in back in tune, but be aware that you would probably have to re-adjust it later in the year during heating season.

This is the drawback of working with woodies and why metal body planes were considered such an improvement when they were brought out. The soles didn't move with humidity changes and didn't wear out as fast with use. Also, they didn't require as many or as radical adjustments to tune them.

Woodies are a joy to use but you have to accept their idiosyncrasies.

Re: My try plane doesn't like the heat..bench upda

JL

>Come on David, it's been 95 degrees and 95% humiditity hereabouts. Your try plane and any other woodies are going to be severely impacted. You could try a dehumidifier to lower the air moisture content. Alternatively you could try a steel plane. BTW - have you read any on the books?

Re: My try plane doesn't like the heat..bench upda

Patrick Gibbons, Houston

>I've never used woodies and so my comments are suspect. The OPD's (old past dudes) used to stop up their planes and fill them with blo for a few weeks until the plane was well saturated. If I remember this was evidenced by the blo coming out of the end grain of the beechwood. I believe on this forum others have derided that practice for not being effective. In England, woodies were used extensively by professionals up til the second world war and in our own neck of the woods transitionals were popular for a long time. I don't think England is known for its dry climate. I wonder if the practice of saturating the woodie with blo reduced warping more than some think. I wonder if someone has experience with this practice and can comment.

Re:My try plane

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>I have a hundred year old try plane that I've used for 27 years. I'm not sure I've ever seen evidence of movement in that time and I'm thinking the planes may get more stable with age. I checked the sole this morning after a week of temperature and humidity in the nineties and it is still flat. I'm not sure from your post if you checked the sole when you first got the plane. My plane had been little used when I got it and from its appearance I don't think it has ever been oiled.

I wouldn't use a power jointer to true the sole because you will want to remove as little material as possible. Use a plane and concentrate on the high spots. Nice to see that pile of shavings!

Re: My try plane doesn't like the heat..bench upda

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Yep, I've been reading JL - I'm still looking through the "expensive" one :o) and I'm enjoying Langnser's book alot - thanks!

David

Re:My try plane

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Thanks for the comments guys - one added note: I didn't check the sole when I got it, because with a sharp iron it worked fine, but it may well have been twisted some, and the weather has just made it worse.

I don't have a long metal plane, all I have is my #4 smoother - would you guys attempt to flatten the sole of a try plane with that? I think I need to do some slight adjusting, because my shop isn't heated, so this kind of weather is more normal than the dry heat of a furnace.

Oh, and just to clarify - the shavings front left are from my hand planes, but that huge pile in the back is from my VB36 and a bunch of roughed out bowls. :o) But, you're right, just that pile of shavings from my try plane was a heck of a lot of work, in 95 degree weather anyway.

Thanks,

David

Re:My try plane

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>I think I would actually recommend the smoothing plane for someone who has not done a lot of this kind of thing . You want to be cautious and only remove material from high spots like corners or ends of the sole, not full length strokes right away. It would be different if you had plenty of wood to plane away. Use a straight edge in addition to winding sticks to test often for flatness.

Re: Thanks.

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>

I disagree

Adam Cherubini

>I think a beginner (and I'm not sure I'd put David in that category) would do more harm with a smoother than a long plane.

As for the twist, you've likely got a poor quality plane. No reason for straight grained QS beech to twist.

I'd start hunting for another try plane. In the mean time, I'd recommend putting that plane on the power jointer. No not through the blade! Glue some 180 grit SiC sand paper to its bed flatten the woody's sole as you would a metal plane. That's what power jointers are best for anyway.

Adam

Slightly OT re: wooden planes

Adam Cherubini

>This is the drawback of working with woodies and why metal body planes were considered such an improvement when they were brought out. The soles didn't move with humidity changes and didn't wear out as fast with use. Also, they didn't require as many or as radical adjustments to tune them.

I'd just like to say this has never happened to me in all the years I've been using wooden planes. Secondly, I don't think the above statement is factually correct, though it may be accurate of modern sensibilities. As I recall, metal planes were introduced to reduce manufacturing costs involved with hand making wooden planes. Not sure woodworkers immediately embraced them as "improvements" over their woodies.

From my knothole, wooden bodied planes are the better tools because I like the way they perform*. I appreciate really long planes, and I like the ergonomics and light weight of a wooden plane. The increased wear isn't much of an issue. Its easy for a woodworker to fix a wooden plane. I don't mind doing a bit of maintenance to get a bit more performance*, but then again I like German cars so....

Adam

*I'm not talking about wispy shavings of jungle wood. I'm talking about the performance of a wooden jack or try plane over a bailey #5 or #7.

Re: I disagree

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Hmm, well, I may have just put myself back in the beginners category... I made some effort to flatten the sole tonight, and though I'm not done, I think I've made it a little worse... So, we'll see - if I can get access to a power jointer, I'd like to have a go with it, then see how my plane reacts to weather changes in the future. And I have to say I'm with you Adam - I don't care much for my #4 or #5, but I love my three woodies, this bit of twist or not. My try plane seems like a fairly nice peice of quartersawn beech, but I'm no woody expert. Sure makes me rethink my future plans of making my own set of wooden bench planes though - I haven't had any trouble with my woodies 'till the past few days, but danged if they're not being persnickety right now.

Thanks,

David

Re: I disagree

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>David,

I also am unqualified t answer this question, but will anyhow. I think that you should of left it alone for a few days until the weather conditions returned to what they where before you started having the troubles. I fear than once you get it flat, it'll warp again once the weather changes back, or worse yet, the weather will change before you get it flatten to the current conditions, and than you won't know if your coming or going.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh well, ifnothing else your going to get a real woodie education from this adventure eh? Nothing wrong with that.

Best of luck, and keep us info'd of the process, as this is quite interesting.

would be curious to know the humidity levels before, during and after. Might be a good thing to track, which I think you can do via either your local newspapers, weather reports, or even the 'net.

Todd O.

Re: Slightly OT re: wooden planes

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>And, wooden planes only have one part to rust. And, it's the expendable part.

If a wooden plane warps significantly due to climatic changes, whoever built it didn't care enough about what he was doing to read the grain or properly season the wood. If a metal plane warps, who can tell why, or how to correct for it? The internal stresses are not intuitively obvious to the casual observer.

I agree with Todd

Adam Cherubini

>I agree with Todd. I'd be inclined to leave it alone and see if the twist persists.

I'm no expert in these things either, but I'd suspect the secondary grain direction is running out. Somewhere on that plane there's short grain running out on a side. Could have also been from a tree that stood alone with no competition that twisted as so many sururban shade trees do.

I have some beech drying in my toolshed. I didn't see the tree before it was cut down and sawn into chunks. Now I'm wondering if that wood will be good for anything. Beech splits kinda like ice so its difficult to read what its doing.

Adam

Re: I agree with Todd

David Hammond, in Powder Springs GA

>Hmm, maybe I should have let it alone... But, it was unusable, and I needed to use it! So we'll see what happens; I won't be able to work in the shop 'till the end of the week anyway, so it's going to get some time to sit, like it or not. I don't know any humidty readings, specifically, but it's been so hot in my shop, I can stand in front of a box fan and still sweat... And without the box fan it looks like I've been swimming after using that try plane for just a few minutes. Oh well, I knew there was a pretty good learning cruve to all this, that's what intruigues me about the old hand tools, but I reckon I'm still on the very front side of that curve... I'll be sure to keep you guys posted, but I feel like I'm the one learning the most here.

Thanks!

David