# REVIEW David Charlesworth DVD Part 2: Hand Planing



## Alf (2 Dec 2004)

This is the second in a series of videos/DVDs made by David Charlesworth in collaboration with the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks; the first of which I reviewed here. Unsurprisingly, given the title, this one focuses on DC’s hand planing techniques, and follows the first in having parts of the nine sections filmed at an open house presentation at L-N’s Maine workshops last year and the rest in a one-to-one workshop setting. The bias is slightly more towards the former in this one though. There’s a short intro explaining his approach to planing, the virtues of sycamore (as used in the demonstrations) and the importance of a flat sole if you want to take the finest shavings. The nine sections are as follows:

Stop Shavings and Straight Edges
How to go about planing a board edge slightly hollow (2 thou), the reasoning behind preferring slightly hollow surfaces as opposed to bumps and DC’s preference for a longer plane over a shorter smoother.

Datum Surfaces
Taking previously machined stock and preparing it for accurate marking out, why you’d want to do that, using DC’s preferred curved blade to prepare a reference face without losing flatness and how pencil lines help the whole process.

Bumps
How to go about removing them and restoring a hollow in the width of a board.

Face Edge
Hollowing the length, squaring up a face edge using the curved blade and how that works.

Wind
Winding sticks and their use explained, and how to use paper to measure wind.

Thicknessing to a Gauge Line
The difficulties of finding a good marking gauge, and learning how to use it. Planing down to parallel _before_ reaching the gauge line and using the polished track from the gauge to judge how much further you need to go.

Hand Planing End Grain and Squaring Edges
Curved edges on block plane blades, using the same techniques on end grain as shown on long grain, avoiding splitting out and squaring up in two dimensions.

Placing a Knife Line
Planing end grain down to a knife line in a similar way to thicknessing to a gauge line, marking out using datum surfaces and using a knife and square accurately.

Bonus Footage - Flattening your workbench
The importance of a flat bench top and using the technique shown before to flatten part of it. 


As you may imagine, I don’t begrudge an hour and a half looking at hand planes however they‘re presented, but this was very easy to watch, by and large. There was a glitch here and there, which just breaks the concentration on the action a bit; nothing I can’t live with given the quality and quantity of information on this disc, but it does come across as a bit amateur in places. I particularly liked the addition of diagrams to explain some points, and close ups and cutaways for things like winding sticks and how the curved blade is used to square up an edge. The latter always seems to be a difficult one to grasp, and I thought it was explained pretty well. DC’s reaction to his audience being largely unfamiliar with winding sticks has to take the prize for funniest moment so far - oh, the horror! There was a little more of L-N’s finest on show in this one, but again, it’s in no way a hard sell - or indeed any kind of sell at all. I can’t tell you how nice that is, and I hope it’s a trend kept up in the subsequent parts.

Now it seems to me there’s quite a spectrum of plane user types; veering from the 18thC re-enactor who uses ancient woodies and decries the use of so much as a square, right up to the cutting edge modern woodworker who has all the latest in bevel-up technology and measures their joints with a micrometer. DC is very much up towards the latter end of the scale; don’t expect to be able to take a hunk of tree trunk and turn it into a square board after watching this. Scrub planes will not be required. But taking a hand plane to already machined stock is almost certainly what the majority of us do, so let’s not kid ourselves. This takes it rather more into hand planes for machinists/engineers, if I can put it that way; how he takes already machined stock and takes 1 to 2 thousandth of an inch shavings from it. I must confess it’s not quite my approach to things; although I probably do work to similar tolerances (at least I flatter myself I probably do. Well I could if I wanted to…), I don’t put actual figures to it in the same way. They scare me, if I’m honest. However, you can’t help but be impressed when a dial caliper showed the hand-thicknessed stock accurate to within 2 thou all round. 

So is this something I’d recommend to the hand plane _novice_? On the whole, I think not. There’s lots of excellent information in there, and I learnt quite a bit, but I feel it's more of use to the woodworker who’s already familiar with planes and wants to take their use up a level. Or three. There’s really nothing on the setting up of a plane, for that you’d need disc one and even then it was very briefly covered, and although a longer plane is suggested it felt like the reason why had ended up on the cutting room floor. Don’t mistake me, I liked this disc a lot, but like DC’s books, I feel exposure to his ideas at too early a stage on The Hand Tool Slope could be a little intimidating. But if you’re already comfortable with setting your plane for a fine cut, and finally want to do more with it than just make fluffy shavings to decorate the workshop floor, I’ll think you’d find a lot on this disc to learn from and enjoy. This series of discs is looking like becoming a very impressive reference library of David’s hand tool techniques.

David Charlesworth Hand Tool Techniques. Part 2: Hand Planing DVD 93mins *£19.95*. 
Video also available, both direct from David Charlesworth and Lie-Nielsen 

Very many thanks to David for sending me this DVD to review.


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## Anonymous (2 Dec 2004)

Thanks once again Alf yet another excellent review (there really is a career for you there you know)

I might just buy this on the strength of your review even though I balk at the price :?


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## Philly (2 Dec 2004)

Splendid review Alf (again!  )
Agree with you on the "not for a beginner", as it could put people off. (you know, being REAL anal about stuff!) It is a pleasure to watch though, if only to watch a presenter carefully choose his words and speak clearly.
Personally, I learnt a whole lot from this DVD. I cannot spare the time to go on DC's courses (much as I want to !!!) and this DVD certainly goes a long way towards the DC experience.  
Looking forward to Part 3.
cheers
Philly


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## Chris Knight (2 Dec 2004)

Alf,
Thanks for a great review


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## bugbear (2 Dec 2004)

> Agree with you on the "not for a beginner", as it could put people off. (you know, being REAL anal about stuff!) I



A criticism I would also level the Garratt Hack's "The Handplane Book", which is also for committed enthusiasts only.

BugBear


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## Philly (2 Dec 2004)

Paul
You gotta admit, though-I love that "Handplane Book"!!  
Philly


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## froglet (6 Dec 2004)

So if its not for the hand plane novice like myself what would people recommend to get started with hand planes. I enjoyed the sharpening video and I was going to put this on my list to santa so what should I replace it with.

Graeme


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## Alf (6 Dec 2004)

froglet":2vno4oqh said:


> so what should I replace it with.


Good question. There's Rob Cosman's Hand Planing one, Mario Rodriguez's Handplanes in the Woodshop and the hard-to-find Jim Kingshott ones. None of which I have seen, unfortunately, so all I can say is they exist. And even that's doubtful when it comes to the Kingshotts. Anyone in a position to comment on any or all of them?

Cheers, Alf


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## Philly (6 Dec 2004)

I have the Rob Cosman one-Waka has borrowed it too, I wonder what he thinks?
It's not bad, but is a little short on real detail for nerds (maybe) Lots of info though, although a bit too "House of L-N" for my liking............
Some info on sharpening, but not as much detail as the DC one!
Cheers
Philly


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## froglet (6 Dec 2004)

Having had a look at the Lie Nielsen site the Rob Cosman video sounds like a good idea, especially as the only two planes I currently own are featured in it 

Philly where did you get your copy? I notice that axminster sell his dovetail video but annoyingly not the planing one.

Graeme


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## Philly (6 Dec 2004)

I bought mine off this pushy Canadian Bloke. Rob something....
All I can say is this-Stay away from the Lie-Nielsen stand at shows. It will cost you dear! :lol: 
Regards
Philly


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## Alf (6 Dec 2004)

Here 'tis






Cheers, Alf


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## froglet (6 Dec 2004)

Philly: 
It did cost me dear, very dear, and strangely enough it was all the fault of a pushy canadian bloke again (oh and the lovely Michelle of course, definitely her fault too)  

Alf: 
Thanks for that.  Here was me expecting a search for Rob Cosman to find it. I would prefer the DVD version though, although being american I suppose it will be region 1. 

Graeme


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## Philly (6 Dec 2004)

Froglet
Far as I know they are region free. If not, I would be happy to do you a region free copy if you need it.
Cheers
Philly
(who is getting the hang of this DVD burning stuff!)


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## froglet (7 Dec 2004)

Thanks for the offer Philly but I've emailed Lie-Nielsen and they are indeed region free. Now the big question is can I order from the LN site and only get a video?


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## Waka (7 Dec 2004)

Philly

Yes I did enjoy the video, but as you say there are more detailed ones out there when it comes to sharpening.

BTW did anyone come away from the show with nothing?


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## Philly (7 Dec 2004)

Waka,
Yes-my Wallet!!!!!! :lol: 
Philly


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## Anonymous (9 Dec 2004)

Very astute observation about DC's "end of the scale". I have the DVD and found it very interesting, but I'm not going to adopt DC's technique and radius all my plane blades! The Rob Cosman video was more useful to me. I also have the Kingshott video, which is very good. 

My favorite hand tool videos are the Kenneth Bowers videos made in the mid-80s. What a neat guy...

Bart Hovis


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## Midnight (21 Dec 2004)

When the DVD's arrived the other day, DC had included a little slip to say that forthcoming releases would cover 1/getting the most out of scrapers, and 2/shoulder planes, release due sometime in December...


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## Philly (22 Dec 2004)

Mike
So we know what you'll be watching over Christmas?
It's quite funny watching your loved ones faces glaze over as Mr C works his magic! :roll: 
Merry Xmas
Philly :ho2


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## Midnight (22 Dec 2004)

after countless *months *of suffering craft shopping channels, cooking channels, medical blood-n-gore etc..... what can I say but _*Payback's a puppy*_ :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


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## Philly (23 Dec 2004)

Yeah! :lol: 
Philly :ho2


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## Anonymous (30 Jan 2005)

Well, I finally succumbed to this DVD after reading the review and watched it this evening.

I agree with Alf's review entirely and was somewhat surprised by just *how far *DC goes in his search for planing perfection :shock: 

I was also left feeling a little sorry for DC as his attempts at audience interaction were pretty much ignored as were his questions!

He even brushes all dust and shavings off the plane between cuts!!

Thicknessing by hand to 1 thou :shock: :shock: :? 

Well worth the £20 if you already have a tuned plane and want to take it further - shooting board one comes out next

Cheers

Tony (who just bought a brush to......)


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## Scott (30 Jan 2005)

actually....er.....I bought a brush...   


and followed DC's instructions to the letter....


and it all seems to work perfectly....


and I now have chronic tennis elbow from two days of planing to prove I could do it as well.....


and ...... life is so short I wonder if it's worth it :?: :!: 


I think I'll put the micrometer back in it's box for a while now! 



Cheers
Scott


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## Anonymous (30 Jan 2005)

Anyone got the first video and fancy a short term exchange?

pm if so


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## Anonymous (31 Jan 2005)

sorted out now

thanks


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## bugbear (31 Jan 2005)

> I agree with Alf's review entirely and was somewhat surprised by just how far DC goes in his search for planing perfection



This seems ideal for an instructional video. It's still up to you how far you follow him down the road, but at least he's shown you the road, all the way to the end.

BugBear


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## Anonymous (1 Feb 2005)

I thought the review was a good one and I agree that a new hand planer should start somewhere else, but certainly not postpone DC too long. I'm certainly not "experienced" and I benefitted a lot from both his DVDs and eagerly await his third, which should be out before long. I would also note that the second DVD should be understood in light of his first. A key to his method is in his sharpening. It is unconventional. An advantage of his method is that it forces me to focus on where I need to plane, how much I need to plane, as well as on what my plane is actually doing and where my plane is doing it.

For the beginner, all of the choices mentioned above are good. Personally, I think Jim Kingshott's Bench Planes video is the best of the lot. He, as Cosman in Rough to Ready, goes from rough boards through final smoothing. His 90 min. video is longer and more detailed than Cosman's, which I found to be an advantage. In fact, all of his videos (6 that I know of) are excellent. I have his Bench Plans video as well as his Special Planes, Mortise and Tenon, Dovetails, Sharpening the Professional Way, and Sharpening Carving and Tuning Tools videos. His stuff is available at www.highlandhardware.com in the U.S. All of the videos sell for $24.95 each. I don't think they are available on DVD.


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## Alf (1 Feb 2005)

Welcome to the forum, glh.



glh":2qyuz2uq said:


> eagerly await his third, which should be out before long.


You're not alone there.



glh":2qyuz2uq said:


> I would also note that the second DVD should be understood in light of his first. A key to his method is in his sharpening.


Yep, a good point. Not sure I made enough of that. Although we're probably a bit more used to his sharpening method over here; practically blasé even... :wink: 



glh":2qyuz2uq said:


> Personally, I think Jim Kingshott's Bench Planes video is the best of the lot. <snip> I have his Bench Plans video as well as his Special Planes, Mortise and Tenon, Dovetails, Sharpening the Professional Way, and Sharpening Carving and Tuning Tools videos. His stuff is available at www.highlandhardware.com in the U.S. All of the videos sell for $24.95 each. I don't think they are available on DVD.


It's a terribly irony that Kingshott's videos are easier to get hold of in the States than they are here, in his own country. If anyone knows if, and where, the non-sharpening ones are available here in Blighty I'd love to have the details.

Cheers, Alf


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## Noel (1 Feb 2005)

The non sharpening vids are very difficult to obtain. Plenty of the others. Anybody try GMC? Think they actually published them, maybe not.

Noel


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## Alf (1 Feb 2005)

Noely":2npzl560 said:


> Anybody try GMC? Think they actually published them, maybe not.


Don't think so; he was a Trad Woodworking regular and thus persona non grata as far as GMC are concerned. Stobart Davies, the obvious place, draws a blank.  

Cheers, Alf


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## Anonymous (2 Feb 2005)

Thanks for the welcome.

It's amazing that those JK videos aren't available in the UK. Would seem some retailer is missing out on a profitable opportunity. 

By the way, my daughter will be visiting in April or May (can't remember which). She is a pharmacy student and will be doing one of her rotations at a pharmacy in Cambridge. She'll be there for a month and is really looking forward to it.


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## Anonymous (2 Feb 2005)

Cambridge is a very beautiful city with amazing architecture and stunning book shops - I'm sure she'll love it :wink: Put your order in for some rare books


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## labuzz (25 Nov 2006)

Hi there,
As a complete newbie in this field ( woodworking ) I want to make a few comments. Just to let you know first, I am french ( 31 years old ) and I have just started to build a solid body guitar a few months ago ( you can see a photo here :


)
I have bought 3 planes ( all veritas ): a block plane, a jack low angle, and more recently a scrub plane ( curved blade).
I must say that at first it was a disaster ( it was impossible for me to get the control that I needed for precision)...But with some practice, the help of the scrub plane and the David videos ( I own the vol II and III) I have started to understand. So this lead to a first comment. I think that the scrub plane ( with the curved blade) can show more easely ( and more directly on the wood ) some of the ideas exposed by David. Because I am a beginner I dont wanted to deal with too much precision at first. So I have taken the scrub plane ( more easy to setup too of course!) and I have followed David in his explanations. It was a lot more easy that way for me. Thats why I think that the scrub plane( or a rough setting in a bench plane with a curved blade) could help in the demonstration.
Another thing that David should really consider for the poor viewer that is not in the imperial realm. At least give us the the metric dimension as a subtitle, thats really important because the imperial measures dont talk too much for us and they are not easy to grasp. Sorry my english is not that good I hope you willl understand.
I have really liked the peaceful mood ( and the dog tail too!) of the videos and the clear explanations of David. It is a real pleasure to watch and I really like the smart and elegant way he works . I really want to see all his videos and books now! Tky David.

Just a few pics( click the images to get the full size) that I have taken during my process of learning. There's some french comments but I think that will be pretty clear for you to grasp. Of course its not perfect.


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## David C (25 Nov 2006)

Labuzz,

Delighted you find them useful.

I would have liked to have more of Karl, the Bouvier des Flandres, who counts me as a friend. Bribery with treats gets you everywhere. He is a very fierce guard dog, and very doggy, which is reassuring in a dog.

If you like dogs please try Mawgan's diary on the news page of my site.

http://www.davidcharlesworth.co.uk

Sorry about the imperial / metric issue, the DVD was made in Maine USA where they still suffer from imperial.

I am muddled, prefering metric up to about 35 mm and then reverting to imperial which is more anthropo####### or some such word.

All you need to know is that 4 thou" (0.004") is equal to 0.1mm!

The planing system works and I rarely see other exponents using a straightedge......

best wishes,
David Charlesworth


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## labuzz (27 Nov 2006)

David C":2y2cedwl said:


> I would have liked to have more of Karl, the Bouvier des Flandres, who counts me as a friend. Bribery with treats gets you everywhere. He is a very fierce guard dog, and very doggy, which is reassuring in a dog.
> 
> If you like dogs please try Mawgan's diary on the news page of my site.



Nice to see all you heary friends  Hopefully they will appear in one of your books or videos. I have had dogs and cats during all my life but now that I am living in Paris in a very small apartment it would be be not very reasonable to get one. My last one is living with my mother in the alpes.She is a blend between an epagneul (like Mawgan) and a cocker.


David C":2y2cedwl said:


> The planing system works and I rarely see other exponents using a straightedge......



Yes it works beautifully. Strange that the straightedge is not used more often. In guitar building it is a crucial tool for the neck. 
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Fretting_su ... edges.html
But I will add some wind sticks soon  .


David C":2y2cedwl said:


> All you need to know is that 4 thou" (0.004") is equal to 0.1mm!


Tky for the info! I read thou everywhere on this forum without knowing what it means.

Cheers,
Borhan.


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