Any advice on hand thicknessing?

[adrspach]

Hi all. I am trying to learn craft mainly for making boxes and one of the issues I am struggling with is thicknessing the wood without powertools.
Any advice is welcome. Thank you

 

[dzj]

I think you will avoid much grief if you have someone show you the ropes.
Perhaps there is a forum member living near by, or maybe there's an introductory WW
class in your area.

 

[Jacob]

Wosser problem exactly?
Basically you:
flatten one face
straighten one edge square against the face
mark cut and straighten square the other edge and the two ends
mark the thickness all round the edges and plane the back, down to the line.

NB you plane/thickness EACH component PIECE separately - you do NOT attempt to plane up your stock as if bought PAR from a wood store. Except if the pieces are very small you could combine them into a single one (not too big) for thicknessing purposes.

 

[Bod]

Do you have any form of plough or rebate plane?
Flatten the top surface, and both edges.
Set plough plane to thickness required.
Plough sides to a clear depth on bottom surface. This will give a clear reference surface, on both sides of the work, to level down to, without keep peering at thin gauge lines on the sides.
Sharp blades will make the job easier. Time sharpening is not wasted.

Bod

 

[Jacob]

That'd work but it'd be lot easier with a marking gauge I think. Make a firm mark with trad pin gauge and it shows on the surface when you get close to it, as you plane down. No peering involved!

 

[mouppe]

You can make a thicknessing jig for a hand plane if your wood is narrower than the blade width. If you search for "hand plane thicknessing jig'' on youtube you can see a video I made on how to do this.

 

[adrspach]

Basicaly I am starting from scratch.
Looked on youtube for ideas.
So far I have thicknessed planks by hand from thicker stoch which I have ripped by hand.
Main issues are:
How flat is acceptable flat? Yes I do have engineers straight edge.
To make enough stock even for one box takes considerable time. Perhaps I am doing something wrong or paying too much of attention to something which does not need to be done at that time with that precission.
With thinner stock for example 6mm how do you hold it dow securely enough that is not distorted and you can actually get the plane on the piece?

I have No 5 1/5, 4 and SB3, 043, 405 and 9 1/2 planes.
I am in process of making winding sticks but for some reason my first pair got twisted itself therefore i am now on trial No.2
I do have woodworking vice.

Already considered the "plane width jig" but it is too narrow for most of the planks I can get hands on. However liked that idea as it was quiet and less time demanding.
Easy fastening/holding down.

 

[Jacob]

You don't thickness or "make" "stock". You only plane and thickness after you have sawn - ripped and cut to length according to your cutting list, as I described above.
With thin stuff (or thick stuff for that matter) you tack a stop (of even thinner stuff) to the bench top and plane up against it. No need to hold the workpiece.
You don't need a straight edge you do it by eye (or use edge of plane as straight edge), but winding sticks are handy for longer lengths.
You don't need a jig you just plane down to the lines.

Not sure what your plane numbers represent but I'd put them all in a box except one - 5 or 5 1/2 and do everything with that alone until you are on top of it some years down the line.
You have too many planes. If you have trouble with one you will have 10 times as much trouble with 10.

 

[AndyT]

I've been doing some myself recently - there's a thread in the projects section. I'm making a small chest of drawers from recycled wood which is probably on a similar scale to boxes.

I got the best results using a jack plane with a well cambered blade first, taking a thick shaving, then a similar sized plane set finer to tidy up. These could be the same plane adjusted or two planes. Like Jacob says, saw to a bit oversized then get one face flat and one edge at right angles to it. Gauge for thickness with a marking gauge and plane the other face to the gauge line. Then mark for width and plane the other edge. (Some people plane the second edge before the second face. I don't think the wood minds.)

Finish off with a smoother and/or sanding.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

It helps to have the three 'traditional' bench planes, a jack, a try-plane and a smoother. The jack is set up with a well-cambered blade, a wide mouth and quite a deep cut, and is used across grain or diagonally to the grain to take the bulk of the waste off. Then follow with the try plane (usually a long plane, but doesn't have to be) set up with a straight-across blade with the corners taken off, a narrower mouth and a shallow depth of cut, used along the grain to trim away the humps and hollows left by the jack, and leave a 'tried and true' surface. A final pass with the smoother (very shallow camber to the blade, fairly tight mouth, shallow cut and cap-iron set very close to the cutting iron's edge) takes out any remaining tearout or roughness.

Flat enough is something only you can judge, really. The rule is 'flat enough for the work in hand'.

Have a read of this blog post, and watch the attached video. It's maybe a bit more involved than is strictly necessary (not all the fancy tools are really necessary, for example) but it's a pretty fair demonstration of 'how-to'. - http://woodandshop.com/getting-started- ... ng-step-7/

 

[JohnPW]

Not sure what your plane numbers represent but I'd put them all in a box except one - 5 or 5 1/2 and do everything with that alone until you are on top of it some years down the line.
You have too many planes. If you have trouble with one you will have 10 times as much trouble with 10.

I would have thought unless you saw the timber very close to the final size (best to leave more to allow for error when sawing by hand), using only one plane is not really efficient, presumably you'd have the blade ground and honed straight across with rounded corners, ie no camber, or a very slight camber. Such a plane is not ideal for taking thicker shavings.

I think you need two at the minimum, a medium length (relative to work) plane with a cambered blade set to take thick shavings, ie a jack. And a longer plane to level, flatten and smooth, which has a flat straight edged blade. Final smoothing can be done with a scraper.

 

[Jacob]

It helps to have the three 'traditional' bench planes, a jack, a try-plane and a smoother. ....

Too complicated. That's three planes to get on top of. Fail on one and you undo the work of the others.
I'd stick with just one, with a moderately cambered blade. You can smooth with a cambered blade - you just take shallower cuts.
You don't need a long plane - that's for long edges only and even then not essential. Not for smoothing either - that's done with a short smoothing plane usually. You get things straight by looking at your progress, not by relying on a long plane to do it for you.

Ditto the video. Too many tools and steps. Too much emphasis on planing across the width (seems to be a bit of a fashion!). Too fussy.

Just stick with one plane until you can get it to do what you want. Keep it simple. The extra benefits of other planes are very marginal and only mean anything when you really have reached the limit with a single jack - which for most of us will be never! Though more specialised planes such as a block come in handy sooner.

 

[JJ1]

Too complicated

Perhaps you need to watch the video tutorial a couple of times to make things a little clearer and uncomplicated

An excellent tutorial I thought and very well explained and demonstrated 8)

 

[Jacob]

If you are a beginner like our OP you don't want to be faffing around with 3 planes where one will do. It just multiplies the problems by 3.
Yer man in the vid has a prob with his wheel gauge - the line is too thin so he has to mark it with a pencil. Might as well use a pencil in the first place. If you use a normal pin gauge you get a nice fat line which you can see from above when you are close to it.
He doesn't know how to use a gauge - you push it away from you with a hand at both ends if it's a long one. It's much firmer and steadier than pulling it towards you.
He also does all that cross the grain planing for no obvious reason.
He mentions a scrub plane at the beginning - which is completely inappropriate. for the job
He attempts to plane the board end with a block plane, which would be a serious PITA verging on the impossible. You'd do it with a sharp jack plane normally, working it from both ends to avoid spelching out.
He has a seriously over equipped workshop!

 

[skippy75]

Have you looked at the videos by Paul Sellers on youtube? This one is about stock preparation by hand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl5Srx-Ru_U

 

[JJ1]

Still not sure I follow where the complication arises. If you have the ability to master a jack plane for all manner of planing from an initial roughing cut through to final smoothing then it's no more complicated to learn how to use a dedicated smoother or jointer, especially with the wealth of shared knowledge available on the internet. Besides, for the novice woodworker the whole learning process is half the fun.

 

[Jacob]

,,,,,,, If you have the ability to master a jack plane for all manner of planing from an initial roughing cut through to final smoothing ......

Presumably our OP doesn't have this ability or he wouldn't be asking the question in the first place.
And anyone who could "from initial......to final smoothing" wouldn't need another plane?

 

[mtr1]

Basicaly I am starting from scratch.
Looked on youtube for ideas.
So far I have thicknessed planks by hand from thicker stoch which I have ripped by hand.
Main issues are:
How flat is acceptable flat? Yes I do have engineers straight edge.
To make enough stock even for one box takes considerable time. Perhaps I am doing something wrong or paying too much of attention to something which does not need to be done at that time with that precission.
With thinner stock for example 6mm how do you hold it dow securely enough that is not distorted and you can actually get the plane on the piece?

I have No 5 1/5, 4 and SB3, 043, 405 and 9 1/2 planes.
I am in process of making winding sticks but for some reason my first pair got twisted itself therefore i am now on trial No.2
I do have woodworking vice.

Already considered the "plane width jig" but it is too narrow for most of the planks I can get hands on. However liked that idea as it was quiet and less time demanding.
Easy fastening/holding down.

Timber selection is the key to all hand work, and having enough to select the flattest and straightest to start with before touching it with a plane or saw. Understanding how the timber will behave when you have ripped/re sawn it will help also. I understand you are making small boxes so your timber should be pretty flat already if you have cut it to rough size as per Jacob, are you then re sawing and finding your timber bowed?

 

[JJ1]

And anyone who could "from initial......to final smoothing" wouldn't need another plane?

You might not, but you're assuming that your way is the only way, which it isn't

 

[Jacob]

And anyone who could "from initial......to final smoothing" wouldn't need another plane?

You might not, but you're assuming that your way is the only way, which it isn't

It's not "my" way it's "how it's done" - except by modern amateur woodworkers who have too much kit, masses of misinformation and no experience.

If you did a good course it's what you'd learn in week 1 (along with a few other basics).