Plane song

[PerranOak]

Can I be a pain and ask a load of plane questions as I'm a bit stuck.

I have one plane, a smoothing plane. I use this for everything including on the shooting board.

1. I need to sharpen it but the blade is wider, a little, than the stone. Most stones seem to be 2" wide. I need to use a guide (as I'm crap at holding it right). How do I sharpen it?

2. What plane should I use on the shooting board?

3. What plane do I need for squaring wood? I only really make very smal things (boxes, drawers, etc.) so I don't think I need one of those giant jointers.

Thanks all.

 

[AndyT]

Perran Oak wrote:

1. I need to sharpen it but the blade is wider, a little, than the stone. Most stones seem to be 2" wide. I need to use a guide (as I'm crap at holding it right). How do I sharpen it?

- you've put your finger on why it's really useful to be able to sharpen freehand, without a guide. The way to fit a 2 1/4" blade on a 2" stone is to skew it to a diagonal. That's no problem if you're holding the blade with your fingers, but it's annoying if your honing guide drops off the edge of the stone. In theory you could make some sort of inset arrangement for the stone to be flush with a wider surface but I doubt it would work. So logically you would have to buy a wider stone or use something else bigger, like abrasive paper on glass - I expect the reason so many of us like that method is that it gives us loads of room to roll a honing guide around.

Andy

 

[MIGNAL]

Just move it across and then back across the other way. . . and then back across. . . works with a guide.
If you are working small material you may not need another plane.

 

[bugbear]

Just move it across and then back across the other way. . . and then back across. . . works with a guide.
If you are working small material you may not need another plane.

Agreed - although it sounds a like a #4 1/2 (smoother with a wider than 2" blade) - a #5 might be a nice complement, for shooting and flattening.

BugBear