Hollows and Rounds

My new hollows and rounds arrived on Friday from Philly Planes in England, right on schedule as Phil Edwards told me. They looked and smelled great(new tools always smell so good), right out of the box all packaged up safely making the trip across the pond. He threw in a nice Philly Planes T-Shirt as well! A nice touch indeed…This morning I set aside a few hours and finally made some shavings and I’m very happy to report that they’re great! Worth every cent which I should note wasn’t out of touch by any means for some custom made hand planes. They have a nice, traditional shape, comfortable to hold and a nice light weight; Phil had mentioned some additional honing may be necessary but not before they’re put to work awhile. He did a great job and I will recommend them to anyone interested in wooden bodied hand planes.
As you know if you’re a frequent reader here I have a new project I’m starting this week. I’m building a solid exterior wooden door for a heritage property here in Toronto and this is what the planes were specifically purchased for. Wanting to take the planes for a test drive I decided to work on a sample section of one of the mouldings on the door; this will be the trim around the panels and I’ll need about twenty running feet of this particular profile. I cut a scrap of poplar I had about 28″ long and squared it up to begin. The following process represents a brief description of the steps in ’sticking’ traditional mouldings.

To begin the moulding I first had to dimension the stock to size and this started with ripping it to width followed with some jointing with my 5 1/2 Bench plane. With the stock straight and square I’ll lay out the moulding profile at each end and figure out my rabbet and dado configurations. Funny when sticking mouldings, we think of the hollows and rounds first and foremost but the reality is that most of the bulk of the material will be removed with a rabbet and plough plane. The hollows and rounds follow to the create the curves, slopes and fair out the sharp edges left behind by the first special purpose planes.

The rabbet and plough plane I’m using are Veritas with my Lie Nielsen medium shoulder plane to clean up the inside corners. I used my right handed Lie Nielsen as well to put the small rabbet on the opposite side of the profile, this was a luxury having the right handed plane to deal with the grain direction. The curves of the moulding is squared off with a series of rabbets determining each stepped area. This process continues on until all that is left is a small dado and then again with my shoulder plane the edges are beveled. This was a tip I got while watching Don McConnell’s moulding making DVD; he states the you should always relieve any sharp edges before going to the moulding planes to help preserve the shape of the hollows and rounds. Actually, that tip as well as this entire process was demonstrated quite clearly in Dons excellent video- I recommend anyone planning on doing this kind of work watching it.

The moulding planes are a real pleasure to use, with a nice fine shaving it’s very therapeutic work…this is a good thing considering the amount of moulding I’ll have to make for this door project! The finish left behind from the hollows is quite incredible, a smooth burnished feel that doesn’t come across in photographs but really is something to behold. The entire process up to this point was probably no more than an hour for this piece just over two feet long.

With the profile complete I’ll put it aside to get ready to cut some miters, this will be another important stage of the door project. Lots of mouldings with twice the miters. I found a great old Stanley miter hook at a yard sale last year for $15.00- a sweet deal for this appliance it needed a little work but otherwise was in real good shape.

These miter cuts are purely for practice so lengths are a non-issue. This being only a sample the miter will really show me how even my profile is along its length. From here it’s to the shooting board to clean up the saw cut and I can finally see how it looks.

I’m using my new shooting board with my Lie Nielsen NO. 9 for this final step. I still didn’t make a 45 degree fence for this new board so I used the block portion of my combination square…this worked out well and it’s time to check the final fit.

I’m happy with this and am looking forward to getting into some quarter sawn White Oak later this week.
Stay tuned.

A Natural Progression

Sometimes I’ll meet fellow woodworkers who don’t yet utilise a shooting board in their workshop arsenal. In my mind I think that they don’t fully understand how much this simple appliance can help hand tool users accurately perform tasks in woodworking. This article is not about the shooting board as much as it’s about my personal journey through the stages of shooting board hand planes. Let’s begin…

A few years back I made myself my first shooting board, at the time I had a nice old Stanley #5 Jack plane; it’s 14″ long and at just under 5 lbs it made for a great shooting plane. It had been given to me by my father who acquired it from my grand uncle, John Pier; he probably bought it new some fifty-plus years earlier. When I got it it had the usual signs of good use, some light surface rust, a small crack in the tote and some dirt and grease. I took the plane, cleaned and oiled it, flattened the sole and replaced the iron and chip breaker with Ron Hock replacements. I also replaced the original knob and tote with some aftermarket Rosewood replacements. This thing shined like a new dime and worked like a dream. One cold, early morning in February I was about to begin trimming a few shavings off of some nice birds eye maple when it fell to the cold, hard cement floor of my then un-heated shop. As my stomach turned, I was afraid to look down…cracked. Completely in half at the throat…the old cast body was no match for the cement of my garage-turned-wood shop and I felt like I was going to need a psychiatric evaluation. Well, to make a long story longer I decided to try my hand at plane making. I had recently read The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking by James Krenov and was looking for an excuse to make a, what has now become known as the ‘Krenov style plane’.

I modeled the overall dimensions of the wooden bodied, dedicated shooter after my old Stanley (RIP). The new plane turned out to be in the 14″ length by 2 1/4″ wide. I used a nice piece of quarter sawn white Oak harvested and milled close to my home back in Cape Breton and to add even more protection/armour I laminated a piece of Jatoba to the sole creating a versatile shooting/Jack plane. I also used the Jatoba for the wedge and cross pin. Again, using a custom Ron Hock chip breaker and iron, I was quite pleased with the results. Well at least for a few days…it turned out that even in my attempt to make the plane sides accurately square to the sole I missed my mark a little. The plane functioned perfectly as a kind of Jack/Smoother, but as a shooting plane it just wasn’t up to snuff. So on to brighter days. The spring time came after that long, lonely winter and I decided it was time to replace the old #5. I did some research and discovered a modern replacement that not only would be an ideal shooting plane, it by far exceeded my good ‘ol buddy Jack.

The Lie-Nielsen # 5 1/2.
Amazing, simply amazing. What more could be said, this thing arrived right out of the box ready to work. It’s just over 14″ long and weighs in at a whopping 7 lbs. As a dedicated Shooting plane I’ve been quite happy using this tool day in and day out. Sometimes while smoothing larger panels like the top for a trestle table I built last year, I would re-adjust the mouth and actually use the 5 1/2 as an over sized Smoothing plane. Again the performance of this plane excelled and for jointing short boards, ideal. You won’t ever regret owning this heirloom quality hand plane. And with that I say, “Why stop there?”

Bring out the IRON MITER…

That feeling of revelation or better said, awe inspired-mouth hanging open, dumb-foundedness I sensed all those years ago when I finally decided to build a shooting board came flooding back this past week when my Lie-Nielsen # 9 arrived from their head office in Warren, Maine. To finally know and truly feel what a dedicated Shooting plane is like was really something special. This thing smokes! Seriously, if you were ever half considering but couldn’t justify purchasing a ‘dedicated’ hand plane like I had been doing for the past couple of years and finally want to make the plunge, I say go for it. You will not be disappointed. While all of the other planes mentioned in this article performed from adequate to quite well, this is the real-deal. Effortless and consistent. The blade adjustement controls perform like a finely tuned race car and the body and workman ship-a true master piece. What more can be said…I’ll still use the 5 1/2 as a (to quote David Charlesworth) ‘Super Smoother’ and the Krenov style wooden plane still finds it’s way to the workbench on ocassion; but the Iron Miter, this #9 will be from this day forth my Shooting Plane.
My dedicated ‘Shooter’ and cement floors be damned! Cheers.

Bench-top Jigs make quick work for tight corners

I’ve just started my next project and not too far into it, I find myself having to cut mitres at my bench using hand tools. A quick process that could be a lot harder if it wasn’t for a few simple Bench-top appliances.
The first step as is true with all good joinery is starting with straight stock that’s been hand planed true. Once you’ve prepared your pieces, measure and mark with either a knife or pencil. For this project I’m using walnut which I find difficult to see at the best of times so for certain cuts I actually use both. I make my knife cut and follow with led, think old school prison tattoos…Actually, it helps to add some contrast my eye can more readily detect when sawing accurately on Walnut.
I always make a 90 degree first with pencil across the work piece; it helps to keep things ’square’ when you mark and cut the mitre. I use a Mitre Hook at my Bench top to cut the 45. It’s a quick jig made from 3/4″ MDF; it consists of a base with a hook glued and screwed to the front bottom that rests against the bench top apron and a fence across the back. For the fence I used a thick piece of hard maple I had in my off-cut pile. I marked and cut out the kerfs for my back-saw to follow when in use. One 90, centered with a 45 degree on each side. This stock is a little better than an inch in thickness so I opt to use my larger 12″ Tenon Saw filed cross cut with 13 tpi. I follow my scribe down down through the fibres careful on the exit not to cut into the MDF. That stuff is nasty for saw blades and everything else I can think of save for the jigs around a wood shop.
Once I have my pieces mitred I change over to my shooting board equipped with a mitre fence. The mitre fence is a simple accessory made from another off-cut; this time some 3/4″ Birch plywood I had left over from some un-fulfilling job where I had to use 3/4″ Birch plywood!
Just kidding, plywoods are getting better and better, the quality and overall look and performance; although in my perfect world I think that I’d use solid wood for all of my projects and be able to convince all of my clients to do the same. On the shooting board I true up the mitres being careful not to blow-out the fine pointed ends. When I’m happy with the results I try matching up the pieces flat on the work bench. I use a small piece of masking tape to pull the pieces together. Looks good; a little glue and this one is done.
For larger applications in heavier stock, this method can be awkward do to the fact that planing stock thicker than 1″ can become difficult on the shooting board. Try using a ‘bird-house’ or ‘donkey’s ear’ jig in combination with the shooting board, this allows the plane to travel across the grain on the 45 and not with it. There are quite a few different mitering jigs out there, look around and find one you’ll enjoy using.

Reflection Method of Schwarz

This is just something I stumbled across yesterday and tried it out this morning while cutting the above mitres.
Christopher Schwarz, Editor of Popular and Woodworking magazines was filmed during a talk at Lie-Nielson recently. He shows how to cross cut a perfect 90 using only the reflection of the stock in the side of your saw blade as a guide.
I thought our dear Mr. Schwarz may have been sitting a little too close to the Linseed Oil but hey…voila!
It works; imagine, a perfect 90 cut by eye, my eye, not his of course, that would just be strange…Anyhow, try it if you can’t find a square and you happen to keep a bright shiny saw blade tucked away in yer’ till somewhere.

Check it out: