"I'm looking for fun, not perfection" thanks for that inspirational quote. I was feeling so frustrated trying to perfectly flat a lumber until I saw this video. Great work.
the funny thing is that if you checked the wood coming out of a planer it would shock many people at how out of flat it can be. for some reason when we do it with hand we are checking everything and we know the difference and it drives us nuts. when in reality it makes no difference.
You, Paul Sellers and Rex Kruger are 3 of my favourites. The reasons are as follows: You don't waffle, you get straight to the point. You tell us exactly what you are doing, how and why you are doing it. You use the same tools we use - Bailey pattern planes, hand saws etc. Finally, your expertise and enthusiasms are infectious. Cheers.
I've been building a Roubo style workbench with 2x6 knotty pine and decided to do as much as I can by hand. I'm really enjoying taking the time to square and join the lumber and cutting the mortise and tenons, but I've also found it's a great workout and awesome for weight loss.
I especially appreciate that you used a board with fairly complicated grain... and showed how to deal with it. Most demos use beautifully straight grain where it's easy to get it straight and flat. Then I feel stupid when I can't do it. And have to improvise so as not to have tear out everywhere. You confirmed my intuition about how to handle it. Many thanks!
I need to find some more planes. Your demonstration is helpful. Takes me much longer because I don't really have a scrub plane yet. Thanks for showing what additional tools I need.
Watching this video has confirmed my need for a jointer and planer. I can see this being relaxing and fun on a small project, but as soon as you said you had 16 more boards to do I was like "Nope." Great video and thanks for the great content James!
Agreed. I find no appeal to dimensioning rough lumber by hand as a choice. However, there is absolutely nothing like fine tuning and final finish with hand planes. No machine I've used gives me the control and surface like a smoothing plane. So the answer is...once you've developed the skill, use the right tool for the part of the process you're on.
I recently made the top of my small work bench, and I used my planes for the first real time. I feel your burn and I commend you Sir, for doing that 60 more times. And even though I am sore a few days after, I fully understand the satisfaction gained from feeling that smooth and flat top of shaped wood and knowing that I was the one that accomplished it. It does put a smile on your face, doesn't it:)
As a suggestion for future videos, consider putting a label/sticker on each plane to help the viewer quickly identify which plane you are using. For a novice (like me), a #5 and a #7 can look similar even though the #7 is clearly much larger. And as planes may be set different ways for different jobs, it could also help to know what role it is playing. A #4 can easily be a smoothing or scrub plane. Similarly a #5 or #7 could be set as a fore plane instead of their more typical roles. And there's probably more scenarios that I don't even know about yet. Sometimes you say what you are grabbing at the time, and sometimes you don't. People often rewind the video several times to repeat parts for more clarity (or because they are multitasking and missed it the first time :-D). So even if you do say what you grabbed, the viewer may not be rewinding far enough to hear it. Some non-obtrusive labels could really help out. This video is great. Once I'm done here I've got some boards that need to be flattened for floating shelves and a moxon vise. Thanks for making it.
Hey. Nice to see how much work it is dimensioning a board with hand tools. I mean you can really feel it since nothing is cut out. BTW I think you need a heavier bench.
thanks. Well the bench is about 800lb right now with all my lumber stock under it. the problem is the legs are pine and have a good amount of flex. when I get a larger shop I am going to build a full hardwood bench, but this works just fine. the camera shows the flex but using it I can not feel it.
An absolutely excellent video that filled a lot of gaps for me. It also made me realise I’ve been trying to do things the wrong way. Instead of trying to get four pieces of 3” wide timber the same dimensions I’m better getting one piece of 14” timber, dimensioning that then cutting it into four 3” wide pieces on my table saw for my photograph frames.
I love watching your methods the traditional way I love working with planes but I still have yet to be able to get my blades sharp enough and the planes set up right but from what I keep hearing it just takes a while to learn
Very true. with power tools once it is setup up anyone can do the work. With hand tools it is all about muscle memory and experience. I could hand a new person a perfectly setup plane and they still not be able to make a great finish. it is all about experience.
Very nice tutorial. Good to see someone do a demo hand tool work using a hardwood. Does a better job of showing the challenge (and reward). Love your videos. Thanks.
I do enjoy your videos, I’m too old for the workout you just had thats why I use a jointer-thicknesser but I have done it back when boats were mostly built from wood. Love it!
You inspired me to pick up a plane and do things without power tools. The only one I have used is a cheap buck brothers. Works ok. What makes a good expensive one better. Maybe if I never use one I will never know what I am missing.
Thanks Travis. There are a thousand little things that add up to make a good reliable plane. holding the settings, good iron in the blade, tightness of the multiple adjustments, ease of adjustments, feel in the hand accuracy of the sole, mouth and frog. and the list goes on. a good plane works well once sharpened and setup. a cheap plane will sometimes but it takes more to set it up and it rarely stays set up. for new planes, the cheapest I would go are the new Stanley sweethearts. amzn.to/2zGtaMc but if you are willing to restore one you can pick up an old Stanley and clean it up for under $20
Wonderful fundamental skills. One I have to practice much more on....lol. You make it look a lot easier than it is, I will try to keep your tips in mind, although I am very close to the same procedure.
It's so cool seeing a board in the rough to a board that's clean and smooth. I definitely appreciate you showing how to dial in a board. And man what a workout you and Paul Sellers both say it's a great workout and Paul says it's what keeps him going is the cardio workout. And this is another reason why I should use/add more hand tools. Thanks again and if I haven't already I want to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family and friends.
This my friend was very educational for me. like you i am not afraid of a little work and i welcome sweat. (sp) i know this much, it is going quicker than one might think. i appreciate your efforts in teaching us how to do this how to deal with uncooperative grain and still end up with a very nice piece to work with after only a few minutes of actually good for the body and soul exercise. not looking for perfection, looking for fun. good deal. im at home recovering from a jointer accident as we speak, i would have been better off jacking with hand plane, hence my strong interest in hand planes. one surgery down (yesterday) at least one more to go and with any luck, i wil have a working function left thumb when its all said and done months from now. thanks again for sharing sir, as always, i let the commercials run all the way though, i will order a t shift soon and link back to your videos when i make it back out into my little garage/woodshop. PS, i restored a 40's model jointer, Got it working like new, tried a piece too small, cost me hugely . wont happen again, but like you mentioned, even if you had a thickness plainer, you will still need these skills and tools to flatten one side for starters anyhow. keep up the great work, of the t-shirts 15-25 cost, which one is the better athletic fit with synthetic over cotton? or are they all cotton? thanks dale
Great video. I was just given a whole box of planes, an early #4 bailey, a #6 bailey, and a 607 bedrock are the three regular planes I have to work with. The 4 is in really bad shape, busted cheek etc, I'm thinking of using that as my Fore plane for now as it's got too much slop to get it tuned as a smoother.
The thing that frustrated me in the beginning is that I didn’t have a scrub plane. I had a jack plane set up like rob Cosman suggests and I was trying to thickness with that. I didn’t realize how thin the shavings it makes are and I didn’t realize how important a scrub plane is. Once I converted the $13 harbor freight plane into a scrub everything fell into place and hand dimensioning (at least short) boards became pretty easy and fun and quick. You need a plane that can remove significant material. If you’re shaving a few thou per shaving you just won’t be able to get the changes you want to see in a reasonable time frame. So to all the beginners reading this, get a scrub (fore) plane. I don’t consider it optional.
I dimensioned some Hinoki last weekend and I found it very exhausting, which I blamed on my inexperience, but it looks like it’s hard work no matter how much experience you have.
Yep. That's half the fun putting a good amount of sweat into the work. if the blades are truly sharp it goes pretty quickly but they only stay that sharp for a few passes.
Thanks for sharing that piece of work. I had no idea how much was involved and I am starting to appreciate hand made furniture even more. I am unable to support your work monetarily but I wish you all the best. I hope you and the family have the Merriest Christmas and the Happiest 2017. God Bless my friend.
Thank you so much for this. You and Paul Sellers are as mentor as two masterful woodworkers from the internet can be to me. It's a pity that there is no market for Bailey-pattern planes here. I only have a No.4 that was rather dear to ship, and I restored it, but the iron is still not square and I just can't get it there. I've been trying to get into the groove planing firewood. Can I even dimension rough-sawn, split wood with just a No.4? Would you perhaps do a video on, well, roadside wood and how to make boards from it?
Thanks man. That means a lot to be compared with Paul. He is a true master of the craft. Yes you can do all that with just a number four. If you go back and watch some of my old videos I actually did that turning firewood into mallets and other tools. On Saturday I'm going to be doing a live probably making a a grooving plane from a piece of firewood. Once you have one side flat then you can just reference everything off of that one side. It just takes a little bit longer if you use a number 4 rather then a scrub plane.
@@WoodByWright It is clear as day that you love wood and its craft, like Paul. There are endless forum posts about technique and tools, but I never get the same sense of passion and serenity from them as I do from the two of you. I would not have gone out to buy a chisel and a saw had I not come here first. I'm starting on that mallet first thing in the morning.
The best part of the video are your sandals, bc that's exactly how I always end up in the garage shop also. Seriously though, I thoroughly enjoy your videos. Keep 'em comin'
that amount of physical work is why I gave up wearing an apron, too hot and restrictive I reckon. is this the drawer sides? you still have bottoms and backs to go?
Listening to this video while sharpening plane blades, I finally realized who James’s voice reminds me of, No insult meant but you sound like the original Earnie from sesame street
Wood By Wright If you listen to it, when you say things like “Second verse same as the first” Your inflection and tone really matches. I mean this as a compliment because hey he was my favorite Sesame Street character :D watching this video because I’m struggling with prepping and flattening stock and hey came to you first because outside of my ribbing got mad respect
Hopefully this comment/question isn’t too late after the video post to get a response. Thanks for the video and channel. You mention the need to plane with the grain, but you only do so with the fore plane. The 5, 7, and 4 are all used from one end to the other (with and into the grain) in the video. Why doesn’t that cause tear out?
Sorry not sure what you are referring to. all the planes were with the grain except going cross grain with the scrub. if I do need to go agents the grain (Some times it switches) then I use a very finely setup smoothing plane. with all the settings right you can get a smooth cut agents the grain. I do have a few videos on setting up a smoothing plane if you want to see more.
Wood By Wright I’m referring to the fact that in the video you changed directions on the board when using the scrub/fore plane, but when you used the jack, jointer, and smooth planes, you went all the way from one end of the board to the other. I get that a very light pass with a sharp smooth plane will avoid tear out, but the jack and jointer you used seemed to be set for a heavier cut.
For that I would just dimension the two faces. I would leave the edges until I'm getting ready to glue up. Then you put the two boards together with either their top faces together or their bottom faces together and joint the edges at the same time. This way when they lay flat if there's any deviation and angle they match up. You can get a really nice clean glue joint that way.
James, this is one of your best video's for teaching technique. I have a interesting situation, and I hope someone can give me a little guidance as this will be my first time dimensioning a board. I have two 6/4 Hard Maple Boards about 6" wide, which will be a glue up. Both have a small twist, and bow. I can get a pretty good surface on one side if I glue them up. So the question is; do I edge joint, glue them up and then do all the dimensioning work on a larger board, or do the dimensioning as two separate boards and then do the glue up. I'm thinking if I do them separately, then glue up, I am still going to have to re-plane the faces to achieve a consistent thickness on both boards. What's the easiest way to do this ?
thanks Patrick. it all depends on how thick you want the end result. if you glue them then flatten them you will end up taking off more material possibly making them thinner in the end. if I have the thickness to play with I prefer to flatten after joining the two boards. it is just easier in the long run. and with a total thickness of 12" that will not be a problem to reach across. That is often the only problem of reaching across a really big board.
+samuel molina I would have though the oil would seep into the wood and stain it and affect the finish no?Not sure but if I touch an machine that has oil on like the planer thicknesses handles and pick up wood it leaves a stain. But Paul sellers seems to love the oily can method. Roy under hill loves linseed oiling soles of wooden planes but I get a beating for that too because of contamination. Any thoughts? Cheers
the oil will stain the first pass but then you shave that off. and even then I am usually going to use oil for the finish. I have never had visible changes from it.
Are you saying fore or four plane? Remember I’m looking for a plane to ‘scrub’ off the surface just like your doing on rough lumber to make it dimensional. BTW, I LOVE the fact that you make the mistakes, acknowledge them and say “oh well, such as life”.....reminds me that this is suppose to be fun and it happens even to the experts like yourself. Other you tube channels edit that stuff out
Thanks man. I like to keep it real. A fore plane is short for a before plane. It was named that because it's the first plane to touch the wood. It comes before all other plans.
Great Clip! weathered less than a foot 2x4 pine is what i used as a practice to square up on all 4s...took me 2 days. learning about my plane and about the wood. still practicing, lol. how long did it take you on the first go? Merry Christmas!
well the first thing I squared up was the 2X4s for the bench. and those took me the better part of the day. but it sure was a fun day. Marry Christmas.
This was a great video, thanks for putting it together. However, what I learned is that I'm going to stay with my power tools to dimension lumber. Way too much time for me - but more power to you!
Wood By Wright I enjoy hand tool work too, but I think I enjoy project completion more. It would take me a long time to finish of I dimensioned this way.
Great video again! Do you have the previous step in video, i.e. the milling of a log to rough lumber with hand tools? I'll have a look through your videos, but thought I'd ask regardless.
@@WoodByWright thanks for responding! I'll admit it can be quite overwhelming. I've read many different recommendations. One was go with a low angle Jack plane for smoothing and an old Stanley Jack restored for rough work. Another said a 7 and a 4. Still another said a rabbet block and a Jack. The list keeps going. I can't afford all that I'm just getting started. Also for what it's worth, I find your style more educational than many others I've watched.
0:14 Overview 1:55 Inspecting the face side (winding sticks + looking for twist) 3:22 Flattening the reference face side 5:35 Massive blowout (25% off on men's apparel) 13:30 Flattening and squaring the reference edge side 16:30 Dimensioning the board width 18:20 Dimensioning the board thickness I was looking for a particular part of the video, so I thought I would timestamp it, in case another version of myself appears here
@@909sickle you would be surprised what people complain about. the timestamps use to be a way to stuff keywords and that turned off a lot of people to them, but they are starting to make a comeback.
thanks. I got these from the sawer they were slabbed on a bandsaw. I do the joinery whenever I get around to it. they will move a bit but that is fine.
it is not. the scrub plane is the first to touch the board. ten the longer #5-#8 and the last plane to touch the work is usually a small smoothing plane. #2-#4 depending on what you like.
James, for future(unless you've already covered it,) how would you(or did they,) hand plane a very long board, like for ship building or wagons, etc? rr
Will be interesting to watch. I was thinking about the even-ness of the cut; the starting and stopping, and then when you finish off with your finishing plane, it's often in one swell wooosh...
Well if you slowly pull the plane up at the end of the run you can not feel it. but that is a personal taste, but if you are careful you can keep it in the cut as you walk.
Awesome James so much to learn thank you sharing this knowledge with us - and man your pumping out the videos too 💪 your gonna be a buff dude by the time you finish the dresser LOL New video series " James Wright Workshop Workout" 😂
Have a Merry Christmas, James, and thanks for the video. If we were keeping score at home, your process is #6,#5,#7,#4, is that correct? What about the #6 makes you prefer it over a smaller "scrub" plane?
Thanks Jon, and Marry Christmas to you too. my scrub (or foreplane) is a #5. here is my video on what I use. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3ZVhadFoq8E.html I would prefer a 5 1/4 but for the price you can not beat the #5 in my book. the #6 is too wide for me and the #4 rides with the valleys in the board too much, but each to their own. so yes fo me it is Scrub plane to remove material fast (if needed) #5 heavy set to get rid of the scrub marks and get close to the line, Jointer plane (6, 7, or 8 whatever is appropriate to the board) then finish it with a finely set smoothing plane for the final.
At 17:00, what does your gauge use to score the wood? I have a wooden one with a spike; it is hard to use. The spike will follow the grain of the wood and spoil the line.
that one is a small razor blade. that is interesting as most people use one with a point so that it will not follow the grain. the wheel versions are notorious for runnign away with he grain
Hi, I’m a beginner just trying to understand the tools and process. When you are flattening the reference edge or I guess face too for that matter, why not just start with the jointer plane? Isn’t that the choice plane for doing the task of flattening ? Thanks!
The jointer plane doesn't take off a lot of material very quickly. Also it is a very wide mouth so it makes it more difficult to push. So the scrub plane will get it flat but then to get rid of the marks of the scrub plane it's much easier to use a narrower plane. Then you can bring in your jointer to do the final flattening. There's no reason you can't do it all with the jointer it's just going to take a lot more work.
Thanks James - great tutorial! I have a question though: how would you approach making the two faces of a live-edge board parallel? For example Matt Crremona's live-edge serving trays... Without a flat edge to reference your try-square against how would you do it?
+Will Halliday I would flatten one side. Then set it on a flat surface and reference the table with a marking gauges to mark the thickness then surface that side the same way.
@@WoodByWright Thanks for taking the time to reply :) I have recently found your channel and I love it. So, I became a patron :) Keep up the great work!
it would not take that much more time you just have to be careful with the flattening. the benefit of the long jointer plane is it will tell you when the board is flat. but without that, you need to use a straight edge to see when it is flat and just hit the high spots.
LOL yes. I honestly do not feel it but the video shows it. that is one of the problems with Doug fir 3" x 3" legs. when I move into a larger shop I will be making a second bench out of stouter material.
In my experience, using winding sticks at the beginning when there's still cup in the board tells you very little. It doesn't really tell you that a particular corner is higher, because it's not actually resting on that corner. It's actually resting on the center of the cupped surface. so I generally try to get most of the cup out before I break out the winding sticks.
true but you can see the gap from the cup under the stick so it can tell you if it is leaning one way or the other. and gives you a good idea about it before you get going.
sure, it tells you something. But you have to be careful about how you read it. When I was less experienced, I was led astray by reading it wrong quite regularly. By the way, thanks for going through the whole process. I've done this myself many times, but it's always nice to watch someone else do it to compare and contrast.
Real talk, man... How many boards should I expect to chew through before I can consistently do this? Is there an average number that people notice most beginners destroying? Or am I assuming this is more difficult that it really is? I haven't tried yet, so I don't have any reference, really.
Your first one should be passable if your blades are sharp and you take your time. As with anything, it will get better and faster with time. It is not a difficult skill, but there is skill involved as opposed to passing it through a thickness planer. the other thing to think about is what is your line for perfection. for me if my thickness is within a 32nd I am golden. others want it within a thousandth (which a thickness planer can't do) the biggest struggle for most is reading the grain so as not to get tear out. if you have straight grain then it is not a problem at all but that is not the way for all lumber.
No. Most are Stanley Bailey but there are several antique brands in there. all the planes I restore are painted that metallic blue as it is my shop color. I like the way it makes the shop look.
record? anyway thanks for the videos...I already know how to do most of this stuff...but I find it addictive to watch....for me it is all about woodworking.
At that point I was talking about the grain direction. You want to make sure you're going with the grain. If you are scrubbing the wood then you can use cross grain cutting which is where I was showing going at 45°. That just makes it easier to push through a deeper cut.
@@WoodByWright Thanks for the reply. This may seem like a stupid question, but I'm a novice and i didn't realize the grain could vary so drastically within a log. Wouldn't that mean the grain is really wavy?
Thanks. I am missing the reason why/when we need to actually have the edges square and parallel. For instance, for a panel, we are going to joint the edges and for that we will pair the edges of two boards and plane them simultaneously. Therefore no need for sweating the edges-square-the-face stuff. Ditto for parallel edges. And all the tonge-and-groove stuff will be registered to the face side. The other side will be in the back, so no need to sweat the thickness part. And finally, the whole panel will be planed in the end, relaxing the need for extreme accuracy. That's just an example. I'm sure the posts and rail in a frame need more dedication to accuracy, but I'm sure the cases when we actually need perfectly dimensioned lumber are a minority.
Every application is going to need a different amount of accuracy. It all depends on what it is joining to and how much that will affect the other pieces in the project. Usually this kind of dimensioning is only done for general carcass stock or shelves. You do this to take roughs on lumber and get it roughly to the accuracy that you need for the particular project. If you're joining it to another board then you just do the two faces and then you do the edge when you go to joint them.
Ya know, its funny to me because planing is my favorite part of any build project. So much so that I can get carried away and end up planing too much. Then there is the process of how sharp is sharp enough. A friend of mine said I was doing too much work passed 800 grit, because that will shave course hair rather well. I tell him but some times I want a translucent shaving in case I need something to write on.
Wood By Wright then I'm sure you've also felt the reluctance of not wanting to use that particular piece out of some sense of pride for getting it "too" square and smooth, and altering it further perturbs that sense of perfection.
When you were going against the grain with the number 5 it didn't sounds like you were getting any tear out even though you had the mouth open. Were you and I just didn't hear it?
