Planing Wide boards more accurately with Rob Cosman 

I love your videos because you don't cut and edit the harder parts of the process. You give us a realistic view of what it takes to master the craft. Other videos are great for those who like to just see a project from "A to Z," but you actually show us the difficulties and then teach us how to overcome them. Thank you for your hard work, selflessness, and expertise. You honor the craft with your videos.

Thank you for showing the whole process of how to spot high points on a board. This has been invaluable to me. Thank you. I love your videos. You're a great teacher.

Rob thank you for the moments of frantic chaos that with persistence become art form

You are an awesome teacher, thanks for putting in the hard work and sharing with us!

I discovered scrub planes by accident when I built my workbench. They are a HUGE improvement over attempting to level a board with a belt sander. No noise and most importantly no dust ! Also fast and the level of precision one gets just can't be beat!

Great video Rob. I loved the fact that you showcased the scrub plane and #6 plane. These 2 hand planes are often forgotten but I could make an arguement that these should be your first hand planes you get. Learning how to flatten/joint a face of a rough sawn board should be one of the first things you learn to do when learning woodworking and the use of hand planes. I love my #6, probably the most used plane in my shop. I use it just as in this video for flattening rough lumber as well as cleaning up large tabletop/panel glue ups and even as a jointing plane for jointing the edge of boards to be glued up.

I have just found your site and what a breath of fresh air. This is the first workshop that looks like it’s been used most look like Molly maid has just spent the last two days in them. Also there is no bull as you make the odd mistake and you don’t try to cover them up but repair. Thank you I’ll keep watching

Rob, I really appreciate your ability to teach exactly how to perform different tasks. I work on a much smaller scale in my little Garage Shop but the principles are the same. Thank You

Hi Rob! I’m a 67 YO pro woodworker with 47 years of experience. I was re-acquainted to your videos recently when I was doing a tool search. BTW, Alan Peters was inspirational to me as well and I have a first addition of his book; Cabinetmaking, the professional approach. I also considered Sam and Alfred’s Maloof personal friends and own a Maloof original. I’m still working professionally because I love what I do. I love the content and quality of your videos! So this one auto fed to me and I watched it. My critique of this and your process here flattening your cherry plank would be this. It would be more efficient from a time and quality standpoint to have removed the guard on your 16” jointer and have used the full capacity of your jointer and its ranting outfeed table to flatten what you could on this plank. Then you could have leveled out the remaining unjointed strip with your hand planes. On the other hand if demonstrating the use of a scrub plane plus the #6 was your motive, then good on you, this is an excellent example of that! BTW, the #6 is my go to plane and has been for 40+ years. I have an excellent Bailey that is very highly tuned. The other thing I would mention is you could have incorporated the use of winding sticks here to demonstrate that skill. I’m lucky in that we have multiple jointers in our shop in northern Michigan 8” Delta and 16” Delta Invicta with helical heads and a 20” Oliver as well as a 25” Oliver planer with a helical head. If I do have to flatten a big slabs which happens now and then I use winding sticks, my 6.75” Makita hand planer with helical head and then hand planes to get it ready for either the 24” planer or the 43” AEM wide belt. Thanks for all your great content and concise delivery of it. You sir are an excellent woodworker. Cheers! Allan

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The process is mostly intuitive but I always learn something when watching someone who really knows what they're doing go through it.

Enjoyed watching a master craftsman at work. Sometimes there is no substitute for hand labor.

Another great tutorial, very clear and demonstrates your knowledge and fluancy with hand tools. Thanks for sharing

Rob, very nice working out the technicalities of flattening a board is such a way to show exactly the method to do it. This was easy to follow along with.

Great video as always. A little sweat never killed anyone, and it was done in half an hour. I'd love to see a series on building that bench! You're an excellent teacher and craftsman and I'm sure there would be many tips even us more experienced woodworkers would find invaluable.

All of your videography and teaching is great. It is really useful to see and hear the thought processes you put into this aspect of accurate planing. Thanks for all yours and your staff's efforts to train folks and especially your efforts to serve those who serve us ideally in the highest sense. The values you bring to the process are exemplary. Thank you for your service.

Invaluable info Rob! I have been weaning myself off power tools and thoroughly enjoy hand tools only...for the most part.

Your videos are awesome! Incredibly informative and you present the explanations with clarity. Thank you for taking the time and effort.

That was hard work Mr Cosman. Thanks for that invaluable lesson.

Rob man you love wood the way my gramps did. Thanks for what you do.

MASTER at his Craft!

Thank you for the video. Iam very new to woodworking and actually have a few boards to deal with that are like this one. It is very helpful for me to see the process of elimination to deal with it. Thank you so much for the education. Love the videos.

Tiring efforts vs untiring enthusiasm. A battle between body and mind for creativity and a quest for perfection. Great video. Best wishes!

I loved this video! What a nice lesson in learning to read the wood.

Masterful. End to end problem solving was just excellent.

Great work Rob you read the wood really well.That is half the battle.

Thanks for a great video. I just recently found your channel. I am relatively new to woodworking and enjoying learning many new things from RU-vid to practice on. This video was perhaps the most informative about flattening lumber. The explanation, video angle and the execution were invaluable. I look forward to watching and learning from your channel for new skills to practice with.

Excellent tutorial Mr. 'C'. The repetition and steadfast thoroughness get a great result. Your demeanor made the watching enjoyable, and being able to see your shop gives me so many ideas for my own one day. Thanks, you have a new subscriber.

I like your videos! You're a real woodworker and the best in class!

Just found your channel recently, very informative. Enjoy your straight forward manner.

Very interesting Rob. I learned a lot. Thank you!

Great vid Rob! I admire your enthusiasm and envy your tools! I wish I could put into words my gratitude for everything you have taught me. Cheers

Thanks for going through that Rob! Go Cougs!

Real woodworking.....!!!!...thanks for the lesson.

This is a great technique if you want the project to last. I prefer a planing sled for a quick job. Rob is a master of hand tools.

Great video-thanks for showing what it takes to get it flat!

+1 for showing the process in real time.

Always enjoy your videos Rob.......great content

Love Robs videos.

Man that looks fun. Kinda hard but fun....I have an old plane I've never used I'm gonna make a scrub plane out of. Thanks for the vid!

Nice project Rob, enjoyed this content.

This video has a lot of useful information !

Well done, thanks for sharing.

Hi there from Portugal, Nice video :D Obrigado(Thanks)

HI rob that was super advice and so useful thank u.

Good tutorial Rob!

Rob, another great session here, and I learned a lot as always. Many thanks to you. Just one thought: rather than flipping that heavy piece over and over again to test it, why not simply use your long straightedge to identify the high and low spots? That would work quite well and go very quickly. You're right that more folks should adopt and use the scrub plane. It's also a most useful tool for establishing texture on pieces that can benefit from that-sculpture for example.

I am a retired wood worker and enjoy seeing how others approach a situation. I continue to learn.Your way will get you a flat surface but have you tried putting your work on a known flat wood surface and wedge and lock your piece down so it can't move then run it through your planer? In a few passes you are flat on one side.This is a huge time saver that increases your profit as it only take a few minutes.

Great demonstration with a tool (scrub plane) that is under-appreciated and less-understood. I keep one in the kitchen (you've never tried my wife's cooking).

Quite a lot of work and even for a master craftsman like you it took quite a while. Awesome video! Thanks!

Thank God someone who uses a riving knife.Thats real skill what he just did flattening that.

I really liked this video. Nuff said!!!

Nicely done.

Very nice work.

There's no better feeling of achievement when using hand planes and getting the stock flat....shame you didn't do it all but, as the saying goes.."time is money"………nice video again Rob 👍🏼😊

Good job! Thank you.

I learned a lot watching this! Thanks! I need to get a decent scrub plane!

Kind of reminded me of how I turned a three legged bar stool into a three legged milking stool. Ha!

Since you were going to send this through the thicknesser I'd have used a 25mm mdf baseboard, shimmed the ends with wedges to keep it level, dogged it onto the baseboard and just sent it through the thicknesser taking very light skims... but hey, I'm an idle so and so and all that hand planning I did when I didn't know any better :)

Nice job!

Excellent !!!

I am impressed ...

You are the man !

Amazing and boy that looked hard work. I would use a router lol. i am sure you could double up as an arm wrestler the way you throw wood around. thanks for being our tutor Rob

Great video..thanks...

Very nice. Thanks

Beast mode

Your a good teacher Rob

Good work. Great patience as this took awhile to get flat. Thanks for all of your videos which help all of us. I couldn't help but notice the Army cap on the top shelf. Thanks for your service. Regards from an old Marine.

I helped an old time woodworker with this same basic process on some maple of similar size. Instead of using a hand plane to attack the high spots he set up a lapping table with coarse sandpaper glued to the flat table. We faced each other and simply pushed the board back and forth between us. We never had to flip the board with this method and as soon as the rocking stopped the boards went into the planer.

hi again Rob, great video as always. can I ask_ I don't have a scrub plane yet but I have the lie Nielsen low angle jack with a tooted blade and I wondered what your thoughts were between the two? Cheers

The essence of working wood... top notch as always! I haven't flattened anything this big by hand. I do usually scribble some colored chalk or pencil down the board to check my progress. Is that not helpful in tackling twist?

thank you thank you thank you

I have watched your videos over and over again. Man, you are one of few wood artists present on RU-vid. That's just wonderful and certainly something that inspires me a lot...For a start, should I get a jack plane or a fore plane (18inch)? I am a hobbyist and I don't have power tools, but I will have to joint large 'slabs and rough/warped lumber' as we have plenty at home...all tropical hard wood.

hi Rob, would using your winding sticks help with the initial flattening? or a long straight edge? Cheers

One way that's worked for me is to remove the jointer guard, and joint the board, letting it hang over the side of the table. Then flip the board, set the jointed portion on a simple sled - a piece of 3/4" Baltic at least as long as the board, and the same width as the jointer bed. Run the sled through the planer, making the opposite face parallel to the jointed section. Finally, remove the sled, flip the board, and plane off the 'step' left in the original face from jointing only part of the board.

I really need to pick up an old #3 to #5 on ebay to convert to a scrub plane. A regular blade in a #3 does pretty well in softer woods, but for hard stuff like ash it can be a slow process.

Real good insight if you dont want to use a router and a sled.

Do you buy a scrub plane or convert an existing one to be a scrub plane? What’s the best one to get started with?

Hi Rob! I'm pretty new to woodworking and am really starting to get into the meat of it. I was introduced to your channel just recently, and let me tell ya, you have a viewer for life and a future customer (once my budget permits of course!). Your utmost attention to detail is impeccable and I'm really grateful for all the material you provide. After watching this video, I wanted to ask: What purpose is the scrub plane for when it seems your #6 managed to do an equivalent job, if not better? I feel like the longer reference edge on the #6 planed away the high spots more effectively while the scrub plane did so in more of a hunting manner. It leaves me wondering what purpose the scrub plane has when other planes may be able to do its job. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, and as comes assumed, it was a great video. I learned a lot!

Great video and demonstration Rob! Where did you get the beautiful Rob Cosman Logo Sign in the background? Bet some really nice member made it for you (and good looking too)...

Fantastic walk through, and I love that it was not just a little piece. Was good to see someone showing us how to work on a big slab 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Will the next one be on how to make the slabs out of a log?

The man's got skills for sure. Not sure if I'd buy his dovetail saws because of the price tag but he definitely knows his shit. The saws are probably great but I'm not rich.

Rob - A technique I was shown to save time from hand planing a cupped/warped board was to get a piece of melamine, the same width as the board you want to flatten, as well as a little bit longer. Place the board on top of the melamine, and shim the gaps of the high spots. hot glue them down to the melamine so they don't move, and then run it through the planer until the entire board has been planed down. then just flip it over, and plane out the highs/lows on the other side. much quicker, all though I do love hand planning.

There must be a better way. Rob is a master and he makes this procedure work, but few of us have the leisure to invest 10-20 years just to produce a square board.

I have trouble with this. Like shooting from the hip. sometimes i get lucky. Could you just scrub the whole surface?

I am surprised you are not using winding sticks. Seems to me that would make this a simpler job Rob.

Can you set your planer to the thickness just below the hump or pivot point and run it through the planer to flatten it?

Hi Rob! After taking your hand planing class in Seattle, I have a great appreciation for the capabilities of hand planes. What brand of scrub plane are you using on the video? Hopefully, it is one that is available! Thanks, Eileen

rob u said u were sharpening with 1200 grit diamond stone??? is that a ATOMA diamond stone and ifso how does it compare to the trend 1000 because i never thought my trend was truly flat enough to flatten my shapton stones. hope u answer back

What type of wood was that? I am new to this, but why not use a plane longer than a #6 to knock down the high spots?

The work bench has to be dead on level. Nice job.

Thank you, this video has made me want to stick with my day job instead of becoming a woodworker.

can you just flatten the whole face at once to get a flat surface with a no. 8 instead of guessing where the high spots are? just wondering?

So Rob, do you buy a scrub blade for the Stanley or do you grind a regular blade? Do you need to do anything to the plane besides change the blade?

Well that answers questions about a 3 HP saw stop being able to cut thick stock!

Rob do you have a video on how you made your work bench I see you have a acme threaded rod going through I have about 15 acme threaded rods about 1 Dia. by 7 feet long maybe I could make use of them that way thank you

Sooo.... Why no hockey wraps on your plane handles?

@robcoasman when you flattened the board could you of used winding sticks??

Rob, any reason why you're not using winding sticks once you've got the worst of the problem out of the way?

What kind of wood is that? Do you have plans or videos on making that bench on your subscription web site? Thanks for sharing the info.