This article could start with the classic ‘Once upon a time…’ for who nowadays would dream of making a table entirely with hand planes, rulers and squares? Certainly very few modern furniture makers work exclusively with hand tools. However, I wanted to dedicate an article to this topic, partly to play with old-style carpentry techniques, partly to show that everything can be done by hand and to illustrate the potential of manual tools. To some it may seem an exercise in manual work, but I guarantee you that it is also a great education that will test and increase your knowledge of the material, how to sharpen tools and the precision and control of wood and tool movements – all very important factors in woodworking.
Processing the boards
A single plane will not be enough to complete this job. The boards that arrived in my workshop were anything but straight, as is common with raw wood. However, it’s not necessary to plane them entirely; instead you can cut them down into separate pieces at lengths suitable for the various parts of your project. Working this way means there will be less planing to be done overall and also less waste than you would get from planing large boards.
1. Once a piece has been separated from the original board, place it on the bench so you can carefully analyse its problems. Warping and buckling are characteristics of raw wood. Buckling is not so important at this stage, but warping is2. Each piece must be arranged so that it’s stable and has the concave part facing downwards. Shims can be inserted to prevent it from moving during processing3. At least three holding points are needed to anchor the piece to the bench: the push dog on the mobile jaw of the vice, the stop dog on the front of the bench and a lateral support which can be a third dog or a temporary stop. They all must be lower than the thickness of the material and the piece must rest fully on the surface of the bench4. The first process is carried out with the roughing plane. Its curved blade is able to work across the grain without splintering the wood while removing significant quantities of material (up to and over a millimetre)5. At the beginning it is quite easy to see which are the highest points and, little by little, you can flatten the entire length of the piece starting from one end and working to the opposite one6. Once the entire face has been planed, the cutting depth of the plane is reduced to half a millimetre or a little less and closer passes are made7. The surface will begin to be flatter and the grain less raised8. When to move on to a less aggressive cut is a matter of opinion. You can use a straight edge to check for flatness; for example, place the sole of the plane on its edge against the light to check certain area
Knots and ‘dead’ wood
9. When the grain of the wood is not regular (usually associated with the presence of one or more knots), using the rough-cut plane beyond the initial phase could cause deep chipping. In this case, the toothed iron can be used instead
To some it may seem an exercise in manual work, but I guarantee you that it is also a great education that will test and increase your knowledge of the material, how to sharpen tools and the precision and control of wood and tool movements – all very important factors in woodworking
10. This is a blade with micro-serrations arranged in a block with a seat at 80°. The combination of the two factors generates less stress on the wood and you can proceed with smoothing. For finishing you can use a plane with a high cutting angle (up to 60°) or a scraper
Flattening
11. The first flatness check is carried out after a couple of passes of the plane with decreasing cutting depth12. With a straight edge, check the two directions along and across the grain13. Check both diagonals too. If you find variations of flatness exceeding 1mm in height, it is a good idea to make the necessary corrections at this stage14. The flattening finishes with two crossed passes along the diagonals. In this phase we try to flush the edges to avoid a problem typical of hand planing: the creation of convex surfaces. The elimination of these along the grain is quite tedious15. For these passes the blade should be retracted into the plane further, as the possibility of chipping increases when passes are parallel to the grain16. Even if it is not always used, it is worth mentioning a hybrid tool – the half blank plane17. In practice it is a No 4 plane whose blade has been modified with a slight curvature. It is mainly used across the grain and has the task of reducing the ridges left by the previous planing18. When the roughing plane is used, the winding sticks make their appearance. These are two straight edges of different colours which are placed across the piece and sighted against each other to indicate the shape of the surface19. Based on the sticks’ divergence, raised areas and warping are highlighted20. Based on what is highlighted by the winding sticks, remove material in a localised manner, mainly along the grain. To avoid chipping, the blade must be well sharpened and slightly protruding from the sole (a couple of tenths of a millimetre or less)21. At this point the work proceeds exclusively along the grain with a plane of adequate length for that of the piece (a No 5 is fine for most needs). At the beginning, the shavings will be short and irregular due to the depressions caused by the curved blade22. Lubricate the sole of the plane and make sure straight edges and winding sticks are always at hand23. The last processing step involves the use of a finishing plane. In this case, I used a No 4 equipped with a back bevel which brings the angle of incidence on the wood from 45° up to 50° or 60°. Little by little the shavings will begin to lengthen until they are the entire length of the piece. It is also important to overlap the plane passes in order to eliminate the steps caused by the edges of the blade at each pass
What is a back bevel?
24. In woodworking, the greater the cutting angle, the lower the possibility of chipping. In fact, the blade is brought to exert an action between cutting and compression. The price to pay is greater effort in pushing the plane and accelerated wear of the edge
The back bevel is a trick that serves to make the cut of a blade with a standard 45° seat more vertical. In practice it is a counter bevel that is created on the opposite side of the blade to the primary bevel.
A: blade seating angle
B: standard sharpening angle
C: secondary bevel angle
D: overall cutting edge angle
E: clearance angle
F: final angle of attack
In the case of bevel pp or low seat angle (12°) planes, simply modify the geometry of the bevel to change the effective cutting angle.
Checking flatness
25. The flatness check must be carried out without interruptions in the three directions shown and tested with a straight edge. The problems, if any, always occur on the extremities where we tend to plane more, creating a curved surface. In this case, in the centre of the piece there is a knot and therefore harder area. It is necessary to work in a more localised way on this area and the No 4 plane, shorter than the No 5, is ideal26. If you have proceeded diligently up to this point, the flatness achieved will be satisfying. The surface should appear continuous, smooth in its entirety and with the grain perfectly distinct. Note the brighter area in the centre of this piece which indicates the presence of a denser area around a knot
Face and edges
In woodworking we use reference surfaces to work from to make sure that a piece is flat, square and uniform in size and these can be checked with rules, straight edges and squares. It’s important to use these reference surfaces to create further pieces and joints.
27. Using the flattened face as a support surface for a long ruler, mark the line that will be the first edge of the board28. Cut along the line using a hand saw. Make the cut by holding the piece still with the weight of your body on a trestle29. This new edge needs to be trued and squared using a No 5 or longer plane. Take care to plane a straight edge (this can be checked with the ruler) and square to the previously worked face30. The face is used as a reference surface for a square that highlights out-of-squareness and allows these areas to be highlighted with a pencil31. Squaring an edge is not a simple job because the vertical axis of the plane must be managed by hand and without reference points32. It is no coincidence that the major plane manufacturers (Stanley and Veritas) have introduced accessories that attach to the plane to help keep things square33. With edges, the appearance of an uninterrupted shaving indicates continuity of the surface, but be careful, because on long pieces there is the possibility that the ends could be lower than the middle34. Once the first edge has been straightened and squared, it becomes a reference surface for the second edge and for the ends35. The sliding square is used as a gauge to draw a line parallel to the already straightened edge, then to mark the 90° cuts on the ends36. For the second edge we use the hand saw again. A trick to keeping the cut straighter is to initially keep the saw at a low angle. After creating a deep enough cut, the saw can be moved more vertically so that it passes through a smaller thickness of wood and advance more quickly with the cut37. For the ends we use a crosscut saw, here I used a Japanese carpentry one38. It is important to transfer the mark on to the piece (with a square and pencil) and hold the waste in position by pressing it with your fingers. If you don’t do this the saw could lose one of the two guides needed, ending with the cut being undercut39. The ends must also be trued, preferably with a low cutting angle plane40. However, there is problem of chipping on the outfeed edge which can be resolved by clamping a sacrificial piece of wood on the edge41. There are two checks needed on the ends. The first is to check the right angle with respect to the flattened face …42 … and then, with a longer square, the one with respect to the edge. It is a good idea to check these two parameters often.
The second face
The second face now needs attending to, and the thickness planing must be carried out. You can work on this in one of two ways: obtain the maximum obtainable thickness from the piece or bring it directly to the size necessary for the project. If the latter significantly exceeds the thickness of the board, cutting the piece may be necessary.
43. Sawing can be done to obtain thinner boards from thick pieces. Start with pieces that have a uniform thickness. The Western saws used for this work are generally frame-mounted and quite heavy, to exploit the force of gravity for cutting44. The cut is marked with a gauge or even with a purpose-made plane with a saw blade that creates a deeper mark that acts as a guide during cutting45. To get the piece completely flat, parallel and square you need to use the first face as a reference surface for the gauge46. Set the gauge so it will mark to the maximum thickness that can be obtained from the piece or to the final size that is required, allowing for final finishing47. The work ends exactly as it began, except that this time the roughing plane will tend to cut more material near the edges rather than in the centre of the piece. The steps are the same as the first face but with the additional requirement of the depth size48. When the No 5 plane reaches the mark, thin shavings will appear which will tend to come off on their own. This is the right time to move on to the finishing plane to complete the job
Swift work
The work documented here was carried out on a 600 x 270mm piece of wood and required just under three hours of work carried out by expert hands and with perfectly set tools. In reality, the removal of the bulk of the material (about 95%) did not take more than about 40 minutes. The rest of the time was used for setting the tools, continuous checks and numerous corrections and adjustments. We reiterate here in closing that the final product, the perfectly squared piece, can be considered a work of art to be framed or kept on display on the wall above the workbench. The value of this experiment in woodworking is characterised by the processes and the techniques acquired which will be useful on a thousand other occasions. Perhaps after machine work these skills could be needed for the precision offered by manual tools.
49. The final product compared to the original piece. The transformation is more than evident, as is the amount of work carried out entirely by hand50. As you may have gathered, this is a great winter exercise, and even the shavings can be recycled!
The value of this experiment of woodworking is characterised by the processes and the techniques acquired which will be useful on a thousand other occasions
PHOTOGRAPHS BY GIACOMO MALASPINA/COURTESY OF LEGNO
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