Craftsmanship in Wood

Thanks Chris! Kanna help you, perhaps? And smile and wave are truly awesome.

I haven't tuned the sole yet, even still pulling some good shavings and leaving a nice finish, can't wait to see what can be done with a tuned sole but I plan to let it hang out for a time.



The blade was pretty easy, had to tap out one corner, the chipper was a pita requiring some serious work.

Got a nice quick way to make shims from copper pipe:

Impressive Brian, especially for your first kanna. Nice straight shaving.

Nice anvil!! Did you deck that anvil yourself? I seem to recall someone having an anvil surface machined on here.

Clean shaving to boot.

Seems that all my waffling on wasn't entirely in vain. Nice job!

I'm always amazed at how spotless your shop is (compared to mine, anyway). And carpeted, to boot.

Thanks Gents!

Chris, I really appreciate the nudge in this direction.

Chris P, indeed that was me. I'm working on putting together something for the hardy hole that will better suit ura-dashi. The side of my anvil is rounded over, so I flopped a piece of heavy leather over the edge and used that, it was successful but I think a large rounded surface will do better. This was perfect for adjusting twist and putting a belly in the chipper.

Tuning up the sole. I can get some seriously thin shavings from softwood, like....ridiculously thin. Walnut planes nicely, but rock maple is hell. If the blade is super sharp I get nice shavings, but soon as it looses even a hint of sharpness I get a choppy cut.

Is this my technique failing me, or is the 37 degree bed just not great for wood this hard?

I planed some doug fir from the HD (real garbage) and I can practically see my face in it at certain angles.

Is this my technique failing me, or is the 37 degree bed just not great for wood this hard?

Assuming the blade is well seated, I would lean towards the above contention.

A 37˚ bedded plane, which would have something like a 25˚ bevel, will excel at softer woods but won't be the best choice for really hard material. A very thin bevel edge like that can be deflected down by the material in the cut and bounce back up out of the cut, giving you that chattering, uneven cutting.

A standard bevel plane at 38.66˚ would be marginally better - you'd get e few more passes out of it. Suggest something in the 45~50˚ zone likely to be more ideal. Also, for harder woods, it can be helpful to size down to a 60~65mm plane. Reduces the pulling effort slightly.

Thanks Chris, I'm likely mistaken and this is actually 38.66 degrees, but all the same it seems I'll likely have to get a few of these and setup for different woods.

45 is likely right one for most of what I plane since all of my other planes are 45 degrees and I can cut all of the woods that I normally plane without issue.

A standard 8-bu plane is 38.6598...˚

You might want to check your bevel angle as well. Sometimes planes come with the angle slightly acutely ground. If you aim for 12˚ on the underside of the bevel for clearance/spring back, then the bevel would be ideally around 26.66˚.

Perhaps you need a little curly VG bubinga in your life for added entertainment? Or, even better, lignum vitae, which I've found will still exhibit a slight amount of tear out with a 60˚ bedded plane