Comments on: A few of the Curly Details

By: Tom Fidgen

Tom Fidgen — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:56:30 +0000

hey robert,
sorry for taking so long to reply but i just got my internet set up out here-
i think you’d probably get more use out of the jack than the jointer but its nice to have both…start with the jack is what i’d recommend.
thanks for the comments.
cheers-

By: Robert Little

Robert Little — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 04:50:53 +0000

wow nice set of planes. I have the Number 4 smoothing plane and a low angle one from Veritas (my wife says it is easy to buy a gift for me: “just pick anything from Veritas and he will be happy” I have been thinking of the jointer or the Jack, have an original LeeValley jack from Before the Veritas line but it is not bevel up. Do you find you use the Jointer Plane as much as the Jack? Just curious.

Robert

By: Tom Fidgen

Tom Fidgen — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:06:45 +0000

indeed-

well said Dan.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:20:28 +0000

It’s a good case of the right tool for the right job. I’ve tried similar projects with a second hand stanley and regardless of how sharp the blade was it just didn’t leave that nice crisp finish.

By: Tom Fidgen

Tom Fidgen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:29:37 +0000

Morton,

thanks for the comments- I’ve been enjoying working the curly maple and now with a bunch of shellac on it its really popping that figure!
Those are Veritas bevel up planes and I don’t have any problem with the bevel up configuration vs. the standard frog set up…a little less mass is true but it feels like a different animal altogether and only took a few minutes to get used to.
I love the bevel up system- its simplicity and ease of set up is really nice.
That said, I still like my standard planes as well for face grain-
some people it seems need to choose one or the other almost to the extreme…I just use what ever works for the job at hand-
hope that helps.

Tom

By: Morton

Morton — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:39:52 +0000

Tom – when I saw this top, it was like “wow”. Awesome. I’m a huge fan of curly maple and this is a really cool way to use it. I’ll store that for future reference.

Are those Veritas bevel-up planes? How do you enjoy them? I’m just starting to get into handtool work and contemplating Lie-Nielsen and Veritas and also really looking at the bevel-up since there are more options (keeping multiple irons on hand with different angles for different work). What is the downside of bevel-up? They seem to have less mass (no frog) – that ever seem a problem to you?

Beautiful work as usual!

By: Tom Fidgen

Tom Fidgen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:51:41 +0000

Bill,
Not really- just the normal camber I usually have-
my jack and smoother have a real curve honed in the iron but my jointer is more relaxed. I used the jack across the grain and then the smoother and block for clean up.
thanks for the comments-

By: Bill Vittal

Bill Vittal — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:27:58 +0000

Tom,
Did you adjust the camber (less) on the plane blades for each plane used? I had a similar, but not nearly difficult situation with a figured maple tabletop I made. I used my normally cambered jack plane across the grain, and followed up with a scraper plane and hand scraper with the grain. I did try a high angle plane blade, but the effort was more than the scrapers.

Bill

By: Tom Fidgen

Tom Fidgen — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:19:02 +0000

Brian,
thanks for the comments- grain direction does make things much easier- especially on face grain laminated tops. This piece is all edge grain so the grain was all over the place; The beauty of these high angle plane irons is they really don’t care which way the grain is running!
cheers!

By: Brian Anderson

Brian Anderson — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:09:51 +0000

I have never messed with anything like that scale, but I have found when planing laminated boards that it helps a lot in terms of avoiding tearout to try to keep the grain running in the same direction. Did you mark the ends of the boards as you ripped them to do this, or were you able to just rely on the high angled planes and light cuts to get it done? Stunning work, in any case. Thanks.

Brian