I’m often asked about using a Scrub plane to remove material in a hurry or when I choose to saw away the waste instead.
” too much to plane and not enough to saw…”
Where do you draw the line?
How much material can you remove with a scrub plane?
How little material can you rip with a hand saw?
I recently saw someone demonstrating how quick and easy it is to remove up to a quarter inch of material from the edge of a board with a scrub plane and the entire time I was thinking that it would make more sense to simply saw it off. Granted if you don’t have a good rip saw and a proper saw bench designed for ripping wood then maybe a scrub plane is the way to go-
These days I find my scrub plane is collecting more and more dust because I’m reaching for my hand saw instead.
This past weekend while I was building my saw bench ( which is perfect for ripping wood as it has one side square to the top so no worries about sawing into splayed legs as well as a ripping notch down it’s length for supporting both sides of the cut when sawing thin material ) I needed to remove a little under a 1/4″ of material for two of the legs that are about 2″ x 2 3/4″ and approximately 20″ long. In the past I would have reached for the scrub plane and in a few minutes be left with a pile of shavings. The idea of ripping a thin slice of wood was a challenge and it always seemed to be a struggle when ripping wood in general. I often hear wood workers saying they use hand tools for everything except when it comes to ripping wood. I can’t say I blame them if they’re not set up properly.
Well those days are over and my approach now is to rip away the extra material. Instead of hamster bedding I get some thick veneer or thin stock- whatever way you look at it I’ll have an off cut of solid wood instead of a pile of shavings. Those thin offcuts are great for small projects, lamination work or even small drawer sides. Maybe they’ll eventually become fire wood or land fill but at least I’ll have the option.
Where do I draw the line?
At an 1/8″ ? Maybe.
If the wood isn’t anything special and is full of checks or cracks then instead of ripping it I’ll grab the scrub and hog off the excess material but nine times out of ten I’ll saw it off. Of course if you’re trying to turn a 1″ board that’s 10″ wide into a 3/4″ board you’d be getting into some serious resawing and that’s another thing altogether.
Ripping wood is one of the most intimidating jobs for new wood workers in the hand tool shop. But I promise if you put in the time and practice the technique it’ll be second nature in no time at all.
So anytime I need to remove a bit of material off the width of my stock it’s a rip saw I reach for.
Just thought I’d share that.
PS. the sawyers bench is one of the projects in my new book~; )
cheers!
7 Comments
I’d prefer to become a more proficient sawyer any day over relying on a bandsaw or scrub plane. Like most hand tools, seems like the effort to learn to saw well pays off in the end. Thanks for the post.
I think the choice also depends on the thickness of the stock being worked. If I have 1/4″ or less to remove my tendency is to rip stock thicker than say 3/4″ and plane stock thinner than that. Stock thicker than 3/4″ gives the (jack) plane just that much more resistence.
Also I find a coarse rip saw (mine is 5 ppi) to not work so well in thin stock. What’s the teeth spec on your rip saw?
Thanks for sharing Tom.
Andre
Hey guys, thanks for the comments-;)
Andre, I know exactly what you mean when it comes to ripping thin stock. My new saw bench has a ripping notch so it makes life much easier being able to support the work on both sides of the kerf. As for a rip saw, I also use a 5 tpi for 90% of my work but I have an 8 as well for thinner material. I find some deep scribe lines also help from the board splitting and/or running off from my mark.
Cheers!
Hi Tom,
I know what you mean by sawing vs planing and storing those thin pieces of wood instead of turning wood into shavings which is just waste.
But I find those small pieces quite distracting, I spend too much time looking at them, those small pieces of beautiful wood trying to tell me they want to become something other than waste, they don’t want to just seat on a shelve collecting sawdust, they want to find their way into the piece I’m building, and sometimes they do.
Sometimes a thin piece will tell me it wants to be a wedge on a tenon and a simple tenon becomes a wedged through tenon, other times an extra detail I never thought about in the design stage. And the build takes so much longer…
Take care,
Luis
Luis,
thanks for the comments- I know what you mean. I have shelves of small pieces I hate to throw away and sometimes they get used but sometimes not. I still like having the option and I hate wasting wood! A slippery slope when you start saving ( hoarding) small offcuts. I suppose we all do it though.
Cheers!
Hi Tom,
I to would rather saw over plane. I’m still working on my sawing skills, however it’s fun work in process. I like having the fall off materials around. My better half thinks I’m a bit of a hoarder. I like think of as conservation. I have found much use for small fall off. Even if its just ends up in the camp fire after a while.
Thanks, Richard
Lacking a scrub plane of my own I find that I really like to use a drawknife for some of this work. That was particularly true when I first bought it. I think in general I’m at the stage in my woodworking that when a job is in the gray area I try to take the opportunity to practice with the tool I don’t know as well.