The Joiner's Workbench

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Dutch Tool Chest - Part 1

Every project begins with sawing your first board. This project is no different. I measured the height that I wanted and then drew a line across the board. I then measured 3 inches up and 3 inches down and drew a line making the angle for the top. After cutting the two resulting boards to length, I had the sides of my tool chest.

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I'm moving and renaming this blog.

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Core Tools - The Jack Plane

If you are going to have just one plane, you should have a jack plane. It can do the job of the other planes. It is most commonly used to thickness and flatten boards, but it can also joint and smooth boards. 

Thickness and Flatten

Despite the fact that they often look straight and flat in the lumber yard, boards are rarely as flat as you need. They cup, bow and twist when the humidity changes. So you need a jack plane to get them flat again. While flattening you can also take the opportunity to remove some of the heft of the board and get it close to its final thickness.

For flattening, the mouth of the plane is set wide open, and the iron is ground to have a curved cutting edge instead of a straight edge. This allows the blade to scoop out wood as it cuts.

The first step in flattening is to figure out where the board isn't actually flat. If the board is twisted, then you'll need to focus more of the plane's cutting on the corners that are twisted up. If the board's face is cupped, then you want to remove more wood from the edges. If the face is bowed, then you want to remove more from the middle. Once you've established where most of your flattening work needs to be done, you can use a pencil or piece of chalk to scribble on the board in the areas to focus on. The nice thing about planing is that you're removing the top layers of wood, so scribble away.

The typical image we have of someone using a hand plane is of them running it along the grain and slicing out a long wispy curl of wood. It turns out that this is not the only way you can do it, and long wispy curls don't do much to make a board flat. So flattening a board starts with the plane moving 90 degrees to the direction of the grain. It is amazing how quickly and how much wood this technique removes. Don't worry too much if your plane is leaving visible tracks, the primary focus is to get things flat. The subsequent steps exist to remove the tracks.

Once you've covered your board with lovely cross-grain planing marks and have a board that is quite a bit flatter, it's time to change directions. Start by planing in a direction that is 45 degrees to the direction of the grain. Instead of short clumps of wood shavings, this will give curly shavings, and the board will start to get smoother. At this point your board will be noticeably flatter. As you're working diagonally, you might want to retract the blade some and take shallower cuts.

Once the board is covered in diagonal tracks, change directions again. This time go 45 degrees from the grain in the opposite direction (that is 90 degrees from your existing tracks). Again you may want to retract the blade some more. With each step the track marks will be shallower and the board flatter.

The last step in flattening is to plane in the direction of the grain (like you imaged you would be all along). Again you probably want to retract the blade some more. Plane until the board is flat and smooth.

The real last step is to check for flatness again, and if it is flat you're done. If it isn't flat, grab your chalk and go back to step one, but you don't have to start out quite so aggressively.

All in all, this process goes a lot faster than you might expect. The cross-grain work at the beginning removed a lot of wood quickly, because it exploits natural weaknesses of the wood. The diagonal cuts tend to mostly remove the weak ridges left behind by previous steps. The straight cuts will remove the diagonal tracks quickly because of the same cross-grain weakness of the wood in the ridges. Now you're ready to flip the board over and do the same to the other size!

Jointing

Jointing is the process of making the edge of a board smooth and square to the face. A jointer plane is typically much longer than a jack plane, but the jack plane is long enough to joint smaller jobs without any problem. It can be used on larger jobs in a pinch. For jointing, you want the mouth to be fairly tight. Some people like to use a curved blade and others like a straight blade. Most of the time boards, are thin enough that it makes little difference.

Smoothing

Smoothing what old-school woodworkers did before sand paper became available and popular. Smoothing planes are smaller, have a tight mouth, and a straight blade (which might have a very slight curve at the edges to prevent tracks). The jack plane can easily be configured such that it is a large smoothing plane. Planing goes along the face with the blade extending the smallest amount that gives an extremely thin shaving.

The Jack of all Trades

This plane gets its name from the phrase that dates back to at least the early 1600s, because it can do the job of three planes quite well. Some people purchase a second blade so they can easily switch between tasks. Having planes optimized for specific tasks can be great, but if you are getting started or want to invest in a set of planes, you will not go wrong with starting out with a single jack plane.

How do I get one?

There are two main options when buying a hand plane. You can buy vintage or buy new. Stanley made some great hand planes up until WW2. You can find them on ebay, at flea markets, at yard sales, at estate sales and at tool meet ups. You can get some great deals, though you should expect to put in a lot of work to get them into good working order. If you go the new route, then you'll pay more up front and pay less in time later.

In the model numbering system that Stanley introduced over a century ago, you want to look for a #5 bench plane. They all also make a #5-1/2, which is wider and heavier. Both planes work great. Which you choose is entirely up to you. Heavier means you might get tired more quickly, but you might like the weight and wider blade.

Here are a couple options from companies whose planes I've purchased in the past.

Lie Nielsen - $245 - Low angle jack plane. Lie Nielsen is the premiere tool company. You will pay more, but get tools built at the highest possible level around. Made in the USA. The cool thing about this plane is that Lie Nielsen sells extra blades pre-ground for use in different planing tasks.

WoodRiver - $195 - #5-1/2 jack plane. WoodRiver makes a line of very high quality planes modeled after the Stanley Bedrock series of planes. I own this plane and it is one of my favorites.

Woodriver - $170 - #5 bench plane. This is the narrower, lighter version of the plane above. 

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The Modern Joiner

Joinery and cabinet making was once one of the most important professions on the planet, but today it is nearly a lost art. In the early 20th century in the US and in the mid 20th century in Europe, people stopped buying furniture made by hand, and the joiners were replaced by people working in factories. Joinery was replaced by techniques that lend themselves to quick mass production. This has had two obvious impacts on modern furniture. It is cheaper and less durable. The low prices in some ways make up for the lack of quality, because when it breaks we can simply buy a new one. This unsustainable cycle has infested many other aspects of our lives.

The Organic Woodworker

There is in its infancy a movement to abandon the unsustainable practices in our lives. Industrialization has brought some amazing things, but at the same time we are starting to see that in the long-term, it also brings a lot of unexpected negative consequences. We are learning to combine modern and historical practices to create a new sustainable future.

I used to not eat organic. This was mostly because I didn't know what it meant. I spent some time abroad, and the word for organic in Polish, ekologiczny, got me thinking. As I learned what organic meant, I learned it was not about being hip or trendy (though in some places it is both) but about farming in a way that is sustainable in the long term. Instead of destroying the ground and requiring fertilizers made from fossil fuels, organic farming is about ensuring that the food can be produced indefinitely without harming the planet.

If we apply the same the principles of sustainability to how we work with wood, we would embrace many of the practices that were common place for hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of years. Many pieces of furniture built a hundred years ago are still in good shape today, and with care could easily last another hundred years. Two years ago, my wife and I bought a factory-made dining room table; it will last another five years at the most. We don't have to build 200 year furniture to be better stewards of the planet, but a table that lasts thirty years (but uses about the same amount of material) would certainly be better than six disposable dining room tables.

Where do we go from here?

My plan is to try to be part of the solution. I will make quality furniture and try to buy from others who are making quality, sustainable furniture. I will document my activities and endeavor to teach others how to do the same. Does this mean I will abandon all power tools? Maybe, maybe not. I certainly have a few that I plan to get rid of and others that I might acquire, but I don't want to be part of the never-ending replacement/upgrade cycle that surround them. Quality hand tools survive for a very long time and with care they can last longer than the furniture they were used to build. The goal is not simply to move backward in time, but to find a balance that will take us into a better future.

This brings us finally to the point of this blog. The Joiner's Workbench is dedicated to helping people learn to work wood. There will be a special emphasis on the tools and techniques for working wood by hand. Sometimes I will focus on a limited set of tools, sometimes a project will use a fuller set of tools. Some time will be spent on just how small the full joiner's tool set is. Whether you are looking to learn or gain inspiration for your next project, I hope you find this blog interesting and enjoyable.