Popular Woodworking 2008-04 № 168, страница 76
Against the grain. If you plane against your wood's grain, you'll tear the surface, no matter how much fuss and time you put into it. Simply turn the board around, or plane in the other direction, following the grain. ^f^feceinthisdirection Learn to read. To avoid tear-out, it's important to learn how to read the grain of a board. Examine the edge and set up your work so the layers of growth are facing away from you, and plane in that direction. first is to change directions of planing as the grain changes in the board. The second is to plane in one direction regardless of the grain changes and to clean up later with a smooth plane. I will go into greater detail about specific situations below. If your board has a clean-sawn edge (as opposed to a rough edge) you can usually tell which way the grain is running. Examine the edge. If the layers of growth are rising toward you, the plane will likely tear the surface. Depending on the angle of rise, the depth of the cutter and the frog setting, your first pass can create a very messy torn surface that will require a lot of work to remove. Scrub Plane The first plane used for preparing stock is the scrub plane. This plane was part of the continental European woodworking tradition. The Anglo-American woodworking tradition used a jack plane for the same purpose. A scrub plane does the same work as a power jointer, in that the tool flattens one surface of a board. While the width of your jointer's bed limits the width of board you can run over it, the only limitation on the width of the board you can work with a scrub plane is the length of your arms. A scrub plane has a short stock, or body. Its most obvious feature is a cutting edge that is almost semi-circular. This extreme edge is suited for its very specific job - knocking down high spots, and doing it in very short order. The nearly semi-circular edge allows the plane to take a deep, narrow shaving without choking. This means the tool can hog off a lot of wood very quickly. However, it will leave behind a very coarse surface. Begin the scrub plane's work by laying the rough stock on the bench. If the board is cupped or has wind, the scrub plane will remove these problems and quickly bring the board closer to flat. If the cupping or warp is not obvious, these high spots can be made more apparent by using a straightedge and winding sticks. A scrub plane is used with a short, quick and powerful stroke at an angle across the surface of the board. When the straightedge and winding sticks confirm that the board is flat (although the surface is quite rough), you can run the board through your thickness planer. Place the scrubbed surface on the bed and flatten the opposite side. Then, turn the board over and use the Curved edge. A scrub plane's most obvious feature is a cutting edge that is almost semicircular. Quick work. The scrub plane's blade makes it the ideal tool for knocking down high spots with quick, powerful strokes. thickness planer to remove the scrub plane marks. If instead you want to continue using handplanes, move on to the jack to clean up the scrubbed surface. Then, invert the board and repeat the process on the other side. The most common non-traditional use for a scrub plane in today's woodworking is to create a suggestion of hand work. You will frequently note a scrub plane has been run over dark, stained pine surfaces of the tables and booths in a restaurant trying to simulate an early or a rustic setting. Of course, no woodworker in the past would have left such a surface, as it would have been considered shoddy craftsmanship. A true handplaned surface is much finer and more subtle. Jack Plane The next plane in the process of preparing stock is the jack. The jack is frequently mis-identified by woodworkers who call it a scrub plane. The two tools are very different. "Jack" is an archaic word that was applied to anything that did hard, or heavy work. Indeed, the jack always has been, and remains, the workhorse of bench planes. English and American woodworkers used the plane for the same purpose as the scrub - to flatten a board by knocking off the high spots. The jack's cutting edge is also crested, but nowhere near as much as a scrub's almost semi-circular blade. As coarse as the j ack plane is in comparison to the smooth plane, it was still the plane used to prepare the wood used in pre-industrial building interiors. Jack-plane tracks appear on most wide surfaces such a door panels and wainscoting in any building built before about 1850. Although frequently obscured by the paint layers that accumulate over 200 years, they are there. Thus, an early interior had a subtle texture that played with light and shadow. The effect is lacking from most reproduction interiors and its absence is immediately obvious to the knowledgeable eye. The jack was also used in making furniture, and the presence of its particular track is one of the first details the connoisseur looks for when determining a piece of furniture's authenticity. Utilitarian furniture, such as cupboards, frequently retain the jack-plane track on visible surfaces. However, visible surfaces of better-quality work were smoothed with a smooth plane. Only unseen surfaces such as drawer bottoms and backboards were left as they came from the jack plane. These are some of the finer points that furniture reproducers aiming for an antique 66 ■ Popular Woodworking April 2008 MX |
