Rain, Interspersed with Heavy Showers and Occasional Drizzle.

[Rational Root]

I had great plans for last weekend. I long list of things that I was planning on doing. The weather had other plans. This summer has really not been suited to outdoor boatbuilding. It's been best suited to getting on a plane and going somewhere else.

I did get some work done, I had to plane a simple Oak batten to fit between two plywood gussets, The slats for the seats will screw into these battens. Given that I had gone to the trouble of buying some decent blades for my planes and some waterstones and then going to the trouble of reading all about sharpening, I thought I'd leave the Bosch in its box and break out the Stanley.

The blade was sharp, bald patch on my arm sharp. Gillete eat your heart out. I set the plane to take very thin shavings and started. I had to take about 3/16 of an inch off the batten to make it fit, and I had to square it up a little.

Damn, It's hard work. Oak is hard stuff, and I had the "benefit" of trying to do this on a fold up work bench, so I had to use my weight to hold the bench steady and my arms to plane. I gather that with a proper bench you get to use your body weight to do the planing.

I found that Oak will blunt a blade quite quickly, you can feel it getting harder and harder to push the plane, and you find the shavings concertina. This is a good indication that 30 seconds on the waterstone is required, sacrifice some more hair from my arm to the Sharp Gods, and off we go again.
http://bp0.blogger.com/_-jLgHzfXWAU/RqZK-ZVXf8I/AAAAAAAAAHs/-iaM8Kf8nF4/s320/IMG_0086.JPG
It was a great experience to square and thickness the wood the old fashioned way, but I will admit to dragging out the Bosch in order do the second batten, in about 1/10th of the time.

When you look at pictures of old wooden sailing ships, and think that they didn't have Bosch, Makita, or even Black and Decker, you start to look at them in a different light.

Oh yes, and never try a crushing handshake on someone who actaully uses a hand tools for a living.

[WX]

I did a lot of hand planing on my boat and it's a nice feeling to see those long curls of wood peel out. My youngest daughter use to love playing with them when she was a tot.

[Don Victore]

You like plane shavings ?


http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa101/adzdub/kezuroukai2.jpg

Kezurou-Kai planing copetition.

[Rational Root]

Imagine how long it would take to plane off 1/8th on an inch with your plane set to take shavings that fine. :D

[Nicholas Carey]

Damn, It's hard work. Oak is hard stuff, and I had the "benefit" of trying to do this on a fold up work bench, so I had to use my weight to hold the bench steady and my arms to plane. I gather that with a proper bench you get to use your body weight to do the planing.A good, massive workbench with proper vices, stops and hold-downs is essential to the use of handtools like planes. The one isn't of much use without the other: as my old German shop teacher said (paraphrasing), "Half of good handwork is a set of sharp, well-tuned tools. The other half consists of holding the workpiece still so you can use them."

If you're using Japanese-style planes (which are pulled rather than pushed), then you'll probably be wanting a Japanese-style planing beam rather than a European workbench. A planing beam is basically an angled beam of wood with a simple nail stop at the low end and a shelf on one side for planing on edge. See Toshio Odate's book, Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use, for details. Here's a link to a scan from Odate's book (http://www.ibiblio.org/japanwood/phpBB2/download.php?id=190&sid=61607e9f1d0549746bb575d68d784fba) showing the design of a planing beam, off this discussion (http://www.ibiblio.org/japanwood/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1010&sid=761a86ebd13de40d57301a23ba23b617) on the Japanese Woodworking Forum.

Japanese-style workbenches tend to be simple low trestles that let you use your feed -- japanese woodworkers wear soft tabi and use their feet and body weight as part of the bench/clamp/holdfast system when sawing and chiseling.

BTY, if you want manly shavings from a plane, here's another shot of a planing competition in Japan -- this is, I believe, an okanna, a "big plane" used by temple builders and carpenters:

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5121/2159/1600/kamijo_2planes_19ma06_50.jpg

[how do you like the double iron?]

and another

http://www.palomar.edu/woodworking/Kezurou-Kai/Photos/08_1498.jpg

[Don Victore]

Thats just insane:D I had seen the the wide guys before. And tuning them to do that is no joke. So the double Iron plane must be an absolutely pain. Pretty cool. I don't think these large planes are for every day woodworking. Maybe at one point, for beam planing. Now I think it's for competing only.

[pcford]

http://www.palomar.edu/woodworking/Kezurou-Kai/Photos/08_1498.jpg

Amazing. But a rehabbed garage sale Stanley 9 1/2 can do the same thing. heh, heh, heh.

I was down at the local coffee hangout and was singing the blues about this or that.

A cabinetmaker who uses Japenese tools came in and we started talking about Japanese planes. I said I certainly respected them but I knew nuthin' about them. He said come over to my shop and I'll show you a bit.....

I am convinced they can do excellent, maybe superior work with them....but it would be such a switch in thinking. Don't people usually use Japanese tools OR western?

Anyway....it was a nice time...forgot whatever was bugging me for a while.

[Nicholas Carey]

I am convinced they can do excellent, maybe superior work with them....but it would be such a switch in thinking. Don't people usually use Japanese tools OR western?I'd think so, at least with planes -- the difference between push and pull means different benches and work-holding systems are needed.

Japanese chisels are used pretty much the same ways as western-style chisels. Japanese saws are similar enough that it doesn't much matter, outside of maybe having the the stop on the near side of the workpiece instead of the far side.


Thats just insane:D I had seen the the wide guys before. And tuning them to do that is no joke. So the double Iron plane must be an absolutely pain.Just setting them up -- each iron has to be parallel to the sole and as the same time parallel to and a few thousandths of inch deeper than the iron in front if it. I saw a picture of a 5-iron big boy once :eek:
I don't think these large planes are for every day woodworking. Maybe at one point, for beam planing. Now I think it's for competing only.I don't know. Maybe for ordinary carpentry they don't use them, but temple building is a specialty trade and there's a respect for handwork that you don't necessarily see here.

There are big planes in the western tradition too. I've seen 15th c. engravings showing a joiner driving a 5 foot long jointer plane, with traces attached and complete with two apprentices in harness providing the motive force.

BTW, anybody interested in tools who happens to find themselves in Troyes, France must, must, must go to this museum:

Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensee Ouvriere (http://www.maison-de-l-outil.com/) Its a tool museum and chock full of thousands of tools from every trade you can imagine (a several you've never even heard of). The organisation behind the museum is Les Compagnons du Devoir (http://www.compagnons-du-devoir.com/), which operates apprenticeship programs for the trades, both traditional and modern. The list of trades they train is here (http://www.compagnons-du-devoir.com/main.php?rub=24).

After Charleston, South Carolina got hammered by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, damaging more than a thousand historic 18th century houses, French journeymen trained by Les Compagnons de Devoir were brought in to make the necessary repairs, as they had been trained in 18th c. techniques of the trades -- masons, carpenters, slaters, plasterers, etc. (not to mention that in these latter days, in certain trades, like plasteres, slaters, etc., it can be difficult to find people with the skills necesary to work at a master's level.

I remember an interview at the time with one of the French guys (a mason), who opined that prior to coming to Charleston, he'd been dubious about the upcoming trip, expecting to find rather crude workmanship not worthy of his skills in Charleston 18th c. houses, but that he'd been pleasantly surprised to find that the masons who build Charleston way back when had done work as good as anything in Europe.

[Don Victore]

Five Irons, my g-d, The Japanese Are sick. I have trained to some degree in in Japanese woodworking. I was building shoji and other japanese inspired furniture projects. I worked with joinery structures for a wile. that built "larry land". I'm originally from France and seriously contemplated joining "Les Compagnons de Devoir". I have two cousins that are doing well with that route. Didn't realize they would be willing to come here,Interesting. when it comes to craftsmanship this is is what I'm talking about. I've posted some stuff that may seem a little extreme. And it is true that this sort of high quality seems to have no legit place in this day and age. But when it is done are we not all in admiration of it?