Bevel Up or Down?

At Woodworking in America this year, Graham Blackburn was a last minute addition to the seminar lists as David Charlesworth was not able to attend due to pneumonia. Ouch!

Well, I had the pleasure of attending two classes on plane craft by Graham and the one thing I came away with on the second seminar was:

"If you plane is properly setup, you should be able to take it to any piece of wood in any direction and get zero tearout"

I thought, "Come on! Not possible! No way!"

He said the secret (which is really no secret, only a lesson that needs passing on to those of us learning on our own), is to:

1. Keep the mouth of the plane open only as wide as the thickness of shaving you want to produce; and
2. Keep your Cap Iron as close to the cutting edge as the thickness of shaving you want to take.

So, what about bevel up planes I asked. He said at the end of the class that in order to take a plane to any piece of wood in any direction with no tearout, you have to have a cap iron. I was starting to despair that my investment into bevel up Veritas planes was for naught.

Well, I decided to write it off as fanatical dogma. You know, sort of like saying that pins first is the ONLY way to get tight fitting dovetail joints (just ask Tom Iovino and his experience at the Hand Tool Olympics).

Well, when I got home, I decided to give it a try as it had been bugging me for a couple of weeks now and I finally got an opportunity to put it to the test.

I set up my bevel up smoother to take a really fine shaving and closed up the mouth as tight as possible and set out to work on a piece of curly maple. I then did the same with a bevel down smoother.

To my surprise, I was able to get a very clean surface with both planes. It may be that there may be a more gnarly wood out there that will really prove Graham's statement to be true, but I'll have to wait to find that piece of wood another time.

So, bevel up fans, do not despair. At least from a smoothing point of view anyway. I'll be testing this theory in other configurations, but that will be for another post. Thanks Graham, you've helped me grow in my skill level and although I may dispute your statement on the cap iron, it made me think and that's a trait of any great teacher.

Tools - Hand Vs Power

The tendonitis in my shoulder is not going away just yet. 5 minutes in the garage clamping up a drawer frame caused it to start aching again. A longing for my naproxen (an anti-inflammatory) reminded me that I forgot to take it after dinner. Having only finished dinner 30 minutes earlier, I turned off the lights in my shop and walked dejected back into the house. I'm not sure what brought on this malady. I didn't do much over the last week and a half with my mum and sister visiting. I guess it just happens sometimes. Enough with feeling sorry for myself though.

Over the past few days, I've been pondering my tool usage. I've been using my hand tools more of late. Not because of a conscious decision to suddenly turn into a galoot or neanderthal (terms of which I've learned that wood workers who are primarily hand tool users affectionately call themselves) but rather because my power tools just don't seem to be up to the task in some cases.

I have a 10" Ryobi compound miter saw. The problem is that it is a non-sliding model that will only cut 5 7/8" boards despite having a 10" blade. Additionally, I have problems with getting perfectly cut angles even though I've gone through the tune up process a couple of times (maybe it's not really reliable after all?). Also, it's heavy. Because it's a garage, I normally have it along the back wall which is no good for trying to cut lengths longer than 6 feet really. In order to use it I have to haul it out to my makeshift workbench, make all my anticipated cuts and then haul it back so that I can then break out the planer to begin surfacing. As a result, for the longer lengths, I've switched over to using my hand miter saw (a cheapie from a big orange box store bought a couple of years ago) and a Japanese pull saw that I picked up on sale at Lee Valley. There's also the shooting board I previously mentioned that gets my edges to that perfect 90 degrees. So the power tool in this case has been all but shelved.

Don't get me wrong, I consider myself the amongst the ultimate of Gemini's of wood working. I have no problem what-so-ever in enslaving electrons to do my bidding (some refer it to smashing them, but as a science geek, that would be very hazardous to ones health in the long run). Picture Tim the Toolman with his head thrown back grunting and calling out "More Power!". On the other hand, the quiet 'Shish' of a freshly sharpened hand plan across a piece of walnut or cherry is intoxicating and very zen. Just ask Shannon (The Renaissance Woodworker).

It's simply that I've learned early on that buying 'budget' tools will cost you more in the long run. Tools aren't cheap, and power tools are more expensive. At least the quality ones are. I'm sure there's someone out there that will argue the point and I welcome the education if you should happen to dare. I'm talking about the cost of the tools, not the labour that goes into using them. I don't care about that as I'm in this for the pleasure and not the money.

So, where does one start out when it comes to tools? I can't say that I'm fully qualified to give advice on the matter, but I would ask if you're interested in hand or power tools? If you don't know, check out your local wood working guild. Ask a buddy if you could watch her/him while they work. Even if you decide to go the power route, you will need some hand tools. A block plane, some chisels, a flush trim saw.

I recommend that you buy the best you can afford when it comes to the block plane and chisels. Lee Valley sells their Veritas brand of hand planes and they come ready to use right out of the box. I had a crap cheap smoothing plane (equivalent to a #4) from a Canadian general merchandise retailer that did not work very well at all. I was scared to use it because of the issues that it caused. The fact that I had never been instructed how to use a plane contributed, but the quality was a major factor as well. My first time using a Veritas plane was like the sun coming up after a night of Thunderstorms in a dark forest. Or am I being too melodramatic?

On another note regarding tool selection, I observed and participated earlier today in a conversation on Twitter with Brian (of Extremely Average noted to the right in my blog roll) on the merits between a Festool Track Saw and a SawStop table saw with the initial discussion on which to get. I was observing at this point, silently cheering on the table saw as in my opinion while Festool makes good products, a circular saw with a clamping guide or even a drywall square can do the job just as effectively as long as you have a decent blade in the saw). I think the Saw Stop won, but the winner was never really announced before changing over to a discussion on the merits between getting a band saw or a table saw first. Brian was being mercilessly herded to go the band saw route by Shannon and another fellow Canadian (Larry AKA @woodnbits).

I believe Brian is going to blog about his discussion, but for what it's worth, I would love to have both. I have a table saw which I enjoy, but I have a lot of 6/4 and 8/4 lumber waiting to be used and I don't want to waste it by trying to resaw to have both. I have a table saw which I enjoy, but I have a lot of 6/4 and 8/4 lumber waiting to be used and I don't want to waste it by trying to resaw it by hand (exhausting) or trying to resaw it on my table saw (losing 1/8" before surfacing).

While I was disappointed to not be able to be in the shop longer, I am satisfied that this was a good day as I got to really put my thoughts down on the subject and now I need to wrap this up as my daughter is in need of her 10 PM snack before bed. Brian, I look forward to your blog on the discussion as well.

-Authors note 6/29/2010-
Because it was late and in my eagerness to get this article published, I didn't take the time to proof my post. I seem to have used the term 'mercilessly herded' without realizing its context and how it may be interpreted. It was meant to be taken in fun as a gentle ribbing that occurs between galoots and electron worshipers. Lesson learned.
Mike

Learning without Leadership - Exploring the web

Back in January, I started building a Nursery Cabinet without really any knowledge of how to build a cabinet. My wife Marsha was 5.5 months pregnant (our first) and we wanted an open closet with a cabinet inside. We originally came up with the design while having dinner at Montana's restaurant. They have the brown paper table coverings (I won't dignify them by calling them table cloths) and provide crayons for kids to entertain themselves with. We came up with the following design:

The hanger rods would be placed into the left hand side (I just never got around to putting them in the drawing).

Some rudimentary web searching told me what I thought I needed to know, but I've managed only to cut down the plywood components, make 3 drawers and the drawer faces (more on that in a project blog later).

There it stopped. I had no idea how to make the face frame. Nor did I have enough clamps to start assembly. I was crushed.

So, I began looking for podcasts, blogs, articles ... you name it. I happened to find The Wood Whisperer. In the span of a month, I downloaded and viewed every episode he had to offer and was hungry for more. I also exceeded my bandwidth for the month and had to pay an extra $30. Small price to pay for the knowledge gained.

I also ended up joining the The Wood Whisperer Guild in March. The guild local to my area was a bit far away. Their web page calendar was about 2 years out of date and they didn't seem to be very active in holding seminars or classes.

Since the beginning of March, I've subscribed to many blogs, podcasts and with my travel time for other activities, feeding our child at night (she was born March 12th). I've been able to catch up on the entire history of Wood Talk Online, and the Spoken Wood podcast (gee, looking at it this way, I have WAY too much time on my hands - but it was all time I was physically occupied with somewhat mindless activities).

In answering Marc & Matt's question in WTO episode 68, I believe that yes, it is possible to learn woodworking (at least the basics) from books/videos alone (if you include blogs as books and video podcasts as videos).

I guess with joining the guild in March, my foray into learning without leadership is not completely true, but I believe it mostly holds as true because I don't go running to Marc everytime I need to know how to do something (Marc, I'm sure you would be very thankful as helpful as you've been - you would have to charge me 2 memberships LOL!). The self education process is still very evident.

As a side note, I haven't bought an actual woodworking book until about a month ago. I've since built a couple of projects, but it will soon be time to get back to that Nursury Cabinet and complete it before my daughter is moved to her own room ... and preserve the peace between my beloved and me.