I have only been hand tool woodworking for six or seven years, but I instinctively did that when I ran across difficult grain. I did not know until I saw this video if that was correct, all I knew was that it worked and planning with the grain did not because you couldn't. not that I'm anything special or that I'm any good at hand tool work, I just saw that one thing and just did it. thanks for all you do and have done to promote hand tool woodworking. I have said it before, you are the reason I do hand tool woodworking, you are the one that made it make sense to me.
Lol. "With a single plane." And 57 years of hard-earned experience. Love your work, Paul. Wish you were still doing in-person courses but understand the extra reach you get to teach with a UA-cam channel.
Paul...I'm in my shop most everyday now and almost completely using hand tools only. I've learned so much in my woodworking journey and have to say you are the reason for my joy. Every time I pick up my plane I think of you. Pretty much the only tv I watch are your videos. Thank you Sir. I appreciate you!
Thanks for another great tutorial, Paul. What I like most about your vid's is that you don't just teach skills. You also illustrate how intelligent thinking can lead to successful techniques, if we experiment by bending the rules a bit. I've got to tell you, your idea of chamfering is not only useful for preventing tear out. It can also be a visual guide when planing accurately down to a line; but you already know that. The thing is, the technique was taught to me, not by a woodworker, but by a clockmaker, over 40 years ago. Because I can constantly see where and how much material is being removed, it's among the best time saving tips I ever got.
He makes it look so easy! If I tried that, I'd be left with a board about 1/4 inch thick by the time I got it flat without any tear out. He's had a lot of practice and it shows!
50 years of experience isn't required. Now that you have the knowledge of what to do, you can put it into practice and anyone can achieve the same results with some patience.
Oh Another thought if you are in need of inspiration is How about a Poor Mans Plough Plane ? Could you build an adjustable plough plane from wood scraps and perhaps a few bits of cheep hardware ?
Paul, how I wish you uploaded this just one day before! I was stuck on this very issue yesterday, while preparing stock for the Sellers Home Rocking Chair. Any how, better late than never 😃
As always Paul a brilliant example of hand work. I have just made a table in oak completely by hand because of the cost of running my machines and it reawakened my love of hand woodwork. I will be continuing this trend as it is so enjoyable.
Thank you for sharing all of your experience Paul. You mentioned “… I put some lines in to show me where the twist is…” - how do you do that step of drawing those lines as indicators? How do you relate the straight lines to twist location? Such a subtle step but if not done properly the remaining process could become worse.
Thanks Paul. Never thought to go across for difficult grain. Certainly done so with a scrub plane when hogging off lots of material but didn't make the connection to try it on the smoothing process. Will definitely keep in mind. Thanks for sharing.
So, the difference between scrub planing, fore planing and try planing is primarily the amount of camber on the blade. All generally happen before jointing and smoothing. While you can start dimensioning your board with your scrub, you will want to move to a fore or a try as you get close to your line. A high angle plane or scraping plane can make smoothing easier.
He recently uploaded a video about that, called "twist solution". You don't need to do this mind you, but it helps for very twisted boards. Essentially he uses winding sticks and a wedge to meassure the twist, then uses his straight edge (you could use a chalk line instead) to mark a rectangle/plane on the edges of the board. You can then plane down to those lines, e.g. by using the technique from this video.
Good advice Paul, I can't tell you how much birds eye and figured maple I've had to discard because I couldn't get it flat and presentable. I wish I had a 5 1/2 been looking for a couple years. Keep on smiling.
Thank you Paul for this demonstration. I noticed that you had a slight angle to the grain with the plane as you traversed the board. Does this help with the tear out on the edge and slicing the across the grain?
Paul, I recently built a guitar with a HIGHLY figured ash top (there's a build video on my channel). It was kind of like working with a huge piece of end grain. Would a low-angle plane make sense there, or do you have any other tips?
This video is so overdue. New woodworkers like myself utilise all media available to learn but all the royal UA-camr woodworkers seem to have these beautiful straight grain billets of hardwood in Oak and Ash and fantastic clean clear not free straight grain white wood with sparely a knot to be seen. Probably grown in Narnia harvested with a golden axe and pulled out of the wood by unicorns. Leave it to Paul to make a video that really gets down to the grassroots of woodworking. I’d love to see what he could do with one of those knotty pine boards that one would buy from a timber merchants in real life to make a bookcase or something with.
Forty five degrees across the grain is the traditional way. Paul's demonstration way (90 degrees), risks breaking out the back edge, depsite the chamfer.
I am by no means a skilled wood worker but I do work with wood and hand tools for dealing with it. When I do things like this I end up with uneven thickness a lot of the time. That could be from doing it to two boards I want to join in some way or even a single board. This is unhelpful when making a dovetail box for example. How would I avoid or correct this without making the whole thing thinner than it was supposed to be?
You need to mark lines so as to be able to have a board that is parallels. So what you can do is get one side completely flat and then use that side as a reference to mark the other side with a gauge and then work with the plane to that gauge line.
@@bighands69 Thanks for your response. Bearing in mind I don't have a thicknesser, its all hand tools. - Are you saying ultimately I'd need to start out with thicker stock than intended for the finished product and refine it down this way or even end up with slightly thinner stock and do the same for all boards involved? I seem to end up playing catch up doing stuff like this because I get one bit square and flat and then try to do the rest of the faces and something goes out of sync, leaving me with different thicknesses of board or not squared to each face boards even if they are flat. I may have explained this in a not good way so apologies if this is difficult to follow.
This is another case where a good rule of thumb became a law that shall never be broken without shunning. Then a wisened master shows the world why it’s only a guideline when it doesn’t apply. Thank you Paul.
Pine is too easy.. it rarely gives me fits.. Maple, tiger maple, quilted maple, all forms of maple drive me nuts. The grain changes direction, the wood is so much harder and prone to tear out. I can get pine surfaced, I suffer with maple... always have, GRRR.. But I keep learning, and NOT learning.
Paul, I don't have a space to do woodworking, do you think, weather permitting I can work outside ? I was thinking about building a bench outdoors for using outdoors but then the vice will rust/rot depending what its made from ! Id keep my tools indoors ofc but i'm wondering how practical it would be ? Obviously not ideal but would you consider it doable ? I'd think back in ye olde worlde days they would work outdoors all the time ?
I have only been hand tool woodworking for six or seven years, but I instinctively did that when I ran across difficult grain. I did not know until I saw this video if that was correct, all I knew was that it worked and planning with the grain did not because you couldn't. not that I'm anything special or that I'm any good at hand tool work, I just saw that one thing and just did it. thanks for all you do and have done to promote hand tool woodworking. I have said it before, you are the reason I do hand tool woodworking, you are the one that made it make sense to me.
It's more "correct" (ie traditional) to scrub-plane at 45 degrees to the grain, rather than 90.
Lol. "With a single plane." And 57 years of hard-earned experience. Love your work, Paul. Wish you were still doing in-person courses but understand the extra reach you get to teach with a UA-cam channel.
A couple of months of practice and most people would feel confident of doing it.
@@bighands69 Thank you for your insight.
you are a magician when it comes to woodworking !!!! your 50 plus years of experience is a joy to watch in practice.. Frank
Paul...I'm in my shop most everyday now and almost completely using hand tools only. I've learned so much in my woodworking journey and have to say you are the reason for my joy. Every time I pick up my plane I think of you. Pretty much the only tv I watch are your videos. Thank you Sir. I appreciate you!
Thanks for another great tutorial, Paul. What I like most about your vid's is that you don't just teach skills. You also illustrate how intelligent thinking can lead to successful techniques, if we experiment by bending the rules a bit.
I've got to tell you, your idea of chamfering is not only useful for preventing tear out. It can also be a visual guide when planing accurately down to a line; but you already know that. The thing is, the technique was taught to me, not by a woodworker, but by a clockmaker, over 40 years ago. Because I can constantly see where and how much material is being removed, it's among the best time saving tips I ever got.
He makes it look so easy! If I tried that, I'd be left with a board about 1/4 inch thick by the time I got it flat without any tear out. He's had a lot of practice and it shows!
thats where 50+ years experience shines ;)
Funny thing is, I tried doing as he did and I ended up with exactly what the OP described lol. Definitely has decades experience over me
50 years of experience isn't required. Now that you have the knowledge of what to do, you can put it into practice and anyone can achieve the same results with some patience.
I doubt a straight blade bench top planer could have handled that board. A spiral head likely could, but Paul’s beveled edges would improve the odds.
Paul makes everything look easy but it is achievable. Well within reach with a leap of faith.
A sharp plane, is truly a thing of joy,,, 👌😀
Indeed!
I would go so far as to say any sharp cutting/drilling/milling tool is a thing of joy. But planing is quite therapeutic
Very satisfying
Oh Another thought if you are in need of inspiration is How about a Poor Mans Plough Plane ? Could you build an adjustable plough plane from wood scraps and perhaps a few bits of cheep hardware ?
Paul, how I wish you uploaded this just one day before! I was stuck on this very issue yesterday, while preparing stock for the Sellers Home Rocking Chair. Any how, better late than never 😃
As always Paul a brilliant example of hand work. I have just made a table in oak completely by hand because of the cost of running my machines and it reawakened my love of hand woodwork. I will be continuing this trend as it is so enjoyable.
Thank you for sharing all of your experience Paul. You mentioned “… I put some lines in to show me where the twist is…” - how do you do that step of drawing those lines as indicators? How do you relate the straight lines to twist location? Such a subtle step but if not done properly the remaining process could become worse.
How refreshing, a real woodworker! 👏👍😀
Thanks Paul. Never thought to go across for difficult grain. Certainly done so with a scrub plane when hogging off lots of material but didn't make the connection to try it on the smoothing process. Will definitely keep in mind. Thanks for sharing.
So, the difference between scrub planing, fore planing and try planing is primarily the amount of camber on the blade. All generally happen before jointing and smoothing. While you can start dimensioning your board with your scrub, you will want to move to a fore or a try as you get close to your line. A high angle plane or scraping plane can make smoothing easier.
Question of 10 points: how do you mark those parallel and untwisted lines ? With the pencil, I think, but how do you do the first side of the board?
He recently uploaded a video about that, called "twist solution". You don't need to do this mind you, but it helps for very twisted boards.
Essentially he uses winding sticks and a wedge to meassure the twist, then uses his straight edge (you could use a chalk line instead) to mark a rectangle/plane on the edges of the board. You can then plane down to those lines, e.g. by using the technique from this video.
In fact, I'm pretty sure he is working on that same board in theese two videos.
@@SigurtDinesen thank you, it seems to me that it is the same board
With a wood master's brain and a single plane you can relieve yourself of twisted wood grain. (JF)
Thank you Paul your methods are at the heart of every new technique I learn.
Really fantastic tip, Paul! Thanks!!! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Good advice Paul, I can't tell you how much birds eye and figured maple I've had to discard because I couldn't get it flat and presentable. I wish I had a 5 1/2 been looking for a couple years. Keep on smiling.
Learn something new every day! Thank you.
Very clever!
Thank you Paul for this demonstration. I noticed that you had a slight angle to the grain with the plane as you traversed the board. Does this help with the tear out on the edge and slicing the across the grain?
The rain in Spain falls mainly with the grain. Well done. Thank you.
What did you do to determine where those pencil lines were placed?
He did a video about a month ago showing how he lays this out with winding sticks and wedges. Check it out.
@@jimcarter4929 Tyvm!
Would this wood be predispositioned to further warping or unlikely to warp further as it continues aging?
That makes so much sense
brilliant
Paul, I recently built a guitar with a HIGHLY figured ash top (there's a build video on my channel). It was kind of like working with a huge piece of end grain. Would a low-angle plane make sense there, or do you have any other tips?
My first time to see Mr Paul using a big plane. What a wonderful trick
Thank you.
Thank you for the video. Do you have an opinion on toothed blades for difficult grain?
This is genius. Bevel the long edges and cross plane the gnarly grain.
This video is so overdue. New woodworkers like myself utilise all media available to learn but all the royal UA-camr woodworkers seem to have these beautiful straight grain billets of hardwood in Oak and Ash and fantastic clean clear not free straight grain white wood with sparely a knot to be seen. Probably grown in Narnia harvested with a golden axe and pulled out of the wood by unicorns. Leave it to Paul to make a video that really gets down to the grassroots of woodworking. I’d love to see what he could do with one of those knotty pine boards that one would buy from a timber merchants in real life to make a bookcase or something with.
Forty five degrees across the grain is the traditional way. Paul's demonstration way (90 degrees), risks breaking out the back edge, depsite the chamfer.
I am by no means a skilled wood worker but I do work with wood and hand tools for dealing with it. When I do things like this I end up with uneven thickness a lot of the time. That could be from doing it to two boards I want to join in some way or even a single board. This is unhelpful when making a dovetail box for example. How would I avoid or correct this without making the whole thing thinner than it was supposed to be?
You need to mark lines so as to be able to have a board that is parallels. So what you can do is get one side completely flat and then use that side as a reference to mark the other side with a gauge and then work with the plane to that gauge line.
@@bighands69 Thanks for your response. Bearing in mind I don't have a thicknesser, its all hand tools. - Are you saying ultimately I'd need to start out with thicker stock than intended for the finished product and refine it down this way or even end up with slightly thinner stock and do the same for all boards involved? I seem to end up playing catch up doing stuff like this because I get one bit square and flat and then try to do the rest of the faces and something goes out of sync, leaving me with different thicknesses of board or not squared to each face boards even if they are flat.
I may have explained this in a not good way so apologies if this is difficult to follow.
This is another case where a good rule of thumb became a law that shall never be broken without shunning. Then a wisened master shows the world why it’s only a guideline when it doesn’t apply. Thank you Paul.
How to do when we have a lot of knots in the board?
You owe it to your viewers to acknowledge the blowout that happened twice on the edges of the board, and to explain how to prevent it.
Hi Mr Sellers! When you have a moment please plain my Australian Cedar! Please please please 😜😂😂😂
Aussie Cedar, nightmare to work with. So oily! But a lovely wood.
@@mohdalisyed tell me about...😭😭😂
Yes it is beautiful wood!👍🏽
Thank you, Paul, for another great tutorial! Success at the highest level is all about practicing & refining the basics 🙂
2:57 the pain :(
What pain?
@@Knatterbart the one I felt when a piece of board tore out.
The plane in Spain works best along the grain (with apologies to Lerner and Lowe)
A planer is used to make planks plane. "mild shock"
Pine is too easy.. it rarely gives me fits.. Maple, tiger maple, quilted maple, all forms of maple drive me nuts. The grain changes direction, the wood is so much harder and prone to tear out. I can get pine surfaced, I suffer with maple... always have, GRRR.. But I keep learning, and NOT learning.
First! Yippeeee!!
my comment
Paul, I don't have a space to do woodworking, do you think, weather permitting I can work outside ? I was thinking about building a bench outdoors for using outdoors but then the vice will rust/rot depending what its made from ! Id keep my tools indoors ofc but i'm wondering how practical it would be ? Obviously not ideal but would you consider it doable ? I'd think back in ye olde worlde days they would work outdoors all the time ?