I recently shaped a “Blank-With-No-Name” that was given to me during the post-Clark blank shake-up.
The first boards that I shaped were from '70’s era Clark foam. For years before I got my first Skil I shaped most of the board with jack and block planes; they shaved long, beautiful curls. By the mid-80’s, however, the foam I was getting had a real tendency to tear rather than shave, and I retired my planes to woodworking service.
I have always loved fine-tuning bottom contours with hand-planes so, for kicks, I brought out my sharpest plane to flatten the Vee panels on the no-name blank.
Curls! long, beautiful, quiet curls.
I’m wondering if anyone who is using hand planes has an opinion on whose blank is best for this.
I’m not familiar with any blank that shapes well with hand planes I have. I’d like to know what kind of planes you have and how you keep them that sharp!
I’m a complete tool freak when it comes to hand planes, I own some of the best ever made but have to admit I’ve not tried this but guess the denser the foam the better the result so mabye something like a bauford balnk? what depth of cuts are you making. I would imagine it would be easier to produce those results with a deeper cut.
This last time I used two different planes, a 9 1/4" smoothing plane (wood handle@stern, wood knob@bow) that can be held over the top like a block plane, too, and a Stanley #118 low-angle block-plane that’s about 6 1/4". In general, the longer the shoe, the flatter the surface you can achieve, not a real problem with surfboards, I think.
The #118 seems a good choice for a couple of reasons: One, the low angle seems right for shearing foam rather than scraping it. Two, rather than a cast-iron body it has a formed steel body—It has holes in the sides, rather than cast indents, for positive grip. Since the body is formed rather than cast, the side/shoe angle is slightly rounded so that you are less likely to catch an edge and egg-beater the plane across the foam. Three, if you do drop it, it’s unlikely to break or chip like a cast bodied plane. They can still be found used.
Most important is a sharp blade and the right approach angle.
While searching the archives here at Sway’s, I came upon some links to sharpening. I’m a carpenter, by tirade, and have my own ways of sharpening plane irons and chisels with the stones I have. I’m not happy with an edge unless it can shave my forearm or fingernail. But back when I started I know my edges were never that sharp and they shaved foam well.
Yeah, if you’re set too shallow you just scrape, too deep, you tear. As you know, beauty of the hand plane is that it shears off high spots, truing a surface to within the amount of the depth of cut, and reveals low spots, unlike sandpaper and to some degree, the sureform.
I guess you’d really have to call hand-plane work “medium-tuning”. There was still some sanding and screening , but I barely used a sureform.
As far as the foam goes, you are probably right about density being the main issue, but I know so little about the chemistry.
Strength and weight are the main concerns for any manufacturer, so hand-planability would be an accidental side-effect.