Hand plane shaping

General Discussion
1

I’ve started shaping a board (Rhyno foam) using a small hand plane, and i’m noticing a problem:

The foam is planing uneven. I’m doing one long pass every time, and then I get areas where i break through the skin and areas where I don’t break the skin. And the blank seems to be moving around alot as the foam catches . The blade is new, so I know it’s not the problem. It has to be technique on my part. Can anyone give me any tips on using the hand plane? Or is this all normal and can be corrected through sanding?

2

IMHO. Turn the plane at a slight angle also just because it is a new plane that doesn’t mean it is sharp. You need to make sure it is sharp. Add some kinda weight to the board when you are working on it.

3

Many blanks have got a warped crust. It takes some plowing with a bigger blockplane to clean it up. If you haven’t got a big blockplane you’ll have to try in with a large sandingblock and 40 grit sandingpaper, long strokes will do the job nice and clean. Take your time cuz this will take lots of time. Good luck and have fun!

Ruben

4

type in “perfect razor edge on hand planes” in search forums. this is a beautiful resource for sharpening hand planes.

5

Try wrapping some masking tape sticky side out on your shaping racks, this should keep the blank from moving around too much.

6

SA,

Planing the crust with a hand plane will trash the sharpest edge in no time. Lacking a power plane, try - carefully - skinning the crust with a sur-form and save the sharp plane edge for trueing up real foam after skinning - that is alot easier on the plane edge. As was said, crust is often uneven.

I wrapped a brick in 1" upholstery foam and tape and set it on the board when I don’t want it to slide around.

Pete

7

I have used just really coarse sandpaper nailed on a 2x4 as wide as the board. It takes some time but I doubt it takes longer than just removing slices with a hand planer, and you get a more even result.

actually, that’s almost the only shaping tool I’ve used (I actually had 3 different blocks with slightly different sizes and different grit), except for a handsaw and a small block plane for the stringer. BTW, use it at an angle like someone suggested, it makes alll the difference in the world

for the blank moving around, put some weight on it: I have sandbags that I lay on the board, and move them around as I get close while shaping, someone here uses Bricks wrapped in newspaper

d

8

Thanks for the advice guys…The whole thing about getting the ultra-sharp blade on the block plane was pretty interesting.

So…

Used a soft dive weight to put a little weight on the board.

What I ended up doing is taking the small surform and essentially ran it flat and angled it slightly toward the stringer, nose to tail, and with alot of elbow grease. Took off a lot of the crust, but still left it quite patchy (but definitely did a better job than the block plane). Went back to hit some of the patches of crust, where i used the surform both flat and angled into the crust. This took care of most of the crust, so i did one final pass tail to nose to clean it up. I did a relatively clean job

The surform definitely worked better than the block plane (note: i’m using the small hand plane (6.5??) NOT the large (9.5"). The smaller seems to work better than the large because can feel the foam much better. Plus my shaping stands aren’t the most sturdy, so the small plane is a little easier to control.

What I learned:

  1. Surform over blockplane to skin crust

  2. Be careful when using the surform, especially when angling into the crust. I ended up putting a few small divots (nothing too deep) into the foam because i wasn’t careful enough

  3. As far as longboard blanks and blanks with a good amount of thickness, this method seems to works fine becuse it gives you a little leeway for thinkness and mistakes. Anything less than 2.6, 2.6 inches in thinkness, i’m not sure how accurate it would be.

Being this is my first board, I’m kinda glad to be using the block plane, because it really gives me a chance to see how the foam actually IS. It sounds stupid, but it makes me feel more at one with the foam, versus using an electric planer.

9

You’re right on about the hand tools giving you a beeter feel for what you’re doing.

Also, power tools are scary beasts unless you know them well: I tried using a power planer that I borrowed, and it took me a full hour to fix the damage that 5 mins of power planer did to the blank