I have recently been introduced to wooden handplanes by Kordurory.tv and I'm pretty interested in making them. I have shaped two so far, one out of an old skateboard deck and one out of white pine. My question is, what woods, other than paulowina are good for making handplanes. I'm talking about woods that don't soak up water like pine would if not sealed properly. I plan to get some paulowina soon, but I have come across some poplar and I have some white pine planks that I would like to shape some handplanes out of.
I got the hand plane bug last year. I started seeing potential hand planes everywhere. My bamboo cutting board did not survive. Didn’t make a very good plane either.
If you are concerned about rot resitance maybe cypress is the way to go.
It is my favorite. Be advised however that I’m a complete noob. I can only compare it , hand plane wise, with pine, ply and poplar. I’ve never even seen a piece of pawlonia. Poplar is not bad either.
With cypress the more rot resistant heart wood is heavier and harder to work with.It looks great though. And I’m enjoying the necessity of using old woodworking hard tools to shape it.
The lighter sap wood is still close grained and durable. just not so much as the heartwood.
You can also be surprised sometimes by by pithy hollows in cypress. This “pecky” board is interesting looking and is used for paneling and such. I have had times when the pecky-ness is workable and enhance the look of a hand plane. I have also had blanks that were unusable after finding big gnarly hollows in them.
This is all with rough sawn, found and self harvested timber. Buying milled lumber would take alot of the guess work out of it.
I finish cypress with oil and wax. Several applications of oil, allowed to dry between.
I will be experimenting with other local timber. Its still drying out.
Gonna try pecan,hickory, sweetgum,holly, water tupelo and whatever else I get ahold of.
If you can find them there are some other fast growing invasives like paulownia to try. Chinese Tallow and Mulberry perhaps. They might share some of paulownia’s desirable characteristics. This is a guess. If I try em first I’ll let you know.
Ya, I’ve been using Thompson’s Waterseal on pine for a couple years and it has held up fine. I would like to try some of the lighter woods like redwood and see how it holds up.
I use 12mm marine ply, and I seal them with urethane. I’ve never had any trouble with them at all! They (and surfmats) are the ultimate “Swiss-Army” surf-craft. Here’s a link to a pair of Ply “twin hand pods” I made last year. They were super fun, but ended up getting sold. I need to make myself another pair.
Other than paulownia you can try red or white cedar. Both are resistant to rot and commonly found in boat construction. Also relatively cheap and easy to find.
I like to use paulownia for mine, its light and easy to work with. Also you can seal it with a natural oil finish or varnish.
Marketing put in a call to the guys at business analysis, they changed the concept before it went to I. T.
I only read half the brief and missed a crucial team meeting but still came up with this
Hand
Plane.
