Has anyone had a problem where when you use a spoke shave to plane down the height of the stringer, it starts to scrape the abuting foam obligating you to hit those areas again with sandpaper/etc which then makes the stringer stick up again, and so on, and so on.?
would a block plane help deal with this issue?
thanks for any advice.
best,
Yep…SHARP blades… If you don’t/can’t sharpen them yourself, buy new ones. Holding the plane at an angle works up in the rocker of the nose. Also, try to go downhill in that area instead of uphill, so you’ll be going with the endgrain instead of against it.
The other “trick” is to finish plane the stringer after you’ve polished out the blank with high grit paper. The blade seems to slide over the smooth foam easier then roughly sanded foam, especially with EPS.
What deals with this issue the best is to have razor-sharp blades, plane at an angle, don’t press too much. Also, a convex blade helps in that it will plane the wood but not the foam on its side.
i had the same problem… interested on tricks and tips !!
If you plan on using the spokeshave maintain an angle like Balsa said and primarily pull with the leading edge side handle. Use the other hand mainly for applying pressure down. If you are starting with a new shave it's a good idea to go over the front edge of the sole a bit with a fine file or sanding block to keep it from catching as it will roll over easily if it does gouging the deck.
When planing the stringer, take it slightly deeper than the foam. The foam will spring back higher than the stringer, then sand the foam down to level with the wood. if you try to sand both wood and foam at the same time, they won't go level because the foam is softer and sands easier.
The IBEX fingerplane found here has a blade that puts a small concave in the stringer,I’ve never used one but a good friend of mine that shapes stringered polys swears by it.Just a little pricey,I think woodcraft sells them as well.
http://surfsource.net/Manufacturing/Clark%20Foam/Clarkfoampage.htm
Aloha kolohe,
There exists no substitute for your job at hand than a razor sharp block plane. New planes / new blades are not manufactured sharp enough for decent work. They just scrape the wood. All new blades Must be honed and polished flat on the back with a razor bezel on the front. Getting it perfect is much easier than you think (check the archives) and the difference is similar to getting into a high performance race car after trying to compete at LeMans driving an old 70s Datsun pickup truck. You’ll Enjoy the ride!
richard mccormick
yes mate there is a small stanly plane about 2inches long. it is light weight. and is sharp off the shelf. i have done about 8 boards without resharpening. to avoid bruising and tearing foam. the trick is to angle the blade in the mouth of the planer so only a corner sticks out a bit. then you hold that part of the plane where the blade is exposed on the stringer. use a weight on the blank and hold the plane with both hands and you can guide it accurately along the stringer. you need to angle the body of the plane on the nose deck side
my stringer come down clean with no tearout . i plane the stringer as part of finishing and i cen get it below the foam and dont even need to sand it afterwoods.
i can video it for you if you like and upload to facebook
i used to use larger block planes but they are uneccesary.
Stanley 12 - 101
I get these from the woodworking store for $6.95
Silly is this the you were talking about?
I keep two in my bay. Every 10 boards I switch them out. They resharpen with a Japanesse waterstone in minutes.
However I’m with RichardMac on sharpening. I was giving an old rusty planer by a young shaper who left his tool in the rain.
Cleaned it up for him and hone the blade. Gave it back to him better than new. The kids stringer work greatly improved.
Sharp tools are critical to shaping.
yep thats the bugger. cheap as chips. works a treat. you can get a bottomside full stringer shave curl on that puppy .
That is the same one I have been using since I started shaping (not that long ago). Works great and holds an edge for a decent amount of time.
OK, I will admit to buying a few of these as I can't seem to resharpen them after they get dull. I have a Stanley honing guide for my larger block plane blade, and use it with a diamond stone. But these little short blades don't fit in the guide and other than re-doing the flat part, I mess up the bevel side going without a guide. Tips? Just keep buying new ones? Seems a big waste and sure wouldn't work for a production guy.
I sharpen them all the time without a guide. What’s the big deal?
I dunno, the flat side is easy, but when I freehand the bevel, I always seem to get it too steep. Guess I just need more practice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8CPbZg8PGo
Here’s an Ideal. Close to what I do.
You may not have a grinder like the one in the video. So grinding an even strait bevel might be difficult to do leading to more trouble as you go to the stones.
If you have a standard bench grinder then grasp the blade between the thumb and index finger at a point that sets the bevel angle the way you want it when the top of your index finger is set against the bottom edge of the rest. This will maintain the positioning of the blade as you grind the bevel. If the blade needs to be cooled off just don't let go, dunk it in the water bucket and then go back to the wheel and the angle will be the same. Same thing for inspecting the hollow grind. Now when you get close to cleaning up the entire bevel look for a continuous small spark coming evenly over the top of the blade as you move it side to side. This will let you know that your bevel is complete out to the edge and should have formed a wire that you can feel all along the edge. If not go back to the wheel. Obviously you also want it to be square or a nice arc like Balsa suggested.
When you go to the stones it helps to maintain the bevel angle by concentrating on keeping your trunk stationary and moving your arms as one unit. Note also there are many kinds of steel. I have some chisels and planes that are very hard and the wire is difficult to form and remove. These will cut longer though. The softer ones sharpen more readily but require more maintenance. Maybe try another plane iron. The disposable are fine if they serve the purpose and production does not allow for sharpening time. I don't do much volume so I sharpen my stuff and I never have to get stuck with no blades in the shop.
I've been a furnituremaker and woodworker for 35+ years and have made quite a few balsa and multi stringered boards. While mentoring with a European master in the late 80s, I learned a unique way to sharpen my chisel and plane blades using abrasive grit paper. Prior to that time I had for years used every kind of sharpening stone, grinder, jig, wheel, and technique known to man to perfect an edge on my hand cutting tools. The abrasive paper was a giant breakthrough which I have used exclusively for the past twenty years. Still, not that many know of or use the method, due no doubt, because they either don't believe sandpaper can sharpen, it's not a romantic way to sharpen, or they are intimidated at how to pull it off.
Cheap and inferior planes and sub-par sharpening methods will get you buy and seem adequate only because you don't have a reference point as to how good they can be. Jimmy Lewis is the most successful surfboard builder on Maui and distributes his boards all over the world. He's shaped thousands of boards through the years, but admitted to me that he never could get a good sharp edge on his block planes. I sharpened three of them for him last month and he said it blew him away how sharp and easy they were to use.
Several years ago I posted a long five-part "how to" to get your block planes razor sharp complete with photos here on Sway. Somehow it was lost in the archives a while back and perhaps at some point I'll do another. However, the following is a summary of the technique by Mike Dunbar as described in "FineWoodworking Magazine" about a year or so ago.
richard mccormick
Dunbar grabbed a razor-blade window scraper and gouged off the three strips of spent paper from the plate glass (the glass is held on the bench with a couple of wood strips). "We sharpen a lot of tools here, and we go through a lot of sandpaper." He went over to a wall-mounted rack of the school's tools -- planes, chisels, gouges and drawknives -- and grabbed an almost-new, 1-1/2-in. chisel. All of the school's shop tools are spray-painted bright green. "If they're painted, they don't walk," he said. He looked at the edge of the chisel and noticed two big nicks in the blade. I asked him if he would not ordinarily grind out the nicks from the student-abused blade. "I'm telling you," he said, "this method is really fast."
The sequence was the same: He worked the chisel on the 320-grit paper until there was an evenness of scratches, brushed off the paper and moved to the next-finer grit. After working the chisel, Dunbar placed a piece of 600-grit wet-or-dry paper right on top of the 320-grit sheet. The roughness of one paper holds the finer-grit paper in place. For most tools he feels that 600 grit gives a sharp enough edge; for the keenest edges he will go from 600 grit to 1,000 grit and sometimes all the way up to 2,000-grit paper. A blade honed on 2,000 grit shines like chromium. |
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Begs the question...Why would a master need an easier way or jigs and whatnot? All you need is a decent india and arkansas. Takes a few minutes to sharpen a blade.
hi richard
i use paper on a sheet of glass as well i learned this sharpening jewellers engravers it was the only way to get a bright cut with the chizel so the cut would leave a polished cut in the gold. 2000 grit takes off the bur and leaves a sharp and polished edge. it took me a long time to get a pro looking bright cut with a jeweller chizel