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Proper hand plane care, tuning and usage?

Recently I purchased a Stanley Bailey #5 hand plane U.S. Patent Apr 1910. Thank you John for the opportunity!

First I have never used a hand plane but have always wanted to try one out and now that I own one I would like to learn how to use it correctly. I would also like to learn the proper way in which to tune it. I have watched several videos that discuss tuning but haven't really seen any on the proper use of the plane and finally proper care and storage of the plane.

My main reason for purchasing this plane is to use it with a shooting board for segmenting pen blanks and taking out high spots on glued up end grain cutting boards prior to running them through my drum sander.

All input welcomed!

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Site AdminPermalink Reply by John Morris on December 10, 2011 at 9:36am

Good deal Mike!!!!! I'll be back on later tonight to give ya a hand! We have family come in today but after they leave, I'll be here most the night, and hopefully we can shed some light on the simple usage of hand planes and what you need to do with it. Others hopefully will get in here before I do. See ya tonight Mike!

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

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Site AdminPermalink Reply by John Morris on December 10, 2011 at 9:10pm

Mike, first off I would like to thank you for supporting The Patriot Woodworker with your purchase.

Wow, now your questions encompass a whole array of methods and procedures, so for tonight, let's take the first one. Since you have already watched videos on the proper tuning of the plane, then I am assuming we can jump right into the proper use of the plane.

First of all, determine what you want to use your plane for. Now you say you want to take off the high spots on your cutting board. For now set your cutting board aside. And put up a piece of scrap wood in your vise. Now when I sent that plane to you, I had it pretty much set to take off beautiful lace shavings, very fine. I sharpened the blade and you should be good to go for awhile. At least one end grain cutting board. But back to your scrap.

First of all, wax the sole of the plane for easy surfacing of your lumber. The plane will glide across the material with ease. Nothing worse then a plane with a little grab to it while your trying to surface material.

Now back to your scrap, you want to plane your material while standing to the side of it. If your right handed, you want your body facing the work bench, and planing from right to left, with your left hand firmly on the front tote or knob, and your right hand on the rear tote or handle. You want to position your body slightly behind the material. Place the planes front portion of the sole at the beginning of the cut. Apply even pressure front to back as you move forward, using the weight of your entire body to push the plane. Avoid planing with your forearms and shoulders only, your plane will chatter and skip. It's like batting a ball, follow through with your weight behind the plane.

Before your first cut, retract the blade up into the body of the plane, set your plane on a hard flat surface, lower your blade until it touches the surface, then lower it just a hair more.

Now begin your cut. You might not see a single shaving eject out of the plane at first, but give it a few strokes, and you should start to see very fine whisks of shavings curling out of the plane. For fine removal and finish surfacing, you want fine, very fine lacy wrinkled shavings. You should be able to see through the shavings.

If your having to fight the cut, and push too hard, then you have the blade down too far. Now some times you want the blade down a good amount. This would be for rough removal.

But with your end grain cutting boards, your not going to be doing any rough thick removal, that end grain is a pita to get through with the blade set to take deep cuts. Your going to want those whisper thin shavings we were talking about earlier. The plane will skip across the high points, until you get it down, and you'll then see some continuous shavings peel nicely out of the plane. Since your surfacing end grain, it really doesn't matter which way you approach your cutting board, just be careful of blow out when you get to the edges on the out stroke. You might want to approach those cutting boards by coming in from the edges and finishing your cut in the middle. Just come in from all four sides and finish the stroke in the middle of the cutting board, avoiding blow out on the edges.

Back to that piece of scrap, plane away at it, until you feel comfortable. You'll quickly start reading the grain of your board when you start seeing your plane grab and tear out a piece of wood. Even though your planing with the grain, you can get tear out. This is one of the wonderful by products of using hand tools and hand planes. You very quickly learn to read the grain on your lumber, and what direction to plane. Once you start seeing tear out, you quit, analyze the direction of grain, and your reversing the board and planing again. It's good stuff Mike, this is what woodworking is all about. You'll definitely feel closer to your wood with a hand plane. Take is easy, plane the hell out of that piece of scrap, set the blade at different depths, experiment, and have fun!

I am off the computer all day tomorrow, Monday I'll be back on and we can talk about care and tune up. Let me know if anything here is muddy to the thought process. And I'll explain it more in depth.

Thanks again Mike

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

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Master CarpenterPermalink Reply by Mike Dillen on December 11, 2011 at 6:30am

Thanks John for the information, I will experiment with some scrap today. Sorry I wasn't on last night I had an unexpected problem I had to take care of.