Logan Cabinet Shoppe

In the power tool world they're called jigs. In the hand tool world, we call them appliances. Whatevery you call them, they are indispensible accessories that you will use in your shop on an almost daily basis. From bench hooks to shooting boards and winding sticks to pinch rods, you can build them all with nothing more than a few offcuts and a little creativity.

Thanks again to Duane for donating the #4 for the upcoming podcast on tuning and using hand planes. Just thought I'd do a quick post of the square and marking gauge I made for Duane as a thank you gift for his donation. I decided on a matching two tone theme utilizing walnut and maple for the tools. The square also has red oak pegs.

Thanks again Duane! Your tools are on the way.

OK, I promise, this is the last episode on sharpening. There are just a few different tools left that really weren't covered by the other episodes so I wanted to touch on them before I move on. I'm going to be using several of these tools in an upcoming project series starting this fall, so I wanted to make sure I cover sharpening them for anyone who wants to follow along with the project. But this is the last one, honest, I'm moving on. :)

No, I didn't get laid off (yet) or lose my life savings playing the stock market. The donation I'm seeking isn't even for me. In fact, it will be for one of the viewers of my podcast (but you'll have to watch the episode to find out how to get in on it).

Here's the situation. After just a few more episodes, I'm going to be starting a project series for the podcast. I don't want to give away too much (not that it's earth shattering or anything, but I think it will be cool), but I want anyone who has regularly followed the podcast to be able to follow along and build their own project if they would like. Up to this point in the podcast, I've covered almost everything that I think is needed for someone to start at the beginning with Episode #1, acquire tools, sharpen all their tools and get ready to build a piece of furniture. All that's really left is a brief overview of effecient shop setup, and a short discussion on a few shop accessories that I find useful on a daily basis. These topics are planned to be covered in episodes # 9 and # 10.

I have covered sharpening pretty extensively I think (to be concluded in Episode # 8), and that is pretty much all that is needed to tune up most hand tools. There is one thing that I really haven't covered up until now, however, that might be a small sticking point for someone new to the craft; hand planes. While I don't typically over analyze the tuning of hand planes, they do often require a little more setup and tuning than just sharpening (though that is usually more than half the battle). As a result, I've received numerous requests to do a podcast on tuning up a hand plane.

I think that this should probably be done before I start the project series so that no one, regardless of experience level, feels excluded from doing the project because they don't have the knowledge to set up all of their tools, including a plane or two. So here is what I'm asking from my loyal blog readers and podcast viewers.

I need a plane to tune up. I only have old woodies in my shop, and the majority of us today don't use these. So in order for the podcast to be as useful to as many viewers as possible, I'd like to tune up a vintage metal plane for the podcast. Problem is, I don't own any.

I thought about going out to try to find one, but I really don't want to spend a lot of time scouring flea markets or Ebay to find one just to turn around and sell it after tuning it for the podcast. I really have no need or use for it after that.

So here is my proposal and my request to those of you out there who hoard these things (you know who you are). Send me a common bench plane, perhaps a #3 or #4 size (please no block planes and nothing longer than a #5). The plane should be in somewhat decent condition. Please don't make me have to repair broken totes or replace missing parts. I'm not looking to restore it, I just want it as a demo for tuning and putting to use for the podcast. If I have to clean a little surface rust from it that's fine, I just don't want to have to do major repairs or replace missing parts. It needs to have some good length left to the iron as well as I won't be upgrading the iron (unless someone wants to donate one of those as well :)). The goal is to get my hands on a plane that for the most part just needs some tuning.

In return for your plane donation, and as a way to say thanks for supporting the podcast, I will send you a pair of layout tools made in my shop, to include a wooden try square and wooden marking gauge, similar to the ones I use in my shop and seen in several of the previous podcasts. I will then use your donated plane in the podcast, tuning and sharpening it so that it is ready for use. After the podcast, I will donate the plane that I tune and sharpen in the episode to one of the viewers through some method that I will disclose at the end of the podcast (so you'll at least have to watch it to get in on the action).

So that's my call for viewer support. If you have a plane that you are interested in donating please send me an email and we can work out the details. I guarantee you that at least one lucky viewer will thank you after the podcast.

Thanks again to all of you out there who read the blog and watch the podcast. These things would just be a random web site out there in space without all of you, so thanks!

Well, summer is coming to an end, vacations are all but over and school is back in session. In this episode I attempt to take some of the mystique out of sharpening your own hand saws. I don't completely understand all of the hesitation that a lot of folks have learning to sharpen their own saws. Really, it's no more difficult than learning to sharpen a plane iron or a chisel. All it takes is a small investment in some simple tools and a few minutes of practice. Hopefully, this episode will convince more folks to go ahead and try it. Oh, and don't worry about giving it a try on one of your high priced premium saws either. In fact, it's probably better to learn on one of these saws than on an old beater. Watch the episode to find out why.

I've also attached a .PDF file with some pages from the video. Feel free to download, print and make notes on them if you like. If you are not familiar with saw terminology, they may be helpful to you as you watch the episode. I also apologize for the vibration in a couple of filing clips. I tried to get a bird's eye view of filing the teeth by putting the tripod on top of the bench but in my infinite wisdom, the tripod absorbed some of the vibration and of course it shows bad in the video. The vibration looks a lot worse than it is and in fact there was very little vibration in the saw and vise but the tripod vibration makes it look bad. Sorry.

A recent discussion over at the Rennaisance Woodworker got me thinking about the amount of camber I put in my plane irons. Those of us familiar with hand planes and planing typically understand each other when we say that our fore or jack plane iron has "significant" camber or that our try plane has "moderate" camber or that our smoother has "just a hint" of camber. But these terms are mostly subjective and to someone new to using hand planes, "significant", "moderate" or "just a hint" doesn't necessarily translate well. So although I don't typically measure the amount of camber I put in my plane irons, I decided to try to quantitate it in order to better qualify the meanings of "significant", "moderate" and "just a hint."

So these are the three planes I am going to talk about in order of most amount camber to least amount of camber. The fore plane in front (also called a jack plane) has what I consider "significant" camber. In the middle, my try plane (also called a jointer) has "moderate" camber. Finally, in the rear, [one of] my smoothers have "just a hint" of camber. I took all the irons out since they needed honing anyway and tried to quantitate their amount of camber.

So after some trial and error using a piece of string, a magic marker and my awl, I got a close estimate of the amount of camber in two of the three irons (no matter how much I tried, I couldn't quantitate the camber in the smoother, the radius was just way too big). In hind sight, this would be a good way to mark your irons in order to grind a specified amount of camber. Simply use a dark colored permanent marker (I used black) to color the edge of the flat face of the iron. If you have it, machinist layout fluid would work as well, but it's not necessary, the marker works just fine and is a lot less messy. Tie a small loop in the end of a long length of string. Place an awl in the loop, hold the opposite end of the string to the bench top a distance equal to the camber radius away from the edge of the iron and scribe the camber radius through the marker onto the iron. Then simply grind to this line and hone as demonstrated in Episode # 6 of the podcast.

So here are the results. They are in the same order as the planes above and you can see the resulting radii from my crude measurements. The radius of the fore plane (on the bottom) measured at about 10". You can easily see the radius ground into this iron. The radius of the try plane was about twice the fore plane at about 20" (middle). You can also easily see the radius in this edge, though it is not as distinct as the fore plane. Finally, at the top is the smoother. This iron basically looks straight, however, if you place a straight edge up to the edge, you will see a hint of light at each of the corners. The relief is definately less than 1/32" but I couldn't measure it.

When it comes to establishing the cambers, I grind the camber into the fore plane and try plane irons. However, when I grind the smooth plane, I grind the edge straight. Then, when I get to the honing, I simply do some extra honing of the outside corners in order to relieve them below the center ever so slightly. Again, the iron still appears straight, it's only when a known straightedge is shown to the iron that you can notice the slight relief at the corners.

Here's the finished result. This is a picture of the fore plane after the freshly ground and honed iron has been put back in and the depth of cut set. You can see the effect that the camber has. The center of the iron will take a relatively heavy cut (maybe between 1/32" and 1/16" thick) but the corners won't dig in and leave tracks behind. You can see how this makes the plane capable of removing stock in a real hurry (about 1/4" in about 8 strokes). No fluffy shavings here. They're more like chips.

Similarly, the try plane will not leave tracks behind due to its camber. The camber is less than the fore plane's by about half so the shaving thickness is similarly about half that of the fore plane. Again, these shavings aren't fluffy. They're thick enough to bring a board face true in fairly short order, but they are still thin enough to remove the scallops left by the fore plane and prepare the surface for final smoothing. The camber in this plane also helps in squaring edges by enabling the plane to take a wedge shaped shaving just by shifting the position of the plane on the board's edge.

I didn't take any pictures of the smoother as you really can't see the iron above the sole like you can with the fore and try. The smoother is set up to take extremely thin shavings to put the finish ready surface on the show faces of the "money" boards. It leaves behind a tearout free, polished surface that is ever so slightly scalloped. The scalloping is so shallow that you don't really see it, but if you run your hand over the surface, you can just barely feel it.

So there is my definition of "significant", "moderate" and "just a hint" of camber as it applies to my personal planes. I'm curious now as to how my definitions of "significant", "moderate" and "just a hint" compare to yours for your personal planes.

In this episode I talk about sharpening edge tools with curved edges, like molding planes, bench gouges, carving tools and cambered plane irons. If you're used to using a honing guide you may find honing these tools a little more challenging as most can't be honed using any kind of guide. You can hone cambered bench plane irons in several of the available honing guides, however, molding planes and gouges are best done freehand. In this episode I discuss the way I do it.

It's no secret that to do fine work we need sharp tools. So the next few episodes are going to be a series on sharpening all of the different tools commonly found in the hand tool shop.

I have three requirements for a good sharpening system:

1. It needs to be simple
2. It needs to be fast
3. It needs to be repeatable

While my chosen method of sharpening isn't for everyone, it works for me and meets these three requirements perfectly. In this first episode of the sharpening series, I cover the straight edged tools like the square and skewed chisels and plane irons.

Whenever hand tools are discussed, handsaws, planes and chisels take center stage. However, without the layout tools, none of these tools would be able to do their jobs accurately. Still the layout tools just don't get the attention they deserve so I'm dedicating Episode # 3 just to them. I touch on what to look for when you're shopping for them, how to check them for accuracy and how to use them properly.

With the construction of the saws completed, all that was left to do was to file in the teeth. Commercial saw manufacturers typically cut the teeth in with a machine, resulting in perfectly spaced teeth. I don't have this equipment, nor do I wish to invest in it, so I use a file. I think teeth that are hand filed in end up working a little more smoothly anyway due to the minor variation in spacing that results from hand filing in the teeth. The random spacing theoretically reduces harmonic chatter, if only slightly. In my experience using saws in which I've filed in the teeth compared to saws I have with machine cut (but hand filed) teeth, I can notice a slight difference, but it is only slight.

I set the tooth spacing by drawing lines with a CAD program and printing it out full scale. I place the piece of paper in the vise with the saw plate and file a small notch at each line. This one happens to be 12 PPI (or 11 TPI).

Once I've filed a notch at each gullet location by making one or two passes with the file, I remove the paper. I then go back and make several more passes at each notch to deepen the gullet and rough shape each tooth. At this point, I'm just trying to get close to the final rake angle so I don't use a guide to set the angle of the file. In fact, I'm just trying to keep the front of each tooth vertical at this point (i.e. 0 degrees of rake) and I do this by eye. I file just until the flats on top of each tooth disappear or almost disappear and no further. I file the initial notches and shape all the teeth from one side of the saw plate, prior to setting the teeth.

Once all of the teeth have been rough shaped, I set the teeth. I use a plier type saw set for this. I begin at the heel of the saw and work toward the toe setting every other tooth. I'm just trying to set the top 1/3 or so of each tooth, not the entire tooth. If you try to set the entire tooth, you might break them off. Once I've reached the toe, I flip the saw around in the vise and set the remaining teeth so that each tooth is alternately set when I'm done. If you make a mistake and set two teeth in a row in the same direction, don't worry about it. It won't affect the performance of the saw and it can always be fixed at a future sharpening if needed. Do not try to set a tooth in the opposite direction of it's original set or you are about gauranteed to break the tooth off.

After I have set the teeth, I like to joint them lightly with just one or two light passes with a 6" mil file. I hold the file tight to a block of wood which acts as a fence to keep the file square to the tooth line. This seems counter productive to the initial shaping I just worked so hard to do, but jointing lightly after setting the teeth ensures that each tooth will be the same height after sharpening, even if the set is a little uneven. It also provides a reference flat on top of each tooth to guide my final filing.

Another aid for doing the final filing of the teeth is to darken the flats from jointing. You can use a permanent marker for this, and I did for years, but the teeth tend to chew up the marker tip pretty quickly so you never really use a marker until the ink is gone. Machinists layout dye is another good option, however, it's awful messy.

My solution is to use an old planemaker's trick, a candle. By running the saw teeth back and fourth several times through the flame of a regular old candle, you coat the saw teeth with a thin coat of soot. The dull black soot covers well and provides a good reference for teeth that have been filed and those that have not. You don't hold the candle in one spot for so long that the saw plate heats up (this could ruin the temper of the steel) rather you keep the candle moving continuously to "paint" on the soot.

With the teeth coated in soot, I begin the final filing and sharpening of the teeth. Now that the teeth are set, I can't just file all of the teeth from the same side. I need to file only the teeth that are leaning away from me. I also now use a guide block to guide the angle of the file in order to set the desired rake angle. Here, it's about 4 degrees.

The guide block is simply a small scrap of soft wood with a small pilot hole drilled centered on each edge. I then draw a line tangent to the hole at the desired rake angle. The rake angle should lean toward the handle. So in this picture you can see how I've noted on the guide block which side the handle needs to be on. The rake angle leans toward the handle from bottom left to top right at an angle of 4 degrees from vertical (the opposite edge of the guide block is a mirror image of this edge). I insert the file into the pilot hole with the right side flat parallel to the rake angle line. All I need to do now is file with the wood block held level and I will maintain the 4 degree rake angle.

Again, I start at the heel and work toward the toe, filing every other tooth (only those leaning away from me). I file straight across (90 degrees) the saw plate because these are rip teeth. I make only one or two passes on each tooth until the flats on top of each tooth are smaller by about half. Be careful because this goes faster than you might think, especially on these smaller teeth. It takes only one or two light strokes of the file.

Here you can see where every other gullet has been filed as noted by the shiny gullet. The candle soot remains on the unfiled teeth. Once I reach the toe, I flip the saw around in the vise so that the unfiled teeth, which were leaning toward me before, are now leaning away from me and the saw handle is on the left.

I NOW REVERSE THE GUIDE BLOCK ON THE FILE. The opposite side of the guide block is a mirror image of the first side. It has an arrow pointing to the left where the handle should now be and the rake angle is tangent to the left side of the hole and should lean from the bottom right to the top left at 4 degrees from vertical. The file is inserted with it's left edge parallel to the rake angle line. This is an extremely important step. If you keep the guide block in the same orientation as before, the rake angle will be all wrong and when you file the teeth you'll end up filing them into little toothpick points, so make sure you reset the file in the guide block so that the rake angle is correct.

With the guide block on the file switched to its proper orientation and the saw flipped around in the vise, I can now file the remaining teeth. Again, I start from the heel and work toward the toe filing straight across because these are rip teeth. I file only until the flats on top of each tooth disappear and no further, even if the teeth are different sizes (the size isn't important, the final height is). Once I reach the toe, the filing is complete and the teeth should be very sharp.

I perform one final step prior to using the saw. I like to joint the sides of the teeth to remove the filing burrs and smooth the teeth out some. To do this, I place the saw plate on the edge of my bench and with an oiled hard Arkansas slip stone, I make one pass with light pressure from heel to toe, keeping the stone flat to the side of the saw plate. I then flip the saw over and joint the other side the same way, making only one pass from heel to toe.

Once I've done the side jointing, I'm finished with the sharpening. I use a little turpentine on a rag to clean the remaining soot from the blade and the saw is ready to go back on it's peg until it's called on to cut some tenon cheeks.

Here's a shot of the finished rip teeth. They're not perfectly spaced, not all exactly the same size and likely not all exactly the same rake angle, however, they don't need to be perfect and hand filed saws never are. In fact, the imperfections are what make hand filed saws such a pleasure to use. They cut smoothly with no vibration or chatter and seem to glide through the wood.

If you don't already sharpen your own hand saws I hope this will encourage you to give it a try. It's really not that hard to do and if you just take it step by step and go slow it's very difficult to ruin a saw and near impossible to take it beyond repair. If you make a mistake, it's a simple task to rejoint the teeth down and start over.

Oh yeah, and the obligatory test cut was smooth, fast and straight. Can't ask for any more than that ; )!