Reply To: Sharpening plane iron: several newbie questions
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Thanks Stijn! I think I will start making my workbench this Spring. I already have projects planned for up to April… So many gifts to make for Christmas, and then a rocking chair for my mother’s retirement!! 😉
Sven-Olof, thank you for your recommendations. I did not know this French site! It’s a bit expensive but seems a nice place to order things. I have ordered a Veritas cabinet scraper and also a card scraper. Indeed, the grain was going in multiple directions… When I tried to plane the board I had made a (quick) topographical map of the grain direction in order to figure out how to plane it. It did not work at all 🙂
Today I made two dovetails boxes with oak. It worked so nice! I cannot believe how easy it seemed to plane them (even end grain) with a correctly sharpened plane. I even managed to do plane the rim (top/bottom parts, I am not sure I understand the word correctly when Paul says it) perfectly. My previous attempt (on pine!) had been a total disaster! I attached a picture of the two boxes (don’t mind the workbench top, it is all but flat!).
Interestingly, I noticed that one piece of oak I used for the second box was very soft. My chisel seemed to cut very easily in it. Is there any way to figure out how soft a piece of oak will be before trying to plane/cut it?