Thicknessing The Old Fashioned Way
- This topic has 8 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 5 months ago by
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Originally published 3/8/2009 this video is in response to a viewer question about how to thickness a board using nothing but hand planes.
I know we have Paul’s version of this, and it is excellent, but never hurts to see how someone else dose the same job. 😉
Ken,
Again, very nice video.
I agree with you, it is really good to see someone else does it.
Thanks for this one.
LarryThanks Larry 😉
Just a quick note on this, when Paul made his video he picked the worst piece of timber / lumber you will find it had many faults bowed, twist, cup it had the lot.
Shannon did a great job, but he had it easy really, if thicknessing with hand planes can ever be easy. 🙂
Wow Ken good video, but boy does that look like hard work!
Wigan, Lancs. England :
Thanks buddy, yeah hard work Indeed but so rewarding don’t you think. 😉
Paul’s video was more on flattening than on thicknessing per se. I am curious how he would go about getting say 1/2″ material from 3/4″ or 1″ boards. I would assume based on his blogs that he has no problem using a powered thicknesser for the grunt work of stock removal, or maybe resawing on his bandsaw at the Castle, but how does that translate for those of us who don’t have space or money for power tools? (My shop is in a corner of our living room at the moment.
Hi Brandon,
You can thickness down from 7/8″ or 3/4″ by hand with a plane but the problem is waste. You pay for that wood only to have most of it end up in the bin.
Another way to get 1/2″ thick stock is to get a much thicker board (2″ or so) and resaw it by hand to get 5/8″ or so thick boards. You can then plane it down to final thickness, removing the saw marks in the process. I’ve done this before, resawing 2×6″ redwood. Get the most course saw you can – I used a 3.5 PPI rip saw. Just make sure it’s very sharp and keep the work to a minimum by crosscutting to length and ripping to width first!
Resawing is as much work as thicknessing with a plane, if not less. The big bonus is that the only wood that goes to waste is what’s in the saw’s kerf.
Another option is to ask your timber supplier if they can resaw it for you. A lot of yards will have a band saw that will do this in seconds and most won’t charge you for the time if you buy the timber there.
Hope this helps!
George.
"To know and not do is to not know"
Brandon,
A lunchbox thickness planer is well worth having at some point. In the meantime, I would pay a little extra to have the lumber yard thickness the rough timber for you- not necessarily to final dimension but somewhere close, maybe within 1/8″?
I didn’t start out with a thickness planer but it was one of my earlier purchases. I still don’t have a table saw or a jointer, and I haven’t missed them yet. I do use a Festool tracksaw however.
I have hogged off a lot of material in the past when necessary- for this I use a low angle jack plane. It’s a light plane but with a sharp blade and a wide mouth, it can really motor through hard and soft woods.
Richard.
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