"Mike Coonrod" wrote in message
...
Here is my problem. I jointed a hunk of plywood (birch) to a 6 inch
wide maple board. This is the top to a window seat I am making. The
long and short of it is the good side ended up being the side that is
about 16th high, I sanded and now I have a rounded effect that I know I
will be able to see later on, when I paint it. So I am thinking I need
to plane the surface, with a hand plane. Problem is, I don't own one
and for the most part have never used one if you exclude high school
some 20+ years ago.

Other detail, plywood is 13x72 and the maple is 6x72 all 3/4 (except
the problem point. Biscut joint if it matters.

What sort of plane do I need or other options?

Jack plane, smoothing plane, wood plane, damned if I know what plane.
Should I get one of those knight planes, it sounds as if they are so
good a fool could run one and get good results. (I would practice first
as I would consider myself more then a fool with a plane in my hands!)

thanks



ow would like a general purpose plane but my imeadiate need is a
smoothing plane, I think. I have never used on before but so I really
don't know what I am looking for. I looked at Lee Valley's web site and
it looks like there are a bunch of choices.



It takes a while to become proficient using planes and I think that you will
have better success if you practice before trying to fix a meaningful
project. For a first bench plane I would get either a #4 or #5. I would
also read about plane tune-ups. With the exception of the best planes they
all need to be tuned before using. I do not own a Knight or Veritas but
have read great things about both. I own a bunch of old Stanley's and new
Lie-Nielsen's. The Stanley's needed lots of work before using but the
Lie-Nielsen planes were perfect out of the box.

I hope that this helps a bit. - Bob McBreen