On 8/16/2011 1:51 PM, dadiOH wrote:
Greg Guarino wrote:
If I were to get a
proper plane for the purpose, could I reasonably expect to, for
instance, smooth down a face frame? Or does it require more learning
and practicing (both in the sharpening and the actual use of the
tool) than a guy like me is likely to have the time or patience for?

Greg Guarino

As someone else pointed out, much depends on the grain of the wood. Grain
rarely runs flat, generally "uphill" or "downhill". Look at the side of a
piece of wood 90 degrees from the surface to be planed and you'll see what I
mean.

I left it out of my post, but I noticed that very effect with my test
piece. The plane was digging in until I realized (or perhaps awakened a
brain cell that had lain dormant since Nixon was president - I may have
been taught this) that I should turn the piece around.

If you plane downhill, the blade will tend to dig in and chip out pieces;
therefore, you want to plane uphill. Problemis, the grain often changes -
sometimes frequently - in the same piece of wood.

I hadn't thought of that. I'm going to have to look through my scraps
and do some experimenting. I knew I was saving that pile for something.

That's not to say you can't do what you want,merely that you have to take
care and understand what you are doing. It helps if the blade is really
sharp,

I think that's my biggest source of doubt here; my ability to get the
blade sharp enough and straight enough. To repair my door I used a
two-sided stone that I found in a blister-pak at HD. Even I could tell
that it was not terribly fine.

you take off very thin shavings and if you skew the plane to the
work.

I somehow knew to hold the plane at a slight angle. I can remember my
Dad teaching me to do that with files and rasps. Perhaps they also
taught that back in shop class.

A shooting board can help get things even.

Just looked that up. It looks pretty useful, especially for a novice
like me. Thanks.

I hope more people chime in. I'm still trying to get a handle on how
much practice is required to get decent results.

An analogy: I'm a musician, among other things; I'm a lot more skilled
on the piano than I am at woodworking. I also dabble on some other
instruments. While it takes a lot of practice to get truly good at any
instrument, some are simply painful to listen to unless played by a
near-expert. Violin is like that. The learning curve seems to be "awful,
awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, awful, EXPERT". Whereas a novice can
learn to strum a few guitar chords and make a reasonably non-offensive
sound in short order.

So I'm wondering if planing wood is more like violin or guitar. Will I
get decent results that won't shame my family after a little practice,
and improve from there? Or will the first few years produce nothing but
firewood?