Maple is prone to tearout. You will probably have trouble planing it,
especially if the grain in one board goes in a different direction than the
adjacent board. I would find someone with a wide belt sander to do it for
you, or if you are good with a hand belt sander, there is a technique to
sanding to keep the panel pretty flat. Another method would be using a
cabinet scraper followed by a ROS.

Typically, if you use a handplane for difficult wood, the included angle of
the iron is typically 50°-60° as opposed to the typical 45° of most
handplanes.

Preston
"Fred" wrote in message
om...
Hello, I'm working with a solid wood countertop for a vanity -it's
1-1/8 x 18" x 28". I've glues up 3 boards to make this, and now want
to plane it flat.

I only have one hand plane, and it's a cheap one from harbor freight.

Seeing as how I spend $45 on this lumber, I'd really like to avoid
mistakes.

Would you kind folks please offer me some suggestions on which type of
plane I need to flatten this?

Lowes is the only box store I've found that offers hand planes, but
'#4' doesn't mean anything to me....

Thanks in advance for your advice!
Fred