more good suggestions. I'll have to try just taking it easy and see how it
goes. I guess I should try some poplar or other hardwood to maybe get a
little easier result while I'm practicing, as well.

Mike

"Conan The Librarian" wrote in message
...
Mike in Idaho wrote:

I've planed cherry, red oak, birch, hard maple, and pine. I'd
definitely say that maple is a lot more difficult to plane than the
other woods. I found that I was sticking the plane alot (it would get
about half way in the stroke and stop). But after some practice I
found that either I really muscled through the stroke in which case it
worked fine, or I took the stroke a lot faster than with other woods
and slightly less pressure and that worked fine too.

Assuming everything is set up and functioning properly, one more
thing he might want to consider is taking a hunk of paraffin (the type
you get in the grocery store for canning works fine; Gulfwax is the
stuff we get here) and making a few "scribbles" on the sole of the
plane. But be careful; the first time you take a pass, hold on tight or
you might watch the plane go flying across your workshop. :-}

Also, on the idea of pressu For problematic woods, I usually
find that I have better results when I apply *less*, rather than more
downwards pressure. And especially if you're trying to take a fairly
substantial shaving, you'll end up sticking more if you are powering the
plane downward. If you've ever used a scrub plane, this becomes
apparent. The motion for scrubbing is a short almost "scooping" motion;
if you keep too much downward pressure, the plane just tends to bog down.


Chuck Vance

Mike in Mystic wrote:

more good suggestions. I'll have to try just taking it easy and see how
it
goes. I guess I should try some poplar or other hardwood to maybe get a
little easier result while I'm practicing, as well.

Try walnut. I'm trying some *soft* maple after cutting my teeth on, and
getting pretty confident with walnut. Maple is proving to be bitchy. My
board looks like crap. I'd imagine hard maple would just exacerbate all
the problems I've been having, so the wood could definitely be your
trouble. Especially if you have any board edges in a flamey area, which
are proving effing near impossible to do anything with.

Poplar is too easy for good practice. You can get away with sloppy
technique (like stripping off a perfectly formed 1/32" thick shaving with
every pass) that just ain't gonna work on a real hardwood.

Save the maple for another day, my friend.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

"Eric Lund" wrote in message om...
"Juergen Hannappel" wrote in message
...
(Fred the Red Shirt) writes:


[...]

Curly figure is common in maple, if it is even a little bit curly
it can be tough to plane because the grain will alternately dive
and rise along the edge of the board.

Poplar planes easier than anything else I've tried. Beech has been
the toughest -- it's like trying to make shavings from hard rubber.

But beech is still "soft" compared to wenge, where i could not get
real "shavings" but only small stuff that looks like sawdust. Heck,
the plane seemed to skid over the wood as if it was harder than the
iron!
--
Dr. Juergen Hannappel http://lisa2.physik.uni-bonn.de/~hannappe
Phone: +49 228 73 2447 FAX ... 7869
Physikalisches Institut der Uni Bonn Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
CERN: Phone: +412276 76461 Fax: ..77930 Bat. 892-R-A13 CH-1211 Geneve 23

Ain't that the truth! I get a few shavings off of Wenge, but mostly it just
crumbles. I tried putting it throught the old Delta 12" Snipemeister, but
it turn it's nose up. Wouldn't even grab the wood. I thought I was going
to have to clean up the rollers, but I tried a couple of other species (red
oak and walnut), and they ran through just fine. Wenge is beautiful stuff,
but hard to work is an understatement.


Beech is even soft compared to maple. The issue with beech is that it
seems to resist splitting so well that as you push the plane it feels
like if you let go it would spring back at you. It makes good shavings
but if you do a project in beech you can expect to have arms like a truck
driver by the time you're done planing.

--

FF

In article , (Fred the Red Shirt) wrote:

Beech is even soft compared to maple. The issue with beech is that it
seems to resist splitting so well ... [snip]

Man, that's the truth! Ever split it by hand for firewood? Talk about _work_!

--
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Doug Miller wrote:

Beech is even soft compared to maple. The issue with beech is that it
seems to resist splitting so well ... [snip]

Man, that's the truth! Ever split it by hand for firewood? Talk about
_work_!

No, can't say as I have. There's a beech tree somewhere in the woods near
hear. I've seen beechnuts, but never picked out the tree. That's about as
close to knowing anything about the species as I come.

Having said all that useless stuff, I'll pit your beech against my 2'
diameter red gum crotch and we'll see who breaks the most mauls. Took us
two years to split that damn thing, going out to whack on it whenever we
got ****ed off.

Helped the McIntyre family get through my teenage years. I don't know
whether Dad or I got the most whacks in, but I was the one who finally
split it.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/