Planing Long Edges

I must say I'm slightly bemused by the number of people that I see who appear to be planing solely with their arms like this in fact leaning over and getting extended to try and reach the end of a board now in my opinion we have very little control if we're extended and there's much more power available in our legs so I've always encouraged my students to try using the power of their legs for planing as much as possible I think it's less tiring I complain a 5 foot piece with no trouble at all so let me try and have a go and show you what I mean I'm going to be using the classic edge planing grip with the surface of my fingernails acting as a fence and my thumb pressure doing a lot of work in the center of the plane and the center of the edge my backhand is remarkably relaxed so let's have a go this is a nice piece of maple quite a tough wood you see I get set up and then I just walk along there would be nothing to stop me planing in age the length of the workshop if I had something to support it on now I didn't really make this clear I get set up I bring my elbows into my ribs the back hand is relaxed and I just walk steadily along my fence underneath is what keeps me centered on the edge so I just wanted to demonstrate that you can see what you think in your own workshop I've noticed that people find planing an end grain like this not the easiest thing and again I've deduced that it's because people are using their arms I need a little bevel on this back edge this is all arm as you can see to prevent the splitting or the spell CH but when I'm planing I will engage the plane on the surface I keep my fingers out of the way I pull my elbows into my ribs and I use my legs I just basically rock forwards and that's what works for me

Channel: David Charlesworth

Views: 40,937

Rating: 4.9702382 out of 5

Keywords: End Grain, hand planing, hand tools, traditional woodworking

Id: Nka94EiVkmM

Length: 3min 32sec (212 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 10 2016