Official Luthiers Forum!

I agree, bench plane with a slightly curved blade. It goes pretty quick, there is a rhythm to the work. To finish off the surface I have a 112 scraper plane that works very well on all manner of woods.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

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I HIGHLY recommend trying a toothed blade such as the ones that lie Nielsen or Veritas offer in their bevel up Jack planes, etc (not the very fine toothed blade used for veneer). I have the toothed blade for my Lie Nielsen #62 (bevel up jack), and it makes short work of heavy stock removal, and it has the added benefit of being easy to push through, as well as the extra extra added benefit of not producing tear out like a curved blade can when attempting to take a deep cut.

I use a curved blade often, but when I really want to remove a lot of stock with ease, the toothed blade is quicker and easier, in my opinion. Of course, Trevor has A LOT more experience than me, and I'm not trying to go against what he's saying. But I find the toothed plane to remove material quicker and more reliably than my stanley scrub plane and my jack plane with a rounded iron.

Jonas Baker

If you are going the ROS route, here's a tip from John Gilbert via Ervin Somogyi. Make yourself a "scratcher", a block of wood with a brad sticking out as far as the amount of stock you want to remove. Drag it all over your plate, then sand until the scratches are gone. Not perfect by a long stretch, but certainly better than eyeballing it.

Steve

I would not recommend a ROS for thicknessing for all the reasons mentioned above and one more. It's near impossible to get close to the edge of your stock without the sanding pad lipping over and rounding off all of you edges. So not only will it be nearly impossible to keep it flat and even in the field on a board, the edges will be all over the place and not what you want for glue joints.