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Wondering if any of the hand tool guys thin the backs by hand instead of using a drum sander/thickness planer/thicknesser? The spruce was like butter, the maple backs are not cooperating with planing. My options right now are wait for the jointer plane that I want to get, or start searching out options for machines to do this. Belt sander being an affordable machine, next in line planer.

I got the blades sharp (crazy sharp), must be me on that part. The blade just catches into the wood as if I set the blade 3inches into it. I back it out and when I put it just barely touching sucker catches again. I tried planning some other woods and they did fine with what I have. These maple backs are really lowering my confidence in my ability to work with planes lol.

Looking at getting the no7 by Stanley. Mainly to shoot it to get a better trued side. Again spruce went down great and the maple is unforgiving.

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久保
美智え

Plane across the grain, 90 degrees across if you have to. You will need to clamp it appropriately and watch for break out.

One direction always seems to plane better (runout?). I try to find this prior to commiting shoulder to this endeavor.....good luck. It can be therapeutic if all goes well....

When I first started I used a # 80 cabinet scraper and sanding blocks. Good way to work up a sweat.......!!
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Sharp plane, shallow crescent shape on the cutting edge (scrub plane style, but not so extreme) plane at 90 degrees to the grain direction to remove the bulk of the thickness.

For the last few 10ths of a millimeter, finish up in line with a high angle plane, >60 degrees cutting angle or a scraper, if you're adept with one.

If you use a plane such as a Veritas low angle bevel up jack (and two blades) you can do low angle, high angle, it has enough length for shooting edges and it arrives with a dead flat sole. It's one plane that will solve a lot of problems.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

When you are thinning hard wood (emphasis on removing significant wood), you need a "toothed" blade in your plane. I use a Lee Valley (Veritas) plane with the optional toothed blade - it may be possible to buy a toothed blade to fit other planes, but make sure you get a blade with square teeth, not the pointy teeth (which is for veneering).

Your plane is not sharp enough (even though you think it is). Try sharpening again. Start with a fresh hollow grind and check that your bevel angle is not excessively high.

Maple is not an easy wood to plane, and some maple is so hard that you have to take very fine shavings with a very sharp plane. I've ran across a few maple boards that were extremely abrasive and dulled my blade after a few strokes, but mostly maple can be planed without difficulty if a fine cut is taken. If you plane across the grain beware of breaking off the edge of the board as you exit the cut.

I just bought a LV low angle plane yesterday. Good piece of kit, though I can't say it takes any less time to grind it down with a plane than it does to run it through the drum sander umpteen milliaon times. A lot more physical as well. Still, it may be the only practical solution for rosewood and oily woods that bog the sander paper down really fast...

But anyway, the Lee Valley with the toothed blade and then flat blade with the corners rounded over did the job after much toil. It's a good plane for sure.

But if you find, as I did, an old wooden veneering plane, give it a try. I've just been using mine for the first time, and took a 21" x 4" plate of mahogany down from 3mm to 1.8mm in 20 mins, half of which was spent learning how to adjust the plane. Scrub away with the plane, finish with cabinet scraper. It produces coarse dust very rapidly and is quite light to use.

The plane is about 8" long and has the blade set nearly vertical, maybe 80 degrees. V shaped grooves in the blade. It came in a box with three other wooden planes, the equivalent of USD30 for the lot, so if I can sell the others it might even be free. That's less than I paid for the toothed blade for my Veritas apron plane, which clogs up rapidly.

Thanks guys, I resharpened the blade and readjusted it. I have two planes that I used one is an old wooden 7" and the other is a metal 8" the blade on the wooden is better quality but is not consistent and must always be adjusted. The metal one stays where I put it but the steel is not so great. Anyways, I managed to set them to do the finest shavings and it started going well. It did chip the edge on one side while going out of the stroke but I will keep that side for the "outer" edge. So i got it going just taking a long time to do it since I don't have a toothed blade. 90 degrees seemed to plane the best actually. Thanks for the support fellas.

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久保
美智え

Bevel the exit side edge at ~45 degrees. It stops the split-out. The bevel should just about have disappeared when you get to gauge.

I have a toothed blade, but find planing cross grain gives a better result, faster. YMMV.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

If you have to keep readjusting the wooden Plane then perhaps the wedge isn't fitting properly. Toothed blades don't really cut any quicker, if anything they are slower. It's been a few years since I last used a toothed blade.
Cambered blades will allow you to take off shavings with a bigger bite but you will certainly have to go across the grain whilst using that type of approach.