One last picture of lumber preparation. This shows one half of “the big one” that was resawn in the recent tutorial. Here, it has been reduced to the planking thickness of 5/16 inch. Five other planks need the same treatment, as do some covering boards and decks. The tools used were:
- a #5 jack plane with aggressive rounded blade (middle plane in the picture). It is quick at removing the rough saw marks from the outside faces of the board, and bring the thickness down.
- the long #7 jointer plane for flattening the board after rough thicknessing.
- the little #4 for smoothing.
Very sharp tools ease the job and keep my right rotator cuff from complaining too much.
No bench is ever long enough. See how the 16 foot board overhangs the 12 foot workbench.
Nice coffee mug!
Nice BIG shavings Bob! How often do you need to re-sharpen the planes? Do you get all the way done with one face before sharpening?
My planes are working well enough to get me through both faces of one of these long boards, sometimes more. The jointer gets the most use. I touched it up 2 faces ago. The jack is on the third face and the smoother is on the fourth face.
My planes are type 15 and 16 refurbished Stanleys with original Stanlry blades. I use the “Scary Sharp” sandpaper method with 3M Micro Abrasive Film from Tools For Working Wood.