I am introducing a new segment this week called Hand Tool Tips. I capture a lot of footage when I’m working in my shop. A lot of it really isn’t relevant to an ongoing topic or a specific project so it just gets filed away under miscellaneous tips. Hence the birth of Hand Tool Tips. In each episode I will highlight a specific process or technique using only hand tools.
In this episode I demonstrate how you can add a bevel to the long edge of a board using only your hand planes. Doing this same task on a table saw can be dangerous if you’re not very careful and often results in unsightly burning no matter how sharp your blade. Those burns have to be cleaned up with sandpaper or a plane anyway so why not skip the table saw altogether. You might even get it done faster!
I’ll do my best to get out another episode of Hand Tool Tips soon and they may be great filler in between projects (or when I can’t get the video edited in time on an existing project). Please let me know what you think of these short format shows and please let me know if you would like to see a specific topic covered.
10 responses so far ↓
1 Bob Rozaieski // Jan 29, 2010 at 7:40 am
Good demonstration Shannon! I like the new segment. I’ve been trying to get short videos like this out more frequently myself, though recently that plan hasn’t worked out for me so well. Perhaps now that the holiday mayhem is over I’ll get to film and blog more frequently.
2 duncanjmurray // Jan 29, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Like it Shannon, good idea and well executed. Any chance of of a tour of your planes of choice? Don’t see many L-V #6 being used as a fore plane, am wondered as to your reasons why.
3 BedrockBob // Jan 29, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Excellent job; I love the sound of a well tuned hand plane. I guess this would be a good example of course and medium hand tools. Looks like the Jack plane left such a good surface you don’t need to break out a smoothing plane. Well done.
4 Shannon // Jan 29, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Yes the surface was pretty perfect after the Jack. Also I went on to carve some shallow relief bellflowers onto it later so I wasn’t concerned about the final look at this point.
5 Shannon // Jan 29, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Sure, I’ll add that into the “production schedule” LOL. That sounds so official. Interestingly enough, Lee Valley sells the #6 as a “Fore Plane”.
6 Wm. D. Elliott // Jan 30, 2010 at 4:24 am
Shannon,
Effective clip. Your idea for producing short tips is a good one. For someone like me, who is near the beginning phase of woodworking skills, your segments allow me to learn from your skill and experience as if I dropped in for a quick teaching moment.
Over time, you will be able to compartmentalize the segments involved in an entire function, as if you were leading a class. For example, in the first session, in addition to what you showed, you could aim for having a segment on (1) setting or grinding the camber on the blade, (2) setting up the plane for a particular goal, (3) identifying when to re-sharpen a blade, and (4) sharpening or touching up the blade.
Once your small segments are produced, there would not be any need to change them. Over time, you could build quite a nice inventory of technique clips, covering an entire woodworking process.
Just an idea on how to think about building a library over time.
Thanks again. Quite helpful. Nice also to see how helpful your bench is to your work.
7 Torch02 // Feb 1, 2010 at 9:29 am
Quick question – how do you avoid over shooting your line on one end while keeping the bevel consistent across the entire length of the piece? Is it something I’ll get a feel for as I gain experience using planes or is there a trick that I’m missing thinking about it?
8 Shannon // Feb 1, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Great points and something that should keep me flush with content ideas for many months to come. I think I am limiting myself because I feel that so much of the “basic” tips have already been covered by the print publications or someone else’s site. The reality is that there are so many newbies coming into the craft and into the online space that I need to assume that everything is new content.
9 Shannon // Feb 1, 2010 at 1:17 pm
At least in my own planing technique it is inevitable that I will removing wood faster on the far end of the board as I lean into the plane more. That being said you have be aware of where you are in reference to the gauge line and take half passes to keep the entire board in the same plane. Just pay attention to the scribe line on the long edge and remove only where you need to. If you really screw up, you could switch to a shorter plane and focus only on the high spots.
10 Hnu // Feb 3, 2010 at 8:29 pm
I like the format of this shortened episode that focuses on one technique. Keep up the good work, I really enjoy your podcast.
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