In my last post I talked about the speed at which our ancestors were capable of working in 17th and 18th century shops. In case you missed it, the gist of the post was that they were capable of working at incredible speeds. Probably just as fast as most of us can work with machines today.
But there is a little more to it than that. While they were certainly capable of working at incredible speeds by hand, it’s not just like they grabbed any old board from the Home Depot and went to work. Today, with the aid of machines, many of us don’t give a lot of thought to the material we’re using, other than what it looks like with a finish on it. In the golden age of hand tools, not so.
Here’s a common scenario that I see on many of the message boards from a lot of new hand tool users:
“I’m new to hand tools and I’m trying to flatten a board with hand planes, but I’m having a lot of trouble. I have a new [insert favorite hand plane name here], I’ve honed it with a slight camber and set it for a fine cut, but all I can get it to do is make dust. If I try to deepen the cut, the plane comes to a hard stop and won’t budge or cut at all. I’m using a piece of hard maple. What am I doing wrong?”
Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve heard this before. Maybe you’ve had this problem before. It is certainly not uncommon, even for folks who have been woodworking for a long time. So how do we address this common problem? Let’s start with the plane.
Now let me first say that I’m not knocking new planes. I think the precision and out of the box readiness that they offer is great, especially for smoothers and long jointers. I could have just as easily used an old Stanley as my example. It really doesn’t matter what kind of plane we’re talking about. What matters is the setup.
These problem statements almost always start out the same way. “I have it set up for a fine cut, but all I can get it to do is make dust.” Herein lies problem #1…the fine cut. Let’s assume for a second that the user is a very good sharpener, because obviously a sharp iron is the first, and second, thing to check if a tool is having a problem. These days it seems like every plane, regardless of size or perceived function, is designed to be a smooth plane. This creates a problem that may not be immediately obvious to the new hand tool user.
You see, that magical 1 thousandth or less thick shaving is both a blessing and a curse. For gnarly, interlocked, reversing, figured grain, not much else but a very sharp iron pitched at a high angle in a plane with a very tight mouth set to take a very thin shaving will be capable of smoothing that board. So for this task, that uber tuned smoother is what you need. But here’s the hitch. In order for that primo smoother to do it’s job and take that 1 thousandth thick full length shaving, the board needs to be flat (or at least not hollow) to within 1 thousandth of an inch, at least for the length of the plane (this is why shorter planes make better smoothers, but that is another post). If it’s not, the plane simply won’t cut until you extend the iron more.
So if you are planing rough sawn wood, all that plane will be doing is ticking the tops of the sawmill marks and riding the high spots, creating really tiny broken up shavings…dust. Eventually, you’ll cut all the high spots off and take a full length 1 thousandth shaving, but it may take you awhile. The answer of course is a deeper cut, until the board is flat enough that the smoother can plane it with such a thin shaving.
This brings me to the second problem. The material. “I’m using a piece of rough sawn hard maple”. The solution to this one is simple. Use different material. Seriously.
Students of old hand tool methods and old furniture often take some abuse for copying old stuff instead of getting with the times, so to speak. But there’s a good reason why we copy the old stuff. Besides the fact that old furniture from the 17th and 18th centuries is arguably some of the most beautiful and sometimes most technically challenging to build, the old guys knew how to select good material.
As I mentioned above, these guys didn’t just walk into the Home Depot and pick up any random kiln dried board. They chose their lumber carefully based on what it was going to be used for. Almost every piece of period furniture contains primary and secondary wood. For example, case sides and drawer fronts might be made from walnut for its color and beauty, but the drawer sides, drawer divider frames, case backs, and other parts that aren’t visible in the finished piece, would be made from a secondary wood, like pine or tulip poplar.
The reason for this is twofold. First, these secondary materials were less expensive, to a degree. But more importantly, they were much easier to work with hand tools. Similarly, primary woods like mahogany, walnut, cherry and tiger maple weren’t just chosen for their aesthetic qualities (though they are beautiful woods). They were chosen because they were easy to work with hand tools. Case furniture from the 18th century was simply not made from hard maple. If you’ve ever tried to work hard maple with hand tools, you already know why.
This wasn’t just limited to the furniture of early America either. Historically all around the world, furniture woods were chosen for their ease of working. In England, furniture of the 16th and 17th centuries was made primarily from green oak (way easier to work with edge tools than kiln dried oak). In the 18th century, much English furniture was made from walnut and deal (a kind of pine). In Australia, a country known today for some of the hardest woods to work by hand or machine, most furniture was made from different species of local pines.
There’s no reason that this same principle can’t be applied to today’s contemporary designs. One simply needs to choose their woods carefully and strongly consider their working properties if the desire is to work by hand. While I don’t do much in the way of contemporary work, I still try to adhere to this practice by sticking to species like walnut, cherry, [genuine] mahogany, soft maple, poplar and pine. I’ll occasionally work in oak or ash, but I prefer not to if I don’t have to. If I do have to work in these species, I prefer to work with them green instead of dry as they are much easier to work with hand tools when they are green.
On the other hand, I try to avoid species like hard maple, beech and hickory, at least in their dry form. When these woods are kiln dried, they are very difficult to work with hand tools. This is one of the reasons that these woods make such good tools and tool handles (so that’s what I more or less use them for). In addition, I almost never work with hard, dry exotics and tropicals.
Now, I hear the balking; “I thought hand tools were capable of everything machines can do, and then some? Now you’re saying they’re not?” No, I’m not saying that at all. Hand tools are absolutely capable of working these woods. But they’re just not going to do so quickly and easily. However, there are a couple of strategies you can take for dealing with these woods when using your hand tools.
First, if you have to work with very hard woods, try to do as much of the work as you can while they are still green. As mentioned above, green oak and ash are actually very nice to work with and you can plane them taking a very thick cut when they are green. They get more challenging the drier they get. Maple actually isn’t terrible to work with when it’s green, and it turns really nice when it’s green. Many Windsor chairs have maple turned legs. The trick is to rough turn them green, allow them to dry for a few weeks and then finish the turning in the drier stock, which takes and holds detail better.
If you need to work with these woods kiln dried, you’ll need really sharp tools and light cuts. For planing these kiln dried woods in the rough, take light cuts and work across the grain as much as possible. Doing so will make the job of planing them easier because the fibers have less resistance to a cross grain shearing cut as opposed to a long grain cut. Cross grain planing also results in less tearout in woods with difficult grain. Still, it is going to be slow going no matter how you slice it. These really hard woods just won’t tolerate big thick cuts, along or across the grain.
So if you are just learning to work with hand tools, don’t despair. You may not be doing anything wrong at all. Simply switching materials may be all the help you need. Start with easy to work woods like poplar, pine and mahogany. Avoid knots at all costs (they’re end grain, and we don’t like planing end grain), and only step up to the much harder woods and exotics once you understand the basics. Once you have enough experience with you hand tools, you’ll know what they can do quickly and you’ll know when you need to slow down.
Everything you said makes perfect sense. But here is my problem and I think a problem for most beginners… where can I get walnut or cherry boards? I have only worked red oak and pine because that is what home depot has and I don’t know where else I can go to get wood. I seem to be in an area (Tallahassee, FL) that apparently only caters to contractors and only supplies pressure treated, construction grade pine and the like.
I’ve tried woodfinder.com and it kicks back woodcraft in Jacksonville (about 130 miles away) or some place in Georgia thats around 186 miles away. I am reluctant to try online dealers only because I don’t know enough yet to know if I’m looking at a good deal… is 20 board feet of Walnut worth $170?
I’m not really sure this is totally within your intended discussion and, as I said, I completely agree that certain woods are preferable for hand tool users but some advise on how to actually hunt down those choice boards would be greatly appreciated.
Chris, what you’re describing is definitely common with beginners. It took me a long time to get oriented, too. What helped me the most was making friends with a group of local woodworkers. I learned to look for wood anywhere–in lumberyards, downed trees, salvage yards, Dumpsters, craigslist, you name it. You could try asking around the cabinet shops to see where they get their wood, or at least, some hardware stores that aren’t big boxes.
Don’t be shy about practicing on cheap softer wood, especially stuff like pine and yellow-poplar.
Chris,
I understand your frustration. When I first started, I had no idea where to get wood, especially good furniture grade wood. The Home Depot by me carries clean pine and yellow poplar in addition to the red oak. You might try those two woods. While more expensive in Home Depot than they are rough sawn from a lumber yard, if you have to drive a good distance to a real lumber yard or sawmill, then the cost of gas may justify paying the higher price at HD. I buy almost all of my #2 pine from HD because I can usually find a couple of really clear boards there each time I go and in all honesty, the prices for #2 pine at HD are just as good and sometimes better than my local lumber yard. You just have to be very picky about which boards you select if you go with #2. Choose only those with minimal small knots (so you can cut around them and save a good portion of the board), and as flat and straight as you can find (since you don’t want to plane them any thinner if you can help it).
Woodfinder is ok, but not every place lists there. A quick Google search for “lumber Tallahassee FL” turned up the following:
Tallahassee Moulding & Millwork
679 Industrial Dr.
Tallahassee, FL 32310
*My Note: Moulding & millwork places are good ones to check out. They often supply high end home builders, who often need custom mouldings for high end cabinetry in all kinds of hardwood species, including walnut, cherry & mahogany. Most also sell lumber, even though it is not in their business name.
Capitol City Lumber Co.
2501 Lonnbladh Rd.
Tallahhassee, FL 32308
(850) 385-6787
My Note: Looks to be a builder’s supply, but lists specialty lumber as one of the items they specialize in . Might be worth a phone call.
House of Plywood
618 McDonnell Dr
Tallahassee, FL
(850) 222-1596
My Note: They list plywood & veneers and woodworking supplies as products. Even if they don’t carry lumber, a call to them should be able to point you in a good direction since they have to deal with suppliers of hardwood logs if they manufacture hardwood plywood.
Woodford Plywood
4963 Swamp Fox Rd.
Tallahassee, FL 32304
(850)575-1119
My Note: Same as above. They may not carry hardwoods, but a call to them may give you some leads.
Crosby Zelotes & Judith
509 Oak Ridge Rd. W.
Tallahassee, FL 32305
(850)421-4720
My Note: They are listed under sawmills and list custom milling as one of their services. Definitely worth a call. Mills can be fantastic places to get really nice lumber. If they don’t kiln dry, that’s ok. You can sticker it and let it air dry for several months to a year (for 4/4 stuff) and then work it. I actually prefer air dried stock, but it’s hard to come by. It’s cheaper than dried stock as well.
Nice post and well thought out.
You sort of hinted at it, but kiln dried wood generally takes on different (more difficult) qualities than air dried wood due to the high heat it is exposed to. Of course, it is possible to kiln dry gently or air dry it and bring it inside and sticker it for a month or two until it dries out enough for indoor use.
Chris, I don’t know what is available in your area, but if there are no sawmills and some timber that could be sawed up, take a look at the Lumber Smith sawmill.
Isn’t there a lot of yellow and white pine through most of Florida? Yellow pine is tough to work, but not too awful for a lot of stuff if it isn’t kiln dried (in which case you have to contend with copious amounts of resin), but white pine is generally very nice. Steven Shepherd at fullchisel.com uses a lot of it.
Excellent post with so many important points. Those gossamer shavings seen at many demos, often made with a high end plane, may generate sales but they don’t begin to tell the story. And let’s also stress the condition of the plane being used. Is the mouth gummed up with pitch or shavings? Is the blade truly sharp? I love my hand tools and am very pleased to see this addressed.
And Chris, if you’d care to come to Atlanta, I’d be happy to take a ride out to Peach State Lumber with you. It’s worth the trip just to drool over their stock.
Outstanding post Bob….keep up the great work!
-Matt
Bob,
Absolutely right. My shop rate for hard maple is much, much higher than for a real hand tool wood like walnut or cherry. Most customers aren’t willing to pay the markup that I insist on for work maple, so I don’t work it very often. Cherry is about the hardest wood I’m willing to work with only hand tools, unless you count green oak.
Great work, as always.
Bob. This article was worthwile, because even though we all know how difficult it is to work the hard lumber with hand tools, it’s easy to forget while you are in the thick of things. I have been busy building my workbench out of American Ash, which is like concrete. And often I doubted the sharpness of my tools, or my plane setup, or my strength. And I had to keep reminding myself that this is not the norm, and it will probably be the last time I work this wood. Thanks.
Love it! Thanks for a great article. Do you know if there is much difference in working the Big Box Poplar vs. the Tulip Poplar of old?
Dean,
The poplar in Home Depot is typically kiln dried yellow poplar. Tulip poplar has about the same working properties, though it can be a little denser than yellow. But for the most part, they are about the same.
Great article…
Recently experienced the joys of hard maple when I made winding sticks out of a piece of salvaged Kraftmade (alright I am cheap)cabinet spacers. As a novice project (complete wit a set of floating tenons as in the Tools for Working Wood blog winding stick design)it had its challenges…
Thanks again form your insights and your sharing of your knowledge
Bob
Hi Bob,
Another excellent post which you hit dead on. As you know I am relatively new to Hand Tools myself and I have seen and experienced my share of frustrations. Wood is definitely an issue here for a lot of us in Florida, so I guess Home Depot and or Lowes becomes are next best friend for wood. I do have a Woodcraft within 45 to 60 minute drive depending on traffic which offers a nice selection of wood. However they are very proud of their wood, YIKES you talking about sticker shock. I have tried a couple local Lumber Yards and not much better. I am going to purchase from Woodcraft the 8/4 rough sawn Poplar for my bench top though as they have it for $3 dollars a board foot. More than I was hoping for but you mentioned 8/4 for the your bench and that is what I am going to build.
Keep up the good work enjoy your blogs and pods very much.
Steve