Most suitable plane for plate jointing

[Thos.]

Would a plane bedded with a low angle be best suited for top and back plate jointing?

Given the grain orientation of curly maple would the low angle plane be the preferred choice for jointing the back plate?

Would using that same low angle plane for jointing present problems in the spruce of the top plate?

[~ Ben Conover]

Get a long 'Jointer' plane, a Record or similar pattern will do.

Blade quality and sharpeness is the key, you may wish to get a thicker replacement blade that fits.

I never worried too much about frog angle just to make sure the frog bed is flat and that the plane is itself very flat.

Buy a good one.

[Melvin Goldsmith]

I use one of these bought after Fiddle Collector reported on his one a year or so ago here on MN.

http://www.workshoph...Fore_Plane.html

Excellent in all regards ...as with any plane it needed a little fine tuning out of the box but the sole is superbly flat and the blade is very good.....It's very good for joining. The price I paid was less than now at £110 and I bought it as a gamble...and am very glad I did It is very nicely engineered and functional.

[~ Ben Conover]

Good buy Melvin.

[Michael Doran]

I don't think a low angle would offer any advantage in plate joining.

I love my Lie-Neilson #7. Dead flat sole out of the gate and worth every penny.

Michael Doran

[Bill Yacey]

I use a Lee Valley low angle jack plane; it works fine, although I'm not sure that it has any benefit over a steeper angle blade. Perhaps a little less chance of chatter in really hard wood.

There is a thread that may give you some further ideas: http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/322400-handplane-recommendation/

[Guest]

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[Urban Luthier]

General rule -- low angle works well for end grain and soft straight grain wood. Higher angles work better on the face of figured hard wood.

I second the LV low angle jack plane. The 38 degree blade with a 12 degree bed angle gives you an effective cutting angle of 50 degrees or York pitch. A well set up vintage Stanley 5 or 5 1/2 with a good straight and sharp iron will do the trick.

[Fjodor]

I use one of these bought after Fiddle Collector reported on his one a year or so ago here on MN.

http://www.workshoph...Fore_Plane.html

Excellent in all regards ...as with any plane it needed a little fine tuning out of the box but the sole is superbly flat and the blade is very good.....It's very good for joining. The price I paid was less than now at £110 and I bought it as a gamble...and am very glad I did It is very nicely engineered and functional.

Another vote for this, it's a joy to use for joining.

[Thos.]

General rule -- low angle works well for end grain and soft straight grain wood. Higher angles work better on the face of figured hard wood.

I second the LV low angle jack plane. The 38 degree blade with a 12 degree bed angle gives you an effective cutting angle of 50 degrees or York pitch. A well set up vintage Stanley 5 or 5 1/2 with a good straight and sharp iron will do the trick.

Thanks, Urban Luthier, for setting me straight on the proper application of the low angle plane.

[Thos.]

Thanks, all, for the great replies.

[fiddlewallop]

Another vote for this, it's a joy to use for joining.

This looks like a normal plane to me. What's the benefit?

I think, for plate jointing, it would be better to have a plane with a longer metal edge (side edge, not a longer sole) that is precisely 90 degrees. That way, you can clamp it to a flat surface and just start planing. I have a Lie Neilsen for this, but again, it's sides, although 90 degrees, are not big enough to just clamp and plane. When clamped, because the metal sides do not extend far enough, it tends to flop over, causing the wood to plane at slightly more or less than 90 degrees.

I've never seen a plane like this that wasn't astronomically priced. I think I may have seen one on the LN site.. just going by memory tho.

[~ Ben Conover]

I think most people use the jointer plane sole face down, where gravity works best.

[Fjodor]

This looks like a normal plane to me. What's the benefit?

Hi,

I don't know any particular benefit besides that it's a good quality reasonably priced plane. (I had a lot of work with old Stanleys etc. trying to get the soles perfectly flat)

There's also a No7 model that probably suits even better for jointing http://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/Quangsheng_No_7_Bedrock_Pattern_Jointer_Plane.html

best regards

[DBurns]

Would a plane bedded with a low angle be best suited for top and back plate jointing?

Given the grain orientation of curly maple would the low angle plane be the preferred choice for jointing the back plate?

Would using that same low angle plane for jointing present problems in the spruce of the top plate?

What is the biggest sized instrument you make?

No need to get a 22" #7 if you are not doing cellos.

If you are not doing cellos, then a Jack plane, a 14" #5 Bench Plane will be long enough.

>>>"Would a plane bedded with a low angle be best suited for top and back plate jointing?"

No.

A low angle is used when planing end-grain.

>>>"Given the grain orientation of curly maple would the low angle plane be the preferred choice for jointing the back plate?"

No.

If a angle change were needed, and it usually is not, the opposite would be needed, and that is a high angle plane.

High angles and tight mouth openings are used, along with very sharp blades, and very thin shavings, to reduce 'tear-out' that occurrs in curly wild grained woods.

When jointing violin plates you are planing the wood on the 'bark-side' face, or with the rings, on the tangential face, and so tear-out is not a problem.

For planing the Radial face, usually a #4 at 10" in length is used, and here you might need a high angle frog for really chippy grain.

I would though try tight mouth, sharp blade, and thin shavings first, as usually that will do the trick in a top quality plane, that does not have blade chatter.

Lie-Nielsen sell high angle frogs for their planes. High Angle Frogs

>>>"Would using that same low angle plane for jointing present problems in the spruce of the top plate?"

If you have a low angle plane already, then you can sharpen the iron/blade at a higher angle to have the plane perform more like the Bench planes at 45 Degrees.

Here is my question for anyone out there that are using the Chinese versions of Lie-Nielsen's planes, and that is has anyone tried using the high anle frog from Lie-Nielsen in their Chinese copy?

An interesting observation, and that is the price for a #7 Chinese plane is getting closer to the price of a #7 Lie-Nielsen, so the initial low cost appeal of these planes is not so great.

I wonder how long, or if it is in the works, for the Chinese planes to provide a high angle frog for their planes?