Can You Plane Plywood?

Can You Plane Plywood?

Of course you can, as long as it’s reasonable quality and your ability with a plane is of reasonable quality. If the ply has a super super thin veneer that you can sand through easily or that isn’t flat, this won’t work with it, but even sanding or scraping that kind of wood can be difficult.

Pardon the comment about the thickness of the top ply – I said 42 hundredths but meant 42 thouasndths. Still a ton of wood to remove in smoother shavings before there’s a real problem, and not concern.

17 Comments

  1. Skippy Lippy on February 17, 2023 at 5:29 am

    a sharp cabinet scraper would be my choice



  2. Fab0 on February 17, 2023 at 5:32 am

    A well set plane will do the job no problem…



  3. The Lost Scrolls of Handwork on February 17, 2023 at 5:33 am

    Its interesting that you’re able to plane plywood without breaking through the layer. I remember a few years back seeing an article in FWW on this topic.it made me chuckle and I didn’t bother to read it as I didn’t see any reason until now why someone would plane plywood. Btw I have tried on a cheap plane your trick of honing a bevel on the cap iron and haven’t been able to plane against the grain. I don’t know what am I doing wrong, but it must be something.



  4. pinkeye00 on February 17, 2023 at 5:34 am

    4:10 – evidently you can.



  5. Paul Frederick on February 17, 2023 at 5:37 am

    I’ve only ever planed the edges of plywood myself.



  6. glideking on February 17, 2023 at 5:41 am

    No sanding!



  7. 909sickle on February 17, 2023 at 5:43 am

    You are pretty good with a plane. I still get tear out, even with a chip breaker. How close do you set yours?



  8. RADCOMJ1 on February 17, 2023 at 5:44 am

    You plane like a Don. I know you don’t buy your plywood from Homebase as you’d be three layers down after that lol. Thanks for sharing.



  9. Mr. Chickadee on February 17, 2023 at 5:46 am

    Great job David, glad to hear you will be able to use more hand work than power, as I think I understand how you like to work, as I feel similar.

    Yesterday I had a great shave with the razor you restored, and I planed some quarter sawn red oak that was just awful for tearout, just nasty stuff, fast grown, twisted grain, full of knots, you get the idea…. If I had not learned the cap iron trick from you I might have literally made firewood out of this stuff, but thankfully learn i did and it is now some of the most breathtaking "tiger" oak Ive seen anywhere. We will have a video up on the cabinet it made hopefully by Xmas or before.

    So yeah, thats two things I can say I owe you sir! 😉



  10. MIkery 2 on February 17, 2023 at 5:54 am

    I would never have believed plywood could be planed. Thank you for opening up my imagination. Beautiful work on that piece.



  11. Bendirval on February 17, 2023 at 5:56 am

    Can you use it to round or chamfer the edges, though? That’s what I’m interested in.



  12. Sean Patterson on February 17, 2023 at 6:01 am

    I appreciate the demonstration both of planing plywood but also general good planing technique.



  13. PeriodWoodworker on February 17, 2023 at 6:07 am

    Great process. I will try it.



  14. deemdoubleu on February 17, 2023 at 6:12 am

    Pretty cool, thanks.



  15. Eddy Flo on February 17, 2023 at 6:20 am

    I tried to run a electric planer on RTD sheathing and it was a mess!!!
    Planer was cutting at an angle, fixed that
    Than even after that I kept getting lines and uneven cuts!
    Any advise.? Thanks, great video



  16. Darren Brewster on February 17, 2023 at 6:20 am

    I don’t think I would have ever thought to plane the face of plywood without seeing this. Great video, and I think the setup you used resulted in really good quality. Easy to see and hear.



  17. Graham Orm on February 17, 2023 at 6:22 am

    Impressive. Thanks, subscribed.