How to Plane Narrow Board Edges Square | Paul Sellers
How to Plane Narrow Board Edges Square | Paul Sellers
Paul demonstrates his no-frills, practical solution to the perennial problem of achieving a perfect square edge on a narrow board, using a plane and a bit of sensitivity.
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use an edge trimming plane.
I’m 16 I’v been woodworking for 2 years. iv always had trouble getting the edges of boards straight but this helped so much. I can make my boards very square with much less effort. thanks for the video Paul ur great at teaching woodworking
haturnuhun guru
Were you balancing the plane? I didnt get what you were doing with your left hand there. Were you just using it to maintain a level square from experience?
Absolutely a brilliant offering! I tried this and it worked wonders the first time!
Hello Paul,
Can all 4 sides be squared using a shooting board? Thanks.
You could probably make a really long shooting board to do the same thing (just an idea)
Thank you .. your explanation is very good .. I tried it and found that it works. 👍
This is where that nice wooden jointer plane with sides at 90 degrees (or your pricey precision metal joiner plane) comes in handy. Just shoot the board elevated on a piece of plywood scrap with the plane on its side and the edge will be precisely square. Any precision joinery demands a shooting plane. You may get close planing by hand but you’ll never be perfect.
Master.
Incrementally favoring the high side of the board looks like a good idea. However, I am perplexed as to why Paul appears to have favored the low side on the final set of passes.
is the idea to rely on the camber of the blade to help?
I could watch Paul planning all day long
‘See how Paul did’ we know you did great👍🏻😊 I love these plant videos. I think it’s the sound of the plane working properly too.
At 3:01, “I like it tilted when I’m on my own”, referring to the board being clamped in the vise with the far end higher than the near. Why is this Paul?
Thanks again Paul, great advise, with a little practice it works wonderfully.
What’s the problem with skewing the plane?
This reminds me of the first time I attempted to plane down the edge of a door….Held it between my legs on it’s side….planed from the middle to the end…..turned the door around and did the same……what a mess……about 6mm off square one way and the same the other with a twist in it.
Thank you Paul. I have to say, that I tried the lateral adjustment trick, and found out quickly, that doesn’t work very well. I discovered what you showed here a couple of years ago, and it works great. You explained it all very well. But the one thing for others to pay real attention to is the partial far end stroke, then the middle one, then the near end one, and then the full one. That really helps, and I’m glad you showed that.
Square edges are so overrated! 😉
Thank you so much for your videos Paul. You are a great teacher and a blessing to many.
Hi Paul, quick question about combination square. What size do you use the most? Thanks
As usual, another common sense example of doing things properly! I have to say, I have been doing a LOT of woodworking lately and my skills have improved 1000 fold using your methods and all of your guidance – thank you, thank you! I swear you have more common sense than almost anybody I have met in the last 50 plus years – keep up the good work.
That single skill is one of my all time weaknesses. I think I’m going to have to just buy a bunch of cheap 1 x stock and just plane it into oblivion till I get this right.
have you thought of clamping a fence onto the board (with a spacer a bit below the board edge to compensate for the iron not being the full plane body width) so you can butt the side of the plane up against the fence and continue planing until the bed of the plane is taking the full width shaving off
Paul, what if the high spot is in the middle? It’s Australian hardwood and I’m having a lot of trouble getting it square.
Wow, excellent demonstration. Definitely an acquired finesse, like feathering plaster.
Great tip!
Never tire of your wonderful instruction Paul. Thank you.
I just bought a Veritas Jack Rabbet plane, and I found that setting the fence to run against the reference face gave me a square edge easily and quickly. An unexpected bonus to this particular plane!
Paul I don’t know if you still read these comments, but I just hand sawed, and planed my first board true, straight and square! It’s taken some time, but I did it. I’ve made many projects before, but this is by far and away my proudest achievement woodworking wise, all due to your teaching. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, phil. Ps, the fire is lit
I’ve always felt like the lateral adjustment was more to compensate for mechanical drift in the machine anyways, as yours even in this video has a steep lateral adjustment for a flat cut
What about extremely thin edges? (Like just a couple mm thick) I’ve got some ukulele sides that need to join together, and I’ve been struggling trying to straighten out the edges. Seems like all my hand sanding doesn’t amount to much, or I end up over compensating
I hold my square to the flat surface of the bench with the blade of the square flush against the board along with it flush with my plane, yes the plane is cantering but you can hold it against the square blade, takes a bit of practice but once you get a few strokes it works great, i just squared some 1/4" pine edges with a no5. I have no machinery limited handtools an a black an decker workmate bench, lol. Anything is possible, also ive noticed sometimes if i just go for it with a fast plane stroke it usually ends up square but the slower i go seems to more chance of being off square.
Great tip for the non carpenters like me. Thank you
Was just dealing with this issue today 😂 Thank you Paul for the wonderful tip😉
I actually have had success from adjusting the Lateral Adjustment Lever ever so slightly, I thought that was the propose of the adjuster. I’ve found myself planing a board out of square because the Iron wasn’t properly adjusted to begin with. It’s difficult to look down the sole and judge perfect placement of the iron. Adjusting from looking into the mouth has never produced good results for me. I will definitely try this method. great video.
I was having trouble with this too…. watched the video… tried Paul’s method once and got good results. Great. Thanks Paul.
Very sound advice thank you . I tried the lateral lever method and it didn’t.t work worth a darn.I think people fail to realize that practice really does make perfect , someone who has been planing for 50 years is bound to be better than an novice or even intermediate carpenter . People want results without putting their time in . Real life is not like that.
Lay the board on its side on top of another board. Turn your plane on its side and plane away. Seems a lot easier than hoping that your hands are calibrated.
So I’ve got boards (on edge) that are a bit higher on each end. Somehow there is a dip in the center after coming off my tablesaw… do you have any suggestions on how to fix the ends of the board to make it flat? Thanks
Hi Paul what is the thinnest stock you could make a dovetail joint with?
Thank you !
How about using a jack plane or a jointer plane and clamp a square fence on the cheek of the plane or on the bottom of the plane?
Can confirm, tried it, works great!
i thought the answer was to ponch that board between two you know are square
You said my name incorrectly
This was very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Paul your master at your craft this knowledge was invaluable , I built a new work bench cause if this problem thinking my table was throwing me off
Thank you Paul, I will try this out.