Troubleshooting a Bench Plane
Though not one of our most recent videos, there’s no doubt that the information Christopher Schwarz offers up on planes is well worth the time warp. The man knows his plans and he’s happy to share his knowledge on getting yours to work as well as possible!
la Casa de Papel
Chris’s "Brother-in Law" is a "know it all, jerk". LOL
Thanks, as I get more hand planes, I needed this tutorial.
I absolutely needed this lesson! Thank you!
Great video. Learned quite a bit.
Your voice is so amazing
how to plane soft and knotty pine – that’s a pain!!!
Chris, love ya man. Great video! But it’s a cap iron, not a chip breaker. Check the descriptions on the original Bailey patents.
Was not expecting Eric Clapton to be so much into woodworking
Thank you for using cheap #4 for the demo! Very encouraging. 🙂
Whatever he puts out is never boring , what a great vid
This was very good, but I’m still getting hard bites and skips even on soft woods.
If anyone wants to chime in, feel welcome to do so.
Absolutely a great video, thanks. This helps greatly. Very knowledgable. I’m not a big plane user but just kinda started with planes. Got a Woodriver #3,4,5,6 and was working with the #4 Jack plane. Got iron sharp enough to shave with with a mirror polished 25 degree grind and it’s like what’s going on here, I can’t make any sharper lol. Found the chip breaker screw loose and floating in the breeze 🤣🤣🤣 so your explanation really helps to understand
Would you know the reason why my plane isn’t cutting full shavings? Its only cutting in the center of the blade. I tune it up pretty good that know of, the sole seems to be pretty flat, the blade is sharp, im getting good thin shavings just not full shavings, the blade is straight and true, everything is tighten down, could i get some help about this problem
When I compared my 3 Stanley planes -No 4 No 4 1/2 and No 5 All good pre war models , I found that they all had the lateral adjuster "dimple "or rivet pressing up on the cap iron. This was creating friction when I wanted to adjust the lateral lever. So by inserting some thin cardboard (nice and oily ) between blade and cap iron I now have a smooth adjuster and don`t start moving the lever cap screw which is totally innocent .
Excellent video, excellent teacher.
The voice is so over-compressed it is very off-putting to listen to. Other than that – great video.
Thanks Chris.
The question I have about a plane not cutting is when I am trying to plane very hard woods like osage orange or olivewood. How do I get the plane to bite into woods that are very dense and have a high janka number.
Is this an excerpt from his "Handplane Basics" DVD?
Thank you sir.. I should have watched this before spend 3 months to get plane work.
You can search half an eternity to find a video like that. Few of the most common issues every newbie runs into, when starting to plane.
Isn’t your bench too low?
What DVD was this from? Thanks!
I believe that with this video, you’ve saved a medium sized forest worth of wood, and much frustration. You video also illustrates how much skill and craftsmanship can go into higher end woodworking, and I’ve always found it a shame that in modern times, it is not understood and valued by enough people in our modern culture.
This information so important and very detailed. This definitely helped me solve my issues. Every new woodworker should watch this video.
Surely you’d put that wood in a vice though?
Amazing video. Great voice too
How to flush the front edge of the chip breaker with the plane blade at interface.
I am collecting shavings under the chip breaker. Stanley #4 bench plane.
I have watched a couple of vids of Roy Underhill with him and found him to be very informative. Of course it takes someone that knows something really well to make it sound simple. First clue. Im on this guy like a dog. There is always so much to learn. Best part he is not an old fart and likely to leave us soon….,
First 2 minutes and I know this was what I needed to know. Thank you for this!
Loose dogs, tight frogs and flat feet! Oi!
This was very helpful, thank you!
I`ve found that usually it`s my stance & not holding it right
A Hock blade and (especially) chip breaker transformed my old WW2 era Stanley 4 1/2 into a fine tool.
Had to flatten the sole a bunch and back bevel the mouth opening to get it to take really fine shavings.
My next plane purchase will be a LN 5 1/2
Superb information!
On a Spear and Jackson No 4 it has a narrow mouth and I fitted a 2 part Stay Set cap iron . There is no frog adjuster screw at the back . It just has the 2 clamping screws with some room for movement . Just for fun I took out the front section of the cap iron and put the lever cap on with the screw wound in a bit. What a nice sense of freedom to use it like an old wood plane .No clogging or fussing with a chip breaker .A good hefty Carpenter setting .
Good information, bad camera work.
Should tighten the chip breaker (cap iron) screw against the bench, not your hand. If you slip, you get a screwdriver into the palm of your hand – it hurts, from experience.
Thank you SO MUCH for your wealth of information! As a new woodworker, your advice gives me more confidence in being able to correct any problem I will have with my hand planes.
A Type 11? Sweet!
Great stuff here, thanks Chris!
I had a problem when I bought a new iron for an old No. 6 and the throat wasn’t open enough for the blade to fit and allow shavings to move above the iron.
I didn’t hear you mention bevel orientation…up or down?
how about checking the tail end of the plane with the feeler gauge while you are holding the the straight edge to the mouth of the plane. 4:41
I can’t believe this only has 96k views. I’ve studied almost every woodworker on youtube and you’re top tier. This answered questions I had searched multiple other places for several times.
to much drama here….
Hi, great video. I heard that a little wax on the soul of the plane can help a lot. Do you agree and if so what kind of wax? Cheers
SCORCHED audio.
This was great! The part where the secondary bevel was too steep is exactly what fixed my problem!
Good stuff.