# Hand plane chipping oak



## DrillingThrough (Apr 29, 2014)

I've been using a plane for the first time and I'm finding that it gets stuck which can result in small chips. I think I must be doing something wrong but I don't know what. It seems to work fine on rough wood (oak), but once it gets flatter it starts to get stuck.

My plane is a Faithful one and the first thing I did to my plane was sharpen the blade. I'm doing very shallow cuts, if I retract the blade much further then it doesn't even touch the wood.

Any ideas what is wrong?


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

You could try going the opposite direction on the grain and try setting the chip breaker closer to the cutting edge.


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## DrillingThrough (Apr 29, 2014)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> You could try going the opposite direction on the grain and try setting the chip breaker closer to the cutting edge.


I've tried going in both directions and I think I'm going the right way. The chip breaker is already pretty close, but I could try moving it closer.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Another thing you could try is a skewed cut instead of going square to the grain.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

You may also be trying to plane too deep....


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## Carpenter12 (Sep 19, 2013)

How To Use A Hand Plane - Video


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## skiroy56 (Aug 7, 2011)

If you haven't done it, try waxing the sole to smooth out your strokes.


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## Fraise (May 19, 2012)

DrillingThrough said:


> I've been using a plane for the first time and I'm finding that it gets stuck which can result in small chips. I think I must be doing something wrong but I don't know what. It seems to work fine on rough wood (oak), but once it gets flatter it starts to get stuck.
> 
> My plane is a Faithful one and the first thing I did to my plane was sharpen the blade. I'm doing very shallow cuts, if I retract the blade much further then it doesn't even touch the wood.
> 
> Any ideas what is wrong?


I'm afraid Faithfull are very poor quality planes - you may never get it right. Oak is difficult too. The grain can run both ways. Also what size is it? Smaller planes may not have enough heft for the job on oak - hence getting stuck.

plus all the comments above may be true too!


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## BOjr (Dec 1, 2012)

It could be that the bottom of the plane isn't dead flat. Very few planes out of the box are. It's a lot of work but what I have had to do with all of my planes is to sand them flat. Start with a 120 grit sandpaper on a piece of glass and work your way up to 500 grit. You should end up with a polished surface.


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## DrillingThrough (Apr 29, 2014)

Fraise said:


> The grain can run both ways. Also what size is it? Smaller planes may not have enough heft for the job on oak - hence getting stuck.


I think it does run both ways in some places. I have looked in some places, decided that it runs one way, then looked somewhere else and decided it must run the other way.

It's a no 4, but my boards are very small. I've cut the boards to about 14" in length IIRC.


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## DrillingThrough (Apr 29, 2014)

BOjr said:


> It could be that the bottom of the plane isn't dead flat. Very few planes out of the box are. It's a lot of work but what I have had to do with all of my planes is to sand them flat. Start with a 120 grit sandpaper on a piece of glass and work your way up to 500 grit. You should end up with a polished surface.


This could be the problem. I know it isn't completely flat. I did sand it a bit but my sand paper isn't coarse enough. Only the edges are completely flat. I'll find some other sand paper.


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## BrianS (Nov 7, 2004)

DrillingThrough said:


> This could be the problem. I know it isn't completely flat. I did sand it a bit but my sand paper isn't coarse enough. Only the edges are completely flat. I'll find some other sand paper.


You can always coat the bottom with something... magic marker, machinist dye, etc. That way you can see your progress... when the coating is gone, your plane is flat.


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