Woodworking beginner III ｜Anthony’s Guide to Home DIY
We are going to teach you how to use a hand plane to make wood smooth! How do we do that? Let’s check this video out!
Must-know knowledge for newbies from Anthony (feat. Woodwork Master) – Woodworking beginner (III)
After learning drawing a line on wood,
We are going to teach you how to use a hand plane to make wood smooth.
Why do we need to smooth the wood and how much should we smooth?
If you find the wood not straight,
that means when the wood is not at right angle,
we need to use a hand plane to shave out some wood to make a sharp right angle.
Generally, there are two kinds of hand planes
we use often.
The first one is the Chinese style hand plane.
And the other one is the Japanese hand plane.
The main difference is
the way you hold it and the moving direction.
Anthony, let us try using the hand plane to smooth the wood.
Sure.
Wow, this is the Chinese hand plane.
Yes, exactly.
How to use it?
First, grip the cutting blade of the hand plane
between the thumb and the rest of the four fingers.
And then keep your fingers behind the hand plane.
Yes.
Use our left hand press down the front of the hand plane where it rises.
Put it on the wood horizontally.
One, two, three, push.
Push again. That’s right.
Remember,
you are doing this because you want to smooth the wood.
Therefore, you hand should keep stable.
I heard that apart from pushing the hand plane,
we can pull it as well.
Correct. So how to pull the hand plane?
When do we need to pull the cutting blade to smooth the wood?
It may because when the position is not right,
or the edge of the wood piece is not smooth enough.
Then, we will pull the hand plane to smooth it out.
Use your right hand to grip around the cutting blade.
And the pull with force.
Actually, for pulling movement,
it is more comfortable to use a Japanese hand plane.
You can try it out.
Put your right hand to hook on the hand plane
and hold it with left hand.
That’s it. Squat on your legs.
Pull it with power.
Yeah.
I see a metal bar here.
What is it?
It is used together with the Chinese style hand plane for better pushing.
When you need to smooth a hard wood
or the wood with hard grain
that need more power to push it out.
You can insert this metal bar to the hand plane.
Hold the hand plane firmly with both hands and push.
Wow.
It is a lot easier to do so.
Also, remember that
when you put the hand plane on table,
do not put it bottom down. You should put it on the side.
Yes, if you put it bottom down,
the woodworker will be very mad.
What are you going to teach us next time?
We have a saying that “smooth it when the wood can be smoothed. If not, use a hand saw”
in the industry.
In the next video, we will talk about cutting wood with a hand saw.
