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A Thicknessing Technique

I have written a couple of pieces on “four squaring” and thicknessing by hand, and these are on my website. Here I want to describe a technique that I recently began using when thicknessing boards. I have not seen it elsewhere, but I am very aware that I may likely be re-inventing the wheel.

The usual sequence of preparing a board, whether it is a single piece or a panel, is to get it flat.

First plane across the grain to level it off …

Once this is done, then flatten the board with the grain …

Wind is checked as you proceed…

Now you need to plane the other side of the board/panel.

When beginning the thicknessing phase, it is common practice to use a marking gauge to scribe a line, such as this …

The usual method is then to plane to these lines. You know that this point has been reached when a “thread” appears along the edge of the face …

The New Technique

My method is a variation on the above.

Once the edges have been scribed, plane a chamfer to the edge of the board, taking this to the scribed line, thus …

The advantage of this method is that you can monitor all four sides at the same time as you plane. With the previous method you may at best be able to monitor two sides.

Begin to plane so as to remove the chamfer …

Below you can see that the near edge is nearly done while the left side edge is not.

Here the amount of waste to be planed away is clear to the eye.

Once the waste is nearly removed with a jack plane, then move on to a jointer and/or smoother and finish the board to the edge of the chamfer.

Regards from Perth

Derek

January 2010