Plane Talk: Straight Flat and Square

Francis, Paul, Rick, Jimmy, Lawrence and Miles

Paul showed the finished birch bowl, made from the kiln dried birch --thanks to Lawrence

Rick brought some wood to finish the table top project but we decided that , although it looked like Butternut, it was in fact Elm so we agreed to wait until Paul gets more Butternut from Margaree. It was clearly much denser and heavier than the Butternut.

Lawrence went over the use of the grinder;

Wheels should be trued and balanced

Some  wheels should only be used to sharpen high speed steel as softer steel will leave particles embedded on the wheel, lowering is efficiency.

He demonstrated a diamond tool for truing the wheels.

He demonstrated the "Irish Grind" lathe tool and showed us how to adjust the grind with the specialized tool holder and an improvised measuring jog which allows one to adjust the distance from the grinder surface to the tool holding slot.

An Irish grind (or Ellsworth grind) is a specialized, swept-back sharpening profile for bowl gouges, featuring long, tapered wings and a nose angle usually between 

${55}^{\circ }$

 and 

${65}^{\circ }$

. This versatile grind allows for, shearing cuts, shaping, and finishing, often created using a jig to achieve a fingernail shape. 

This video explains the Irish grind and how to achieve it with a sharpening jig:

Scraper sharpening Jig

Irish Grind Jig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0g4V5P5KUA&t=277s

Lawrence showed another jig that is useful for mounting a scraper son that it can be sharpened on the grinder.

Lawrence helped Rick split a piece of 2 inch Poplar  down the middle to make two boards. He used the table saw to make a cut on each edge and the band saw to divide the piece.

When the 2 inch stock was run though the table saw, it was easy to see that there was "stress" in the wood as it seemed to bind a little half way through the cut and left burn marks at the bind site.