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Planing - Final - Processes

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I've begun the next adventure - the final planing phase.  Like most everyone, I started the final planing working on the butt strips first.  I figured, since I've little knowledge or muscle memory of the intricacies of this stage, it would be easier to learn on the bigger strips first.  I put the first butt strip in the forms with the utmost trepidation, knowing that the next few planing strokes would determine how the final product would perform, and what it would look like.  Actually, I first lit a good cigar, and pondered about life in general...  The forms were set with my depth gauge and checked and rechecked at least a half a dozen times.  I learned early on in life to measure twice, thrice, etc. cut once.  It's easier to cut stuff away, than to put it back on.  And yes, I remembered to half the dimensions I received from Mr. Medved, who graciously sent me the numbers he uses to create his grass wonders.  So, there was nothing left for me to do, other than to make sure the plane was sharp, except to begin making curls.

I clamped the first butt strip about two inches or so farther down from my first witness mark on the planing forms, since I planned to work my way to the final size in increments.  I figured this would give me the chance to sneak up on the final dimensions, and correct any gotchas before I was to close to the end product to fix them.  I got the plane in motion, and started pulling off some nice curls, flipping the stick after every couple of passes.  As the butt end started getting close to the form dimensions at the point I clamped it, I flipped the strip top side up, and scraped the enamel off, making the top side parallel to the forms.  Once that task was accomplished, I moved the strip to the final dimension line I'd drawn on the forms, and planed away.  The planing seemed to go relatively well.  Since I was really taking my time, to make sure I was getting the angles and dimensions I wanted, I guesstimate it took me about 30 minutes to do the first strip.  Once I got the hang of it I was doing the rest of the strips in about 10 - 20 minutes, depending on how much grief the strip in question was giving me.  Oh yeah, sharpening....  I learned more about sharpening doing the final planing of these strips than I ever thought I would.  I was loading the blade into the Veritas honing guide, using the supplied Angle jig,  and beveling a secondary angle.  What I wasn't doing was checking the blade's squareness to the abrasive plate once I cranked down on the honing guide's set screw.  I just wasn't getting the blade as sharp as I thought I could, and it was showing when I had to resharpen more often.  Now, after loading the plane blade in the guide, and doing the initial set in the jig, I lay the blade on the sharpening glass, and check to make sure the blade is flat on the glass surface.  Back to shaving hairs again!  Pretty soon won't have any left on the arm...  Guess I'll have to limit my rod building to the cycles of hair growth on my arms.  Good new is,  I've got two arms, so I can do two rods, wait a couple of months...

I had a couple of minor problems during this stage.  A couple of nodes reached up and bit me, and grabbed the plane blade as I was going through them.  Playing around with the plane, I closed the throat down a little more, and this seemed to solve most of the node issues.  I also planed the tip strips on the butt strip side first, on the suggestion from Tony Spezio.  This allowed me to get the tip strips to a true 60 degrees, and also to scrape the enamel from the strip before it got too small to see.

I'm about half way through the tip strips now, and I find myself being even more careful and slower as I plane these guys.  Oy, them tips are so teeny!  .033 when I was setting the form didn't look quite so small.  I could use the tips as toothpicks!  The hardest part so far on planing the tips is making sure the blade is sharp, sharp, sharp.  I really gotta get rid of this cheesy Stanley blade before I begin my next rod.  I'm resharpening the blade between every strip, just to make sure the thing is sharp enough to peel nice little curls at the tip end without leaving little "Mark's" on the strip.  I've got the plane tuned up beautifully now, unfortunately the blade ain't up to the quality of the rest of the plane.  I think the new blade will be either a Hock, or Lie-Nielsen A2.  Since they're both about the same price, what does the list have to say about the two?  Pro's, Con's of both please!

Still awaiting the arrival of my  Epon order from Bingham Enterprises.  Seems the shipping is a bit slow, but should have the glue sometime this week, hopefully.  (Mark Wendt)

You need to understand the relationship between the depth of cut and width of the throat opening. If the throat is too wide no matter how sharp you make the plane iron you'll have problems. Adjust the opening so there is the tiniest space for the curl to pass. If it's too narrow and the opening chokes move the iron back or open the throat depending on what you're doing, rough or fine cut.

Experiment a bit with this and you'll solve a few mysteries about the wonders of a block plane.

As far as the iron to get goes the LN is a good choice so is the Hock. Toss a coin or get them both. Keep them sharp and replace as they dull while planing then resharpen them both ready for the next bout.  (Tony Young)

Your choice of plane iron will largely depend on what is available in the correct size to fit your plane.  Hock blades are available to fit both US and English Stanley, Record, and perhaps other planes as well.  I'm not so sure that the LN blades fit anything other than LN planes.  I could well be wrong on this, so be sure to check me out.  (Harry Boyd)

Five years ago or so I bought some Hock irons for my Record planes. They took a lot of work to get them set up, and for that matter, so did the planes.

I tried single bevel sharpening, I tried secondary bevels, I tried scary sharp, I tried a leather wheel, I tried wet and dry paper on a glass sheet.  I have also tried some HSS irons and some tungsten/carbide items. I have also spent a lot of time speaking to other people who have tried all these and more.

I don't believe that it matters a damn, so long as the method you use suits you, and that you DO, in fact, keep your irons sharp!!!

I use 4 Japanese water stones (800, 1200, 6000, and 8000) and I sharpen with a single 35 degree bevel. When do I resharpen?  When I first find myself with a little voice down in my brain stem saying "Maybe you should begin to start to get ready to think about preparing to wonder whether you ought to resharpen"!

And no, since I stopped wondering how many strips I can plane with a single resharpen, I don't chip  any nodes!  (Peter McKean)

I think you hit this nail right on the head.  It really doesn't matter a hoot how you get to the end result.  What really matters is that you get there.  I read through some of the tip sections in the tips archive and see a tremendous variety of ways to get from point a to point b.  Reading Mark Wendt's post about splitting is a great example.  He tried various techniques to split and found that a combination of techniques listed in the tips archive is what worked for him.  I think sometimes we all get to a point where we think we have the world by the tail (and we indeed may) and think that our method is the only one that is THE answer to get from one point to another.  The method that one person is using may indeed make it quicker for them to make a rod, but as a hobbiest, I'm more interested in getting a rod made, not really in the quickest time, but to get a rod made to the best of my abilities.  You're talking here about sharpening, but it could be applied to almost every aspect of rodmaking.

Thanks for the reminder.  (Todd Talsma)

I am new to bamboo rodmaking and have been working on three rods since May of 2006.  Of course the first several months were all about making tools, jigs, etc.  But during that time I have gotten to the point where one of the blanks is ready for tempering.  I tempered it last week.  I read many different posts and lots of books and decided that 7 1/2 minutes at 375 degrees was right.  I had read about many that cooked bamboo longer, but most of the information warned against too long at too high a temperature.  The blank turned a little darker, but it's still a little green (but then again, so am I).  I did not brown tone this rod.

So here I am with one rod ready for final planing.  One butt, two tips.   I planed the butt section today down to the final taper.

Then I got to thinking. I wonder if I cooked it long enough.   So, I cooked another piece of bamboo for 8 1/2 minutes at 375 degrees just to see what it would come out like.  It came out a beautiful shade of brown that I really like.

Now for the QUESTION.  Should I cook my blank some more to get the color I want?  The strength I want?  I now have one butt planed to final taper and two tips cooked at 375 for 7 1/2 minutes without final planing.

Any suggestions on what I should do?  (Mark Temen)

Tell me, Mark, just exactly HOW brown was this color that you like so much?  If you flame a culm before working on it, you can get it as dark as you like without causing any problems, as you are working on the rind and not to any appreciable extent on the deeper stuff;  but if you go for color change in your oven you are more likely to be affecting to whole strip, and I would worry that a rich brown would possibly be too much.  (Peter McKean)

Okay, let me see if I can help. I do not know if you read my heat treating experiment I did several years ago. It was published in Power Fibers I think in issue #4. I did several times and temps to find what was a good regime for heat treating and then put them through breaking test. It was some pretty good stuff, and very soon after Bob Milward came out with his book and came to a similar conclusion. The information has helped many rodmakers with heat treating. It is not the only way but it is a good starting off point for heat treating cane. I learned a lot from the experiment so much so that I do not even use an oven for heat treating. I actually use a large garden torch and heat treat the whole entire culm until I get the changes I want. You can read about that on the tips site.

Anyway, on to your dilemma. One recommendation I will make is you probably should try NOT to use cane that is green. You don't want to use it for the same reason you would not use green wood when building fine furniture. I believe letting the culms dry over a period of time until all the green is gone is good policy. If your strips are still a little green, I would place them in a clear acrylic tube with and put them in the sun until the green is gone. Bamboo is a grass, we all know this, if you take a green blade of grass and heat it in an oven the outcome is different then if the grass was allowed to dry slowly out in the sun.

Now if you do not want to do that and still proceed with heat treatment you can maybe use this as a guideline. 1 hour at 225 degrees then 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Be careful and mindful that if your strips have been heat treat previously you should decrease the time at the higher temp. Also your strips are tapered so keep an eye on the thin ends. They should be the indicators for color change. Keep a piece of non heat treated bamboo to compare and monitor the heat treatment of your strips.

Since I do not know your heat treating set up or the position of your thermometers and their accuracy I will not recommend how long or at what temp you should continue to heat treat your butt section, because it is already at its final numbers. If it were me though I would place my butt strips in a light box and leave them there for several days until the strips are completely dry and green free. But be warned your strips will shrink a bit. If you put them in the sun and let them dry they will grow a bit. And then you can redo the final planing.

If you choose to go ahead and glue them up now, I would suggest using a glue that that makes the rod stiffer such as URAC, Resorcinol or Gorilla Glue. Gorilla glue with actually pull some of that moisture from the cane and use it.

Now after all that long explanation let me say one thing more, not all cane needs to be heat treated. Believe it. Some cane is good to go once it is dry. And bad cane no matter how much it is heat treated will it become good cane. No wonder people get so confused when it comes to heat treating.  (Adam Vigil)

This sounds good.

I also use green bamboo, sometimes dark green, but I always put it in the full sun to dry and only use it when white or light yellow.

I use a barbecue for heat treating. I start grilling the culm on one end and move slowly higher, being careful not to burn the cane. At the other end of the cane, sap will come bubbling out. I know when the cane is good by its small, a nice nutty roasting smell, and the color, which I like quite dark. Only yesterday I had darkened them too much, and they broke under my plane... Not very scientific, but it works. I like the different shades of yellow/brown and almost black on my rods.   (Geert Poorteman)

I have almost always cut my bamboo exactly the same way.  I cut down to the last .006" - .008" with a sharp plane taking about .003" shavings.  Then I switch to another plane taking about .001" shavings for the last few thousandths.  Just this morning I was making shavings and began to wonder why I am changing planes.  I know that I want to prevent tearout, and if there are start and stop places along the strip I'm likely to get a tiny little gap.  But that isn't what I am asking.

Is the plane taking .001" shavings going to remove bamboo that the plane making .003" shavings will miss?  Is the surface actually smoother with a .001" cut than with a .003" cut?  Are my strips going to be more accurate just because I'm taking smaller cuts?

Any thoughts?  (Harry Boyd)

I don't switch planes and I don't think taking .001 shavings makes a cleaner cut. The sharpness of the blade determines the cleanliness of the cut, whether it be .003 or .001. Just my opinion. (John Smith)

Interesting thoughts.

I don't think I have ever had a plane sharp enough for. 001 shavings.

Do you really want it smoother? Isn't a little roughness good for gluing the surfaces together?  (Pete Van Schaack)

I've got a 9-1/2 that'll go 0.0005", if you believe a dial caliper, and less than a thou', if you believe a Fowler mike. (Steve Yasgur)

I think it's a head thing, which is not to say it doesn't work. We move to a plane with a shallower cut, reduce the push pressure needed to move it through the cane, switch mental gears and proceed with confidence.In my case the plane doing the fine cut also has a .003" groove on the sole, but I would change to a finer cut even if I was not using a grooved sole.  (Peter McKean)

I have one plane set @ 1/2 @ .001.   (Bret Reiter)

I think it makes a difference. I think that in theory you are correct but I think that in reality the rate how you take off that lsst little bit will make a better result. Also, a different topic I think it is handy to take off that last little bit with a freshly sharpened blade. And, the finer set plane will tend to grab at the form as much and I don't know your experience but when my plane is grabbing I'm not getting a smooth cut on the bamboo. Anyway, I feel that it's safer, eh?  (Timothy Troester)

I do the same. My reasoning is that I think the act of changing planes provides my mind a definite break or que to this last critical planing phase. As I get down to last .006 I switch to my "good" plane with my just sharpened blade. Also I take lighter cuts (maybe .002) and slow down taking my time to make sure everything is true with no start stops. I think I even hold my breath. Besides, that is the way I have always done it! (-: (Ken Weymouth)

In my very limited experience, I think that whatever I could say about one plane instead of the other could easily be reversed, depending on sharpening, blade, plane prep of sole and blade bed, etc.  I'm sure you know what I mean.  I don't think that the plane taking the one thou' cut will get what the 3 thou' misses; to the contrary.  I think you'd use a 1 thou' setting so that you don't tear out cane you'd prefer to keep.  Add to this the KISS principle.  Using different planes is like using a fixed power scope on a rifle instead of a variable.  At least in the early days, every time you "adjust," you run the risk of throwing off important relationships in the tool.  Is the point of aim--or the point of impact--the same if you crank it up to 8X from 3X?  Or vice versa?  If you expose more plane blade to take a measured 3 thou' off the spline, is the entire edge still perpendicular to the sole's long axis, or is there a slight curve to the blade edge?There's also the question of time savings not having to spend time adjusting the depth of cut and all the other things that could change (skew?) when you loosen the blade lockdown.  Finally, there's the whole "ghost in the machine" thing:  why do two seemingly identical planes function differently in one's hand?  Why is one a joy to use, and the other a struggle?  Naw, I dunno, either, but it's still true.Any of this helpful? (Steve Yasgur)

I feel sort of out of line responding to this since I am such a rookie but here is my thought on this:"Are my strips going to be more accurate just because I'm taking smaller cuts?"I believe that they are more accurate as well as smoother overall and here is why:  We all know that bamboo (or any other natural material) is not consistent in density and tends to plane unevenly (even thought it may be microscopic).  The larger the cut the less even the cut and, conversely, the smaller the cut the more even the cut.  This is why, when turning wood, you use a roughing gouge to start and finish with a skew or fingernail gouge.  You can get a smooth cut with either one but one is smoother than the other. It simply takes less material.  Thus, if you have tear out taking a cut at .001, it will be less then the tearout made by a cut of .003 or .006.Just my .02, correct me if I am misguided here folks.  (Marv Loopstra)

I think this is one of those grasshopper moments where I need to drink some green tea and meditate. (Scott Bearden)

I'm an extreme newbie, and probably don't have 2 good cents to offer, but I plane the same way (based on advice from this forum no doubt), and I do see one other advantage:  it can help to keep the triangle true and centered on the spline.For less-experienced folks like myself it's essential to sneak up on the final taper dimensions...if the last .003" shaving finishes my tip to the desired dimensions, but I've shaved off a bit too much from one side, I end up with a non-equilateral triangle.  Maybe to the point that final scraping won't fix it. Switching to the .001" plane gives me a few more passes, a little more time to adjust, and a little bit of a buffer if you know what I mean.  Likewise, if I really screw up and tilt my plane on the last pass, taking .001" shavings may leave me just enough bamboo to correct with 1 or 2 more good passes.Again, I may be too new to offer insightful feedback, but that's just what I've seen as a big advantage while I improve my technique. (Matt Schoenleben)

I do the same thing when I plane rods.  I have different planes set @ different cuts as well.  The reason I do it is because I figure a finer cut the last few .001's will be less likely to have a tear out @ a node & will be kinder on the forms.  That is less likely to gouge them.  Another reason is I have to sharpen less if I have a few different planes set up.  Sure initially I had a lot of sharpening to do when I initially got the Hock blades but now a few seconds touch up on the Worksharp 3000 on each blade I am back in business.  Besides it makes a nice picture having all those planes lined up by the forms.  I can see no other reason as to why I do it this way.  (Bret Reiter)

Well, if you overdo it a bit with the three tho' blade on a tip it will matter, terminally, probably. But one thou' is probably just about tolerable!  (Robin Haywood)

At the suggestion of a list member from Missouri who replied to me off-list, I did some experimentation this afternoon.  In doing so, I answered my own questions.I freshly sharpened two plane irons.  I set one plane to cut .003" per pass, and another to cut .001" per pass.  Both blades were sharpened to the same angle, and as close as I could judge it the throat opening on each plane was the same. I then made some nice long shavings with each plane.I held on to the shavings from each, keeping them separated.  Then I looked at each shaving under a little 30x hand-held microscope.The difference is dramatic.  As the plane cuts, it makes tiny little breaks all along the shaving as it curls away from the sharp blade. The little breaks almost look like links in a chain.  On the thicker shavings the little breaks are about 3 times as far apart as they are on the thinner shaving.  The closer spacing of those little breaks in the shaving mean I am getting a smoother cut with the .001" cut than with the .003" cut.Therefore, one good reason to make the last few passes with a smaller depth of cut is that it gives you a smoother cut.  To me, smoother cuts mean more accurate strips.  As it turns out, this was just an exercise in proving what must of us do to be correct.Thanks for thinking about this with me.  (Harry Boyd)

You are not gluing the shavings together to make a rod. Seems to me the surface of the cane strip is where you should be looking. Many cutting tools are designed to break the chip/shaving and leave a smooth surface on the work.

I think you should forget about it and go fishing. (Jerry Drake)

I might suggest you were viewing the wrong piece under magnification.  You need to look at the work piece surface, not what the metal machinists call "swarf."  Are you going to make a rod from the curlicues, or from the piece of cane sitting on your planing forms?  What does the planed finish look like on the strip when you use either plane?

The breaks on the shavings don't mean a thing.  The shavings will naturally crack that way due to the thickness of the shaving and the opening of the throat on the plane.  But that does not translate to surface finish or quality on the planed strip. (Mark Wendt)

I'm certain you and Jerry are correct.  I'll repeat the experiments while looking at the cane when I get out to the shop this morning. (Harry Boyd)

I made some additional cuts this morning, studying the surface of the planed strip rather than the shavings.  Under 30x magnification, the surface of a strip cut with a .001" cut is noticably smoother than the surface of the same strip when cut with a .003" cut.  I suspect that's reason enough to make final passes with the finest cut one can muster.

What was most fascinating to me was the appearance of the surface of the strip cut with .003" depth of cut.  Nearest the pith apex there were two striations where the pith was completely gone for more than an inch.  If you take a look at the side of a cut strip, even with no magnification you can see a slight striped appearance.  Under magnification it is clear the light stripes are the pith.  With a .003" cut, the pith would regularly pull out from between the power fibers, leaving what appears as a miniature ditch.  The surface looks like you might imagine it would if you scrubbed with a fine wire brush... soft material was removed, hard material remained.  A couple of passes with a .001" cut would remove the entire "ditch" bringing the surface back to smooth.For what it's worth, the strip I was cutting was about .180" in all three measurements, lightly flamed, heat treated at 375* for 11 minutes. (Harry Boyd)

I am curious as to how long you let the sections set after removal from the oven to reabsorb the ambient moisture levels before final planing? (Key Weymouth)

I really can't see that you can "overdo" it when planing. You can plane down to your forms and that's about it. You can use an axe if you choose, and you still can only get down to your selected dimension, surely.And looking at the removed cane in addition to the job surface seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do if you are examining the whole process critically.  (Peter McKean)

With all due respect, one can actually "overdo" as you say during planing. If you do not have the throat of your plane adjusted closely enough to produce tight curls, and/or skew your plane too much, you will peel the cut instead of cutting it clean. This can produce a cut that goes below the surface of the form. My last few passes are with a grooved sole plane taking very light cuts. I can push down as hard as I want to keep the strip in place without fear of gouging the form. I also do not skew the plane to keep from what I just explained. Hope this makes sence. (Lou Barbaro)

Yes, you are quite right.  I just assumed, for the sake of the "overdone" discussion, that all the parameters for good plane use were already being met.I got my grooved sole plane very late in the piece, and was used to finishing with just a L-N with a flat sole. I found that was a great way to get my planing technique up to speed. I thought long and hard about the grooved model, and now that I have it, I do like it, but do not regard it as an essential tool.  In fact, I think I use it more to spare my forms from accidental gouging than as a contributor to accuracy.  (Peter McKean)

So it would seem that planing bamboo has similar characteristics to machining metal.  Machinists tend to take "finishing" passes where the depth of cut is smaller than the roughing passes.Makes sense.  (Mark Wendt)

A question for the hand planers out there.  How do you approach the final dimensions on a strip?  Do you work a couple stations at a time until you reach final numbers, or do you work a longer section?  Or maybe another way?  I do a couple stations but maybe that's because I can't keep more than 2 numbers in my head at a time.  I remember reading about a planer that just used a straightedge to test the strip in the form an didn't measure the strips at all. (Frank Stetzer, Hexrod, Taper Archive, Rodmakers Archive (6/3/2016))

First of all, I take my time. As a hobbyist maker I am in no hurry and as a result probably take more time than most in final planing.

After roughing with a Baginski style beveler, I set the form to .22" to .20" for each station and plane until each the strip, at each station, is +- .002". I do all six strips then set the form to taper dimensions + .06" and plane close to the metal measuring and adjusting to keep the strip +- .002". Next, set the form to taper +.03" and plane to the metal measuring about half way through correcting the angles to +- .001". Then set the form to final dimensions and plane to the metal. I generally don't measure anything on this last run because there isn't enough meat on the strip to make meaningful corrections. Finally, at Tony Spezio's suggestion, I scrape all three sides of the strip with a sharp razor blade. Scraping the enamel side flattens any slight curvature remaining in the strip and makes very minor corrections to slightly off angles. After finishing all six strips, I tape them up for gluing and make three passes with the plane on the pith side apex which removes about .003" and helps the strips fit together.

I know this approach is "accuracy for the sake of accuracy" and probably has no practical value but, for me, "hitting the numbers" is part of the challenge so I do it just for the satisfaction. (JW Healy)

Like JW, I'm a hobbyist and so I'm not terribly concerned about time, and I've come to have a zen attitude toward planing the cane.  I hand split the strips, flatten the nodes and then use my home-made Medved type beveler to square up the strips to about 0.070" over the maximum strip face width dimension, after which I soak them for a couple of days or so.  Once they've been straightened and the nodes pressed, I run them back through the beveler to establish the rough triangle at about 0.060" over the maximum strip face dimension then bind and heat-treat them in Harry's form.  I've found that I can use the beveler to deal with some of the irregularity in the fiber direction, especially at the nodes both in the squaring and rough beveling runs.  Heat-treating takes out a good bit of the sweeps.

Once the strips have cooled I put them in the planing form which I've set for about 0.015" over the taper dimension and plane all the strips.  (I built an Excel spreadsheet that calculates all the planing form dimensions for me based upon the desired taper dimensions and adjusts them to include a 0.002" allowance for sanding which is then my target taper dimension.)  I'll select one strip and scrape the faces with a cabinet scraper followed by a single-edged razor blade and then I'll measure all three depths for that strip at each station and compare the average with the form setting.  Then I reset the form to the target dimension adjusted by the difference.  I'll plane and scrape 6 strips, tape them together, check the overall actual depth against the target depth, adjust the form again and final plane the strips. 

When the glue has set I'll measure each pair of faces at each station and use sandpaper to get the section to the proper dimension at each station.  This step isn't nearly as tedious as it sounds and results in a section that has a very uniform vibration all around it. (Cliff Parmer)

You know, for twenty years I have wondered why it is considered anathaema to PLANE the enamel side of a strip, but acceptable to use a scraper, or a bodied scraper, or sandpaper.

Very, very late in the process I flatten out the enamel side - "late" so there is very little effective curve to modify - and I do it with a very sharp plane, which I keep sitting there for that job only. I find it necessary to make the strip fit the groove for achieving final dimensions, and close inspection of most of the "master’s rods" that I have seen would suggest that they all do the same.

I just think that I can achieve a better level of control, plus a better surface, using a sharp, properly adjusted plane than I can with a bodied scraper or a cabinet scraper, and wonder why I seem to be the only one to believe that.

I use a sacrifice strip when final planing and use it to set the final settings for the butt (measure and adjust and plane and measure and adjust and plane ad infinitum, or till it's right). When I am pretty much spot-on, I go through and plane the butt strips. Then, using the same sacrifice strip, I repeat the process for the mid-section or the tip.

I am never 100% spot on, but get acceptable accuracy by this method. Also, I have never had any reason to suspect that I am degrading rod function by my VERY LIMITED planing of the enamel side during preparation. (Peter McKean)

Looks like you're onto something good, Peter. I doubt that I really weakened the rods much sanding off the shiny surface. I don't think it adds much to the strength. How much do you reckon the plane removes from that face?

The sacrifice strip makes perfect sense. Thanks for that one. (Casey)

Aha!  Maybe my old memory isn’t as bad off as I was thinking!  We only worked the nodes smooth with a file – didn’t take off all the enamel early on.   Only scraped later on.   (Jim Holmes)

The scraper is used only after the plane has quit cutting.  For the final passes in planing I plane at an angle to the bamboo which, as I'm sure you know, makes a pretty smooth cut.  The scraper just removes a very fine shaving where the plane was not getting down to the form surface for some reason.  I find that it gives me a very flat surface.  A properly sharpened scraper cuts every bit as well as a properly sharpened plane iron.

As for flattening the enamel surface, I've heard lots of arguments about why it should be the last thing one does but I can't understand how one can get a good flat surface on the inner faces of the strip without flattening the enamel so that it fits solidly against the form.  I  have a hard time with the argument that you are cutting the power fibers and weakening the rod. When I've looked at a section through the bamboo under a microscope it reminds me of reinforced concrete in that the power fibers are embedded in a matrix which, it would seem to me, would redistribute the tension from casting.  And the density of the fibers it quite high toward the surface so the little bit you cut out would hardly seem to be a big deal - at least in my humble opinion. (Cliff Parmer)

Could not agree more!

The strip cannot fit the groove if it's knobbly.

And with good cane and care in preparation, we are working with a pretty well 100% power fibre "zone" in any case. (Peter McKean)

I have noted that in the Vince Marinaro book it is pretty clear that the enamel needs to be planed off flat.  For some reason – senior citizenry related, no doubt – I did not remember doing that on the one rod I built in the Oyster class.  I thought I remembered only scraping the enamel later in the process.  Guess I must be wrong.  Your comments about not being able to get a good sixty-degree fit in the form makes perfect sense, however.   (Jim Holmes)

Vince never planed the enamel surface—EVER.  When each of his strips reached 8 thou of his target, he would turn the strip, enamel-side-up.  Then, he used a flat, cabinet scraper to remove the enamel.  Following this, he’d flip the strip again and take its inner surfaces down to final dimensions.  Vince was insistent about using a cabinet scraper rather than plane, and he took pains to retain as much of a strip’s natural curvature as possible—never intending to “flatten” an outer surface. (Bill Harms)

I stand corrected – my focus was more on the enamel being removed rather than the tool used to do it.  I had not thought most rodbuilders would want the enamel removed completely.  It was a surprise to me.  I remembered just scraping the enamel side slightly, but not completely.  (Jim Holmes)

All, thank you for sharing years’ worth of hard won experiences once again. As a want to-be maker I save quite a few of these threads from start to finish. No doubt, one day I’ll be having a very specific problem and the answer will be waiting for me, thanks to everyone’s generosity. (Matt Woods)

After I have hand split my strips, hand plane to rough bevel, Heat treat the strips in a mica strip oven, I usually soak my strips for at least 24 hours.

I set my planing forms to .008 inch over the final taper numbers, and carefully plane each butt and tip strips to just about the form surface. Since this is the first pass of the plane on the strips, the cautious +.008 inch over the final taper numbers guarantees I won't be under when I let them air dry again.

I let the strips air dry in the shop for at least a week. I reset my planing forms right to the numbers, then set the strips enamel side up and scrape and/or sand the enamel off of them. This insures that the strips will sit firmly in the form and I have my final surface on the enamel side with no curvature affecting the final planing process.

I make sure I have all of my plane blades fully sharpened to the best cutting edge.

I again place each strip enamel side up and mark across each station with a pencil.

I then plane each side of the pith sides, alternating every few passes until I am down to the surface of the forms. At this point, I start measuring the stations. As long as my plane blades are perfectly sharp, I can plane right to the taper without scraping with razor blades or sanding. When I am within +/- .001 inch of the taper, I stop planing that station. Sometimes I have to plane a station or three where other stations have already met the forms.

I plane with low bedded planes, 12° or 13.5° bedded angle with my blades micro honed to 47° so I get a cutting angle of 59° to 60° or so. Never get tear outs with adjustable tongue grooves.

You don't have to keep the taper numbers in your head, simply write the taper number on the form at each station with a sharpie!  (Don Smith)

Here is my approach. It starts with strips that have been straightened and the nodes pressed flat. I bevel these with a baginski just enough, so I can bind them in hexes to heat treat them--I use left over old strips to pad out hexes that are not complete. Now preparing to plane I sand flat whatever is left sticking up of the nodes but otherwise going easy on the enamel side. Now I go back to the Baginski and bevel down to 0.040"--0.050" over butt end dimension of butt strips, 0.035"--.025" over the butt end dimension of tip strips. With the well flattened strips I don't get any "hourglassing,” where the nodes pass through the beveler.

I then set up the form with the taper as much as possible towards the tip end of the form. Coming off the last station of the strip I note the difference from the next to last station and progressively add that to the remaining stations to the butt end of the form. In effect I am continuing the taper between the last two stations of the strip to the butt end of the form.

I start planing with the strip way down toward the butt end. Thus, to start I will only be planing on the tip end of the strip. I plane it flush and move it up and plane it flush again. At no point will I be planing with the strip more than a few thousandths proud of the form. The overall idea is to let the planing form do the work of holding good three-way 60's by avoiding the possibility of the plane rocking very much. Early on I may move up a whole station at a time, but as I approach the intended taper I reduce the amount I move up.  When I get the tip of the strip within a couple of stations of the final taper I start measuring very carefully and correcting anything that's gotten off good angles. I often find that I have actually arrived at the taper a half a station before the nominal end point. I take care of small differences of 0.001"--0.002" scraping with a single edge razor blade a la Tony Spezio.

To check tapers, I sand the edge off the inner apexes and dry bind and measure the assembled rod section. I usually find it's somewhat over even though the strips measure right. I will have made three-way measurements so I will know which pairs of strips need work and relatively how much. I generally do the correction scraping with a razor blade. It sometimes takes a couple of iterations to get it right.

Perhaps one downside of the way I work is that I get a lot of metal shavings off my form and the outside edges are getting a bit sharp. But having made the form, working on it holds no terrors for me. One result is that I can now plane a little bit finer tip than before. (Mike McGuire)

Thanks for the suggestions.  I can see the wisdom of Peter's method of using a sacrificial strip to set the forms exactly right, and Mike's method of starting at the big end of the form where the strip will be completely supported.  I'm going to try those out.

What I'm trying to do is cut down a little on the plane..measure..repeat loop which goes on longer than I find enjoyable.

I did adopt the plane-the-enamel approach on my current rod.  I think it was Darryl H. who first advocated it, at least on this list.

One thing I do is to write the target dimensions on the enamel side strip itself when I get close.  You can't do it on the finest part of the tip of course but with a sharp pencil you can do the last 2 digits once you get to the 10 or 15-inch station.  An eraser takes them off when done.

I've got some interesting heat-treating findings I'll share someday if I can find where I wrote them down. (Frank Stetzer, Hexrod, Taper Archive, Rodmakers Archive)

I think the actual measuring of your station marks on the strip as you plane it is not really necessary until you no longer are planing any material off your strip; IF you have your forms set at the proper dimension for each station, +/- .000 inch and you check for growth/shrinkage of those dimensions every few strips (temperature changes in my rod room does this to my forms, not sure about others....).

IF you have a minimal amount of enamel SCRAPED (not planed... takes too much off...) off down the center of the strip (Not necessary to scrape from edge-to-edge of the strip, but only a little more than the final planed width...) so it sits snug in your form groove. Plane both pith sides to get to the scrapped enamel area.

IF you have a pencil mark across your strip enamel side for each station. Write your taper numbers at each station on the form with a sharpie...

IF your plane blades are as sharp as you can get them.

IF you make deliberate and slow passes with your plane.

So, when no more material is being removed with your plane, you should be right at the numbers, +/- .001 inch.

This is with dry cane, of course, regardless if you plane wet strips initially with your forms set at taper +.008/.010 inch

This is my process and my results... Hardly ever scrape with a razor blade anymore... (Don Smith)

In my own mind, I am quite sure that you are correct re dimensions - it is a big plus when we DO hit them spot on, dead centre, but it does not render a strip unusable should it deviate a bit from the target numbers.

It would take, in my opinion, a very, very good caster to pick a rod with small deviations from the "correct" measurements.

For some time I was astounded by the fact that my father-in-law was able to produce strips, rod after rod, that hit the numbers pretty well exactly; astounded because, dear old friend that he was, and keen on his bamboo, he was not a man noted for delicate craftsmanship. If building a house, his level of accuracy would be that he might work to the nearest foot on a good day.

But the strip stations were spot on whenever he boasted to me and showed me!

Took me a good couple of years to twig that when he wanted to show me up, he would write the station dimension for each station on his planing form AFTER he had measured the strip dimension!!!

All to show up his silly son-in-law! Clever old bloke; he knew I would never check against, say, Garrison's figures. (Peter McKean)

Confusion here.  After planing around 25 or 30 thousandths off the 2 sides opposite the pith side, I do take my very sharp plane to start flattening the pith side, maybe 5 thousandths or so. Then I go the scraper and take the pith side down another 25 thousandths. I believe by doing this I can prevent rocking of the strip in the form and help me get better 60-degree strips. When I get down to the last 5 thousandths or so, I again check the pith side and maybe scrape a little more to get all 60-degree strips. But, again getting good strips in the end, means sharp blades, above and beyond the call of duty to get good straight and flat nodes and measure often before you wind up with a tomatoe stake?? Ask me how I know....  hee, hee (Lew Boyko)

Yes, you would think that when the plane is not drawing any more shavings and forms set accurate, that stations would be true.  However, Tony Spezio made a believer out of me by scraping with a razor blade.  The finest fuzz comes off right next to the strip, almost imperceptible.   I call it angel hair. Scrape back and forth until no "angel hair" or fuzz and strips will truly hit the marks. (Darrol Groth)