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Wax the outside "shoulders" of the sole of your grooved plane, using a high quality hard carnuba wax. You will experience a dramatic reduction of planing effort, which then can be translated into greater control of the plane once you get used to it. Anticipating the usual question - No I don't get any transfer of wax to the strip, at least any that I can see or affects the glue adherence. (Darryl Hayashida) I've always waxed my plane sole for general wood work and also for bamboo. I use whatever car wax is in the garage, or Boeshield spray. (I use Boeshield on all my saw tables, and exposed, unpainted metal. Great stuff.) (Brian Creek)
Does anyone out there wax their plane soles and if so have you had any problems with residue affecting glue. I did it last night. I figure that the wax will come off when I scape the final .005 from the rod. The affect on planing is remarkable. Any insight? (Jim Lowe) I use beeswax. It does make a difference. Never had a problem (yet) with it. (Brian Creek) It also makes you feel the sharpness of your blade and when you need to resharpen. I have used candle wax and you need very little to make a huge difference. As I get closer to the final taper I stop using wax to make sure i do have a clean glue surface. I also used wax on the bed of the Morgan Handmill and it makes it much easier to push. (Morten Lovstad) I don't know whether or not you blokes in the US use oil pads for planing and sawing, but joiners and cabinetmakers here use them a lot. Just a pad of felt (mine is made out of a strip of felt flooring wound tightly and fitted into a flat Erinmore Mixture tobacco tin with a screw lid, and soaked with light oil, very sparsely. I just use a light 3-in-1 machine oil) and you keep it open on the bench and occasionally during work just stroke the plane backwards over it. Obviously you have to be aware of the amount of oil floating about, and not use the pad in the last stages, yadda yadda yadda, but it has never interfered with any gluing processes in my experience. In point of fact, I realize now that I hardly ever use the thing any more, but I think that is more a function of having sharper blades these days than of ever having a problem with the pad; it certainly makes a huge difference to the drag on the sole especially during the heavier part of planing. (Peter McKean) For myself, I wouldn't go near an unfinished rod with wax. (Mark Dyba)
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