• Home
  • Blog
    • Audio Podcast Archive
    • Joinery
    • News & Ramblings
    • Projects
    • Q & A
    • Shop Tips
    • Tools
  • Free Videos
  • Online Courses
  • Traditional Classes
    • Foundations of Traditional Woodworking
RegisterLogin
Bob Rozaieski Fine Woodworking
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Audio Podcast Archive
    • Joinery
    • News & Ramblings
    • Projects
    • Q & A
    • Shop Tips
    • Tools
  • Free Videos
  • Online Courses
  • Traditional Classes
    • Foundations of Traditional Woodworking

Shop Tips

How to Plane the Edge of a Board Square

  • Posted by Bob Rozaieski
  • Categories Shop Tips
  • Date March 3, 2021
  • Comments 0 comment
Hand Planing the Edge of a Board Square

I’ve been writing a series of posts about milling lumber by hand. Today, in continuation of that series, I want to look at the process of planing the edge of a board square to its face.

When looking at the edge of a board, it may seem like a simple surface, but that edge can be in various states relative to the board’s face. The edge can be square to the face but not straight from end to end. Conversely, it can be straight from end to end but not square to the face. It can be both square to the face and straight from end to end. Or it can be neither square to the face nor straight from end to end.

When milling lumber with machines, it’s usually critical to make sure that every face and edge is flat, straight, square and parallel, because those surfaces are all used as references against machine tables and fences. But then again, when milling lumber with machines, it’s very little extra work to make every face and edge perfectly flat, straight, square and parallel.

When performing these tasks by hand, “four-squaring” every single board is extremely labor intensive, time consuming, and inefficient if every board doesn’t actually need to be “four-squared”. However, by considering when a square or straight edge really matters, and when it doesn’t, the amount of hand planing required can potentially be reduced and the process can be made much more efficient.

Painted Cupboard
The door and drawer parts of this cupboard all need to be flat, straight, and square, otherwise they won’t fit their openings properly. However, the oak top doesn’t really need to be perfectly flat, straight, or square – it just needs to be planed smooth and look nice.

Once again, the process starts by asking questions. Is the edge destined to become one half of an edge joint? Then maybe square isn’t so important (we already talked about match planing), but straight certainly will be. On the other hand, the end of a shelf that will fit into a through dado joint needs to be dead square to avoid gaps at the front of the joint, but it’s OK (maybe even preferable) if the end is a hair concave from edge to edge because it will be hidden inside the joint. For doors or drawers, both straight and square are very important for a good fit in their opening. For the edges of a tabletop, neither straight nor square is important.

When square and/or straight edges are required, though, you had better know how to get there efficiently or you could be chasing your tail for a long time. When it comes to squaring and straightening the edges of a board, the processes are related. However, the end goals are different enough that I typically try and encourage beginning hand plane users to focus on only one concept at a time. I find that teaching the process this way makes it easier for my students to grasp the two different concepts and have the greatest success.

Hand Planing the Edge of a Board Square
The edge of this board is obviously not square to its face.

IF the edge of the board needs to be square to the face, then I will typically start by squaring the edge because the process of squaring the edge usually begins the process of straightening that edge as well. The opposite, is not necessarily true, so I find it best to work on squaring the edge first.

In order to make the edge of the board square to the face, we first need to know the current condition of that edge. Is it out of square all in the same direction, or is it twisted (high on opposite sides at opposite ends of the board)? Is it out of square consistently from end to end, or is it just a hair out of square at one end and a quarter of an inch out of square at the other? It can be helpful to mark the board with a pencil as you check for these conditions if you need to do so. The goal will be to remove wood only where necessary to make the edge square.

Hand Planing the Edge of a Board Square
This board is consistently out of square in the same direction along the entire length of the board. So I will focus most of my planing attention on removing wood from the high corner that I’ve identified here with a marker.

After identifying where the wood needs to be removed, we can start planing, but it’s critical to understand how the plane works based upon how it is set up. The wood can be marked as precisely as possible, but if we remove more wood than necessary, we’re headed for a tail chase.

While any plane can be used to square an edge, attempting to plane an edge square with a plane that has straight ground blade is kind of like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. It’s possible, but it takes some special skill, coordination, and lots of practice. A straight blade cuts a consistent depth across its entire width. Therefore, we have two choices when using a straight blade to square an edge.

The first is to use the lateral adjustment of the blade to skew the depth of cut toward the high side of the board’s edge. This works fine if the board is consistently out of square in the same direction down the entire length of the board. But if the edge is twisted at all, this method requires lots of stop cuts and resetting of the lateral adjustment to change the skew from one side to the other.

The second option for squaring an edge using a straight ground blade is to hold the sole of the plane perfectly square to the face of the board. You then use the even projection of the blade to only remove the high spots by holding it perfectly square as you move down the board (think power jointer fence). This sounds logical in theory, but doing this by hand without any kind of fence is quite a challenge for even the most experienced of hand plane users.

So while I do use a jointer plane with a straight ground blade when I’m planing edges that are bound for glue joints, I prefer a try plane or a fore plane with a cambered blade for squaring edges. Compared to using a plane with a square ground blade, using a plane with a cambered blade simply requires you to understand and take advantage of the cutting geometry.

Cambered Plane Iron
The convex cambered grind of the try or fore plane’s iron results in the plane cutting a wedge shaped shaving that tapers thinner the further from the center of the blade it gets.

The advantage of using a plane with a cambered blade for squaring edges is that it does not cut with a consistent thickness across the width of the plane. This may sound counter intuitive at first, but when you consider what you’re trying to accomplish when squaring an edge, it makes perfect sense.

In order to bring an out of square edge into square, more wood needs to be removed from the high corner than is removed from the low corner. With a cambered blade, this is accomplished by moving the part of the blade that takes the thickest cut (the center) directly onto the area of the board’s edge that needs the most wood removed. The shaving tapers off to either side of this point on the blade, so the high spot will be reduced the most with less and less material being removed the further from the high spot you get. This is exactly the kind of cut that is needed to bring an edge to square, no head patting or belly rubbing required.

Hand Planing the Edge of a Board Square
Using a plane with a cambered iron, just move the plane from one side of the edge to the other during the stroke in order to remove twist from the edge of the board.

Furthermore, this method makes it a piece of cake to remove twist from the edge of a board without messing with the lateral adjustment of the blade or having to hold the plane perfectly square to the board. By simply shifting the plane left or right while working on the edge, the plane can be directed to plane the high spots while barely touching the low spots.

Hand Planing the Edge of a Board Square
By using the cambered iron to remove more wood from the high spots, the board’s edge can be quickly made square to its face.

So if you’re having trouble planing a square edge with a plane that has a straight iron, try grinding the edge of the blade to a camber and see if you don’t have an easier time of it. Using a cambered iron really does make the task easier.

Alternatively, you can use this as an excuse to buy another plane – as if you needed an excuse.

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Tag:Hand Planes, Hand Planing, Milling Lumber by Hand

author avatar
Bob Rozaieski

I'm a passionate woodworking enthusiast of over 30 years, with an interest in the methods of pre-industrial joiners and cabinetmakers. I'm a furniture maker, teacher, and author, and I share my thoughts and experiences with the goal of educating and inspiring others who are pursuing the craft of traditional woodworking. In addition to writing about and teaching traditional woodworking, I also build commission pieces for customers, and speak at woodworking shows and seminars.

Previous post

How to Plane the First Face of a Board Flat
March 3, 2021

Next post

How to Plane the Edge of a Board Straight
March 4, 2021

Join the Discussion Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe!Get Notified Whenever We Publish New Content

Would you like to receive notifications when new content is added to the site? Just enter your email address below and click "Subscribe" to get on the notification list. Don't worry, we'll never share your email with anyone. It'll be our little secret!

Search

Categories

  • Audio
  • Joinery
  • News & Ramblings
  • Projects
  • Q & A
  • Shop Tips
  • Tools
  • Videos

Latest Online Courses

Hand Plane Foundations

Hand Plane Foundations

Coming soon
Hand Saw Foundations

Hand Saw Foundations

$ 50.00
Colonial Wall Cupboard

Colonial Wall Cupboard

Coming soon

About

  • About
  • Testimonials

Links

  • Email
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • RSS Feed

Information

  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy

Support

  • FAQs
  • Contact

Copyright © 2015-2021 Bob Rozaieski Fine Woodworking

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Login with your site account

Lost your password?

Not a member yet? Register now

Register a new account

Are you a member? Login now

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.