Quote:
Originally Posted by musicadivine
If I understood properly, luthiers usualy use low angle Bevel up planes for Jointing and higher 40-55 angle, Bevel down Smoothing planes like nu. 4 1/2 for thicknessing. Any recomendation in Lie Nielsen or Veritas line what works the best? It's even more confusing as many come in low and normal angle version? Mybe any great allround plane? Or Anyone use LN no. 9 Mitre plane for both purposes?
|
The #9 mitre plane is a specialty (read limited-application) plane. It is intended for use with a shooting board, mostly for end grain (90, 45 or other angles) and truing edges. It can be used to joint tops and backs. It is definitely not an ideal choice for a smoothing plane for thicknessing materials. A 4 1/2 is a traditional all-around smoothing plane, good for thicknessing materials. A low angle smoothing or jack plane are also good choices.
The choice of bevel-up, bevel-down and frog angle depend upon the grain of the specific piece of wood being worked - one works better in some situations, another in other situations. You can achieve the same result as a high angle frog using a regular frog, but with the blade sharpened to a different angle - use two blades with the same frog, one blade sharpened to one angle, the other to a different angle to simulate the high angle frog.
For jointing, I'd recommend a jointing plane such as a # 7 or #8. If you are on a budget, a low angle jack plane could double as a jointing plane. Any plane used for jointing with a shooting board must have its sides machined square to its base - so that it can lie on its side and still cut a vertical surface. Some of the bevel-up LN planes don't.
In all cases ensure that the planes you buy have an adjustable throat. This is critical.
If you haven't looked at them, Woodcrafts line of Woodriver planes are very good value for the money.
Can't help with advice on Japanese planes.
The hoops on chisels, Japanese or Western, are there to facilitate whacking them with a mallet without mushrooming the chisel ends. With the exception of hand-splitting braces, there isn't a great deal of whacking-with-a-mallet in guitar making. Generally, most any set of woodworking chisels will work fine for guitar making. You can go high-end or not. My favorites for instrument making are those sold by LMI, though, at least when I bought them many years ago, they were pretty roughly prepared and required considerable work before they were ready for use:
