Planes for carving guitar tops - recommendations?

[Alan Carruth]

You don't need a hollow grind on the heavy scrapers, any more than you do on a chisel, say; it's just handy for maintaining the angle and minimizing the amount of material you need to remove by hand, when it comes to that. My schedule is to lap the faces and hollow grind once, and when that burr gets dull I lap the faces again, and rub the scraper upright on a stone to get the burr back. This makes a finer and sharper burr that's really good for softwoods and final surfacing on a fiddle. I use an old worn diamond stone, so the surface is nice and flat, but doesn't cut too fast. The flat stone helps keep the straight edge of the scraper really straight: if you always use the grinder it can get lumpy pretty quick, and that gets in the way of flattening a surface.

I have a manual ice skate sharpener, which uses a round carbide cutter to produce a hollow edge. It is surprising how fast it can cut steel. I haven't gone to using it regularly, though: it's a much tighter radius than what I get off the grinder, and I'd have to do a lot of work to remove enough material with it to get out to the edges. Since there's no need..... If you don't have a grinder or are off-grid and don't want one, its a possibility, though.

[Eric Knapp]

You don't need a hollow grind on the heavy scrapers, any more than you do on a chisel, say; it's just handy for maintaining the angle and minimizing the amount of material you need to remove by hand, when it comes to that.

Thanks, Alan. I will get one of those now and also attempt to make some at some point. Sometimes scrapers seem to be the most useful tool of all, once you get the hang of sharpening them.

-Eric

[Mark Fogleman]

You can use a carbide edge to dress the edge of scrapers. I lay the curved scraper flat on my bench and rotate it against an old straight carbide router bit held vertically in the vise to dress with a sharp edge and use the smooth end as a burnisher handheld. It's about 10 times quicker than using files/stones. LV sells a carbide knife sharpener that can be used similarly. https://vimeo.com/154986086

[Bob Hammond]

Stephen Boone, a luthier, makes and sells small handplanes. Here's a video about making,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwyKe3iOb8Y

and where they can be bought:

http://www.luthiersuppliers.com/products/p13.html

[Eric Knapp]

Stephen Boone, a luthier, makes and sells small handplanes. Here's a video about making,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwyKe3iOb8Y

and where they can be bought:

http://www.luthiersuppliers.com/products/p13.html

Stephen no longer makes those. the site has been updated with a short statement about it:

"We no longer offer these for sale as Stephen no longer makes these"

-Eric

[Steve Sawyer]

Since this thread is still alive, I should mention that the LOML got me two convex-sole Ibex planes for Christmas - a smaller 48mm x 18mm finger plane, and the larger 90mm x 40mm "palm" plane.

I used them both to make a pile of shavings out of a piece of pine, but haven't taken them to anything gnarly yet. They're beautifully made, and the "palm" plane has an adjustable mouth which should help with highly figured woods. The curved blades will be a challenge to sharpen properly to retain the curve, but such is life.

Yes, my wife spoils me...

[Todd Stock]

Do a contour map of the top and rough it in with a Safety-Planer, then plane to smooth (I have Ibex, Lie-Nielsen, and Wood River radius planes, but all can be done with a flat and one radius). Rough out the back with a forester bit, drill press thickness 'pin' and the stop set to give you the min thickness...carve to your desired thicknesses , then scrape and sand to smooth, brace, and close.

[Brian Evans]

I have one of those 1" belt sanders from Lee Valley that I use to sharpen curved blades. I have more curved blade planes than straight, I think. I sharpen once, finish with a leather buffing belt with green compound, and use the leather belt to touch up for really a very long time before I feel the need to resharpen.