Flattening Boards - Without Expensive Machines

I've been making hand planes with my CNC for a few years and was asked to show a quick demo of flattening a board with one of the planes. This was just a quick demo that turned out to be more challenging than planned. What started out with rough sawn maple got more difficult as I realized the maple was curly. I worked through it, but it wasn't as quick and easy as I planned.

Transcript:
Hi, I'm Mike Schienle and thanks for dropping by. I posted a previous video making a similar hand plane to this and had a comment asking about seeing the hand plane in action. This is the 2nd prototype of this plane size and style, which I made in January, 2021. I've been regularly using and enjoying it ever since.

The wood I'm working on is maple that came with a variety of about 100 other 3" x 3" x 18" blocks of rough sawn soft and hardwoods from a local homestead. I believe it's silver maple, but we have a variety of maple trees here in northwest Indiana, so I could be off on which maple this is. My idea was to spend three minutes to plane this and see how it looked as a demonstration. This isn't any kind of class on planing, just a simple demonstration of the hand planes I make doing what they're intended to do.

As I started off planing this block, I could tell I was going downhill into the grain and getting some tearout, so I rotated it 180 degrees and continued, trying to reduce tear out and get smoother shavings. After a bit more planing, I thought I would be fighting the grain less than I was. That's when I realized the wood was figured, which means this is really special, but also a bit tricky for a hand plane. Unlike straight-grained wood, where the fibers run nice and predictable, figured maple is like nature’s abstract art. The grain dances and swirls, creating stunning patterns that catch the light in a wonderful way. One moment, you’re planing with the grain, smooth as butter, and the next, it flips on you—running uphill or diving into a knot. The fibers twist and interlock, sometimes even doubling back on themselves. It’s beautiful, but it’s a workout for your plane and your patience.

When you’re working curly maple with a wooden hand plane, you’ve got to stay sharp—literally and figuratively. The grain might shift every inch or two, so you’re reading the wood as you go. One pass, you’re gliding along the wave of a curl; the next, you hit a tearout where the grain reverses. That’s the magic and the madness of figured maple—it keeps you on your toes, forcing you to feel the wood through the plane, adjust your angle, and maybe even flip the board to work it from the other side.

In keeping with the idea of a quick demonstration of this wooden hand plane in action, I ended up giving it a pretty serious test, one which I think shows the great utility of hand planes. In about three minutes, I was able to get this beautiful and dense curly maple to a presentable stage, but it could still use more refinement. There is some visible tearout, the wood is not completely flattened, but it's 90% ready to go. If you want to see more of these quick demonstrations with other species of wood, please let me know in the comments and I'll get to it.

And if you'd like to find out more about purchasing one of these wooden hand planes, I'll provide a link in the description. You can buy a plane with a variety of wood species and a Hock blade, or digital plans for a plane, along with a couple links to where you can purchase the accompanying Hock blade.

Here's a look at the results after a pretty quick workout for both me and the hand plane. Not bad for what I thought was just a random piece of maple. It's interesting what you can find in the dark corners of your shop.

Thanks for watching and have a great day.

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