Weekend Essentials: Hand Planes
Weekend Class, For Beginners
Spring 2024
May 11-12
This weekend course teaches you to sharpen, tune, and use hand planes. Working with truly sharp and well tuned planes marks a turning point in the development of a woodworker to the next level of proficiency. Not to mention it’s also one of the great joys of working with wood. This course is part of our Weekend Essentials series but may be taken separately.
This course will remove the mystery from bench planes and teach core competency in their use. You will learn how to sharpen, tune, and effectively use bench planes and leave the course with a newfound confidence in your abilities. Plus you'll have had a great workout!
This weekend course is designed to build core competency in the use of bench planes. Students will leave the course confident in their ability to sharpen, tune, and use hand planes. Day 1 will focus on sharpening, plane anatomy, and basic uses. Day 2 will take those techniques to the next level and teach you how to dimension lumber using bench planes.
The following techniques will be demonstrated and practiced:
Plane Theory
Anatomy of a plane - naming the parts
Plane physics and geometry
Basic planing techniques
Sharpening
Grinding and initial honing
Sharpening with waterstones
Free hand sharpening
Comparison and use of various commercial jigs
Tuning
What makes a good plane
How to clean up and restore old planes
Plane types and their uses
Fore planes
Jack planes
Block planes
Smoothing planes
Specialty planes
Dimensioning lumber with hand planes
Learn to thickness stock
Flatten a board
Joint edges
Square end grain
Smooth to a mirror surface
Tools
Bring a bench plane (#1 through #8). For example, a block plane, smoothing plane, or jack plane.
We recommend that you don't bring your brand-new Lee Valley or Lie-Nielsen plane for the sharpening / tuning session on the first day. You'll be twiddling your thumbs because they come tuned out of the box. But it'll be great on the second day!
If you have some old and interesting planes feel free to bring them along - hopefully we can identify them and suggest how to use them.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for the class; you'll benefit as a complete beginner or as an experienced woodworker who wants to experience the liberation of using a well-tuned hand plane.
Class Information and Registration
Class runs from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday in Building 315 at Fort Worden. Map
Please read our What to Expect page for general information about the school.
Please also read our Registration Policy.
Sign up for the waitlist if the course is full.
Class size: 12
Cost: $375
Materials Charge: $30
Hand Tool Woodworking,
Tiny Homes, Cabinets
Port Townsend, WA