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Chipbreaker success - Wilbur Pan - 07-24-2013
I just finished a class on Japanese woodworking. One of the things that was covered in this class was the use of chipbreakers in a Japanese plane. Even though there are a lot of obvious differences between the chipbreakers in a Japanese plane and western/Stanley planes, at the level of what is physically happening to the wood, they seem to have many things in common that allow them to perform their function.
They need to be set very close to the edge. The teacher, Yann Giguerre (who was a fantastic teacher), mentioned that he routinely sets the chipbreaker closer than 1/64", and probably winds up closer to 1/128" in most cases.
The chipbreaker is not razor sharp at the tip. A small microbevel is put on the chipbreaker with a high grit waterstone at about 80º. This seems to be similar to Nicholson's rounded bevel that Warren referred to.
I've never been able to use a chipbreaker effectively in a Japanese plane before. After this class, I was able to plane a smooth surface on a piece of bubinga with interlocked grain, and the bed angle of my Japanese plane is about 40º.
Having said that, there are other ways of managing tearout, all with advantages and disadvantages. Tight mouths help. Higher bed angles help. Sharper blades and thinner shavings definitely work. More info here.
I think that the reason that using a chipbreaker was not more common in the recent past was because some of the information needed to be able to use a chipbreaker effectively was not in a form that could easily be understood at a distance by most people, as opposed to seeing it in person. I know that personally, I never really understood how close the chipbreaker needed to be to do its job, and I don't think I'm a complete moron.
I had read that you needed to place it as close as possible to the edge, which I did to the best of my ability at the time. Looking back, I know now that my chipbreakers were too far back to work.It's true that the information was out there. As Warren pointed out, Nicholson did say that the distance from the cap iron to the edge of the plane iron "depends altogether on the nature of the stuff". But for today's audience, adding in a little more information like, "You'll most likely need to be within 1/128" to 1/64" for smoothing," and "If you still get tearout, move the chipbreaker closer, and if the shaving comes out like an accordion, you can move it back," goes a long way towards making the information a lot easier to understand, especially if you are not seeing this in person.
Re: Chipbreaker success - Acorn - 07-24-2013
Wilbur thanks for this post. I've seen videos from Japan that would bear out what you say. Chipbreakers are particularly helpful when planing against the grain or with complicated grain. The study concluded that they aren't as necessary if you are able to plain with the grain.
On western planes, chipbreakers can help stiffen the normally relatively thin blades (quite unlike Japanese kanna) and minimize chatter, or so I've read here on the forum.
I expect that this post will have quite a few replies before the day is out.
Re: Chipbreaker success - Guest - 07-24-2013
Thanks for posting this, Wilbur. I had taken the chip breaker off my blade and the retaining pin out of my kanna. It looks like I need to go put them back.
Hank
Re: Chipbreaker success - Steve Friedman - 07-24-2013
Wilbur,
Many thanks for the post. I agree that trying to learn some of this stuff from a distance is often difficult and it helps to have someone like you say that what you thought was close wasn't close enough.
I assume that eventually it become possible to set the cap iron (chipbreaker) by feel, but having some concrete measurement as a starting point definitely helps. Just waiting for some stupid woodworking injuries (meaning I was stupid when I did them) to heal first.
I assume you went to the class at Peters Valley. Must have been an incredible 5 days. Full posts and pictures coming soon on Giant Cypress I hope.
Steve
Re: Chipbreaker success - Window Guy - 07-24-2013
Wilbur thanks for the information, I have found that tuning the CB and setting it close as possible to the blade edge has greatly improved my planning. Especially with the crap wood I use
.Steve
Re: Chipbreaker success - Gregory of Sherwood Forest - 07-24-2013
Waitaminute.
The shaving coming out like an accordion is a bad thing??
There have been examples showing that to be the desired outcome and use it as proof that the chipbreaker is, in fact, breaking the chips.
.
Re: Chipbreaker success - Amos - 07-24-2013
Thank you for your informative post. A YouTube video on the use of chipbreakers would be very helpful.
Re: Chipbreaker success - Skewdge - 07-24-2013
Wilbur
Thanks, finally a thread about some Japanese woodworking even though what you covered applies to all hand planes.
Where can I find more info about the class that you attended. Is there another one coming up in the near future?
Cheers
Re: Chipbreaker success - Steve Friedman - 07-24-2013
Skewdge said:
Wilbur
Thanks, finally a thread about some Japanese woodworking even though what you covered applies to all hand planes.
Where can I find more info about the class that you attended. Is there another one coming up in the near future?
Cheers
I'm not Wilbur, but assume he went to the class at Peters Valley in NJ. Here's the teaching schedule for the instructor - looks like it's just east coast:
Mokuchi
Steve
Re: Chipbreaker success - Bibliophile 13 - 07-24-2013
Gregory of Sherwood Forest said:
Waitaminute.
The shaving coming out like an accordion is a bad thing??
There have been examples showing that to be the desired outcome and use it as proof that the chipbreaker is, in fact, breaking the chips.
.
In my experience with my smoothing plane, I get accordion shavings (or, as I like to call them, bacon shavings) when the chipbreaker is set very close to the edge and is thus doing its job. The wood is left perfectly smooth at that level. Perhaps that does mean that the chipbreaker could be nudged back a hair, but I don't mind erring on the close side if I can get good results by doing so.
Wilbur, I'm not familiar with the Japanese-style chipbreakers. Got a good picture?