Hand scrape a frame...anybody?

[Rooster]

I am hoping to cut a special frame out of green cut EWP, and I am thinking about hand scraping the rough-saw beams to help dress them up a bit. 
Any advice?...type of scraper to use?...before or after I cut the frame (square-rule)?

And as always thanks for the help.

Rooster

[Jay C. White Cloud]

If you have a big 12" power planner, they are great!!!

If not, (and/or) a number #4 plane with a "rondel" to the edge or better yet a new Veritas bevel up plane with PM-V11 steel and a slight rondel.

You could also go for a real vintage look and use a scrub plane, (they are always rondel ground blades.)

I use line rule only, seldom anything else is used for layout around me and or the teams I facilitate, (except for one old stick in the mud, but he is getting tired of being left behind... :D  ;)) just so much easier in designing, planning, layout, and cutting of frame.

Regards,

jay

By the way, nice chat the other night brother...

[Dan Miller]

Scrapers (at least the way I think of them - card scrapers) are fine finishing tools, and work well on hardwoods. Not so good on softwoods. My thumbs are tired thinking of scraping one face of one timber, let alone a whole frame!

I'm with Jay on the handplanes. I've not built many frames, but all that have smooth interior faces were done with a handplane. I used to use 4-1/2 and 5-1/2 Stanleys, but now I typically use a number 3 - lighter, and because I want smooth, not flat, can be faster. It also works better on the concave face of curved timbers.

I use a scrub, followed by the smoother, on timbers that come off the chainsaw or circular saw mill. Bandsawn timbers get the number 3 right away.

For square rule, plane the surfaces before layout, and if a show face is also a reference face, be sure to square the timber up in the location of the joint.

[witterbound]

When we cut my fame, out of syp, I had the option to hand plane all of the surfaces.  It's an art and a lot of work.  I chose to plane mine with the makita planer, and do a little hand planng.  The hand planing had a wonderful look, but i didn't have the time, patience, or physical ability to hand plane my frame.

[Dave Shepard]

Hi Dan! How is the cruck frame coming along?

I would use a hand plane, such as a No. 4 with the slightly curved iron, as has been mentioned. I've done a little testing in preparation for a frame I'm going to be working on, and on white pine timbers I think I could to about two square feet per minute.

[Rooster]

I was wondering about this type of scraper...

http://hardwoodindustryproducts.com/

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Hey Rooster,

This came up on some other place I was writing and I told a short story. I'll make it even shorter here, they work, there o.k. but they are not as fast a plane or even, a "scraper plane."  I have been following, for few decades now, the flooring industries marketing of, "hand scraped floors,"  I have come in on a few jobs, and when I break out my tools, I can give the same effect but three times as fast.  Now some of them really gouge the surface to distress it, then go back and sand the snot out of it to smooth everything out.  Silliness, IMO. Do it with a scraper plane or other plane types, depending on the finish you seek, and be done with it, or only very light sanding.  The folks that I know that only use what you should in your link have no, over very little experience with traditional hand planes.  The few I have taught, have never gone back to the paint scraper method.

Regards,

jay