Surfacing with a hand plane

I'm working on a picnic table for my friend Cher, and I discovered that some of my lumber was pretty rough. I could have spent forever trying to sand it down, but that didn't look like a lot of fun. Fortunately I've been reading about surfacing wood with a hand plane, and I discovered that one of the planes my dad gave me had the round corners you need for a surfacing plane.

Now, surfacing with a plane requires practice to do it well. And I don't have any practice. But the results were still pretty happy. Some of the smaller pieces, they came off the plane perfect, ready to finish and a whole lot nicer than I could have ever done with a sander. The larger pieces, they show mistakes more. I didn't entirely have the right plane for the job (a smoothing plane), and I haven't really spent the time tuning it, or practicing how to use it.

Even with the rough, unfinished nature of the larger boards, the result was pretty happy. I got the lumber to a point where I could easily sand out the plane tracks (which is what you get when you haven't tuned the plane properly or learned how to use it). It happened a lot faster than a sander could have done it.

The one other aspect I noticed was that surfacing operations with a hand plane are strenuous. I got a nice upper body workout. Nothing intense, but I did work up a light sweat and elevated my breathing. And it's both cheaper and more fun than working out. So all in all, it's a win.