372 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



BEE-SHED OF HERR EBEL, CHARLOTTENBRUN, GERMANY. 



Mr. Ebel is president of the Silesian Bee-masters' Association. 



carpenter has little more use for the plane 

 than to smooth edges. My own carpentry 

 work consists principally in sawing boards 

 into suitable lengths and reducing them to 

 proper widths. Very rarely do I have to 

 smooth a surface or reduce in thickness. 

 From packing-boxes I secure a selection of 

 boards of practically every thickness from ; s 

 to ^, and it is only once in many moons I can 

 not find in my scrap-heap a board that I can 

 not use by shortening and narrowing. 



I have told how to saw to length, so I will, 

 therefore, conclude this chapter with a few 

 general remarks about planmg to a desired 

 width. 



All boards have two faces, two edges, and 

 two ends. In working we must always 

 choose one of each of these as our starting- 

 point — the face, edge, and end to work from, 

 and those so chosen are called the "work- 

 ing face," "working edge," and "working 

 end" respectively. Suppose you have a 

 six-inch board that you wish reduced to 4 '/i 

 inches. You begin by selecting the best fin- 

 ished edge as the one that you are not to 

 touch. This is the working edge, and all 

 measurements should be made from it. Us- 

 ing your set-square, set off A% inches from 

 the working edge, marking with a pencil; 

 and if the board is more than a foot long, set 

 off the distance at least three times so as to 

 insure accuracy. Then with a straight-edge 

 ( in my case this is usually a piece of board 

 that I know is straight, tested by squinting 

 along it, or by resting on the bench) join the 

 pencil-marks with a pencil-line. As directed 

 in a previous article, trim close to the line 

 with a sharp hatchet. 



Though a board has two ends, there is only 

 one direction in which it should be planed. 

 Very rarely do the fibers run parallel with 

 the edge of the board. They generally run 



slightly at an angle. If we so place the 

 board in the bench-vise that the fiber runs 

 downward and away from us, then the plane 

 blade will tend to tear below the general 

 surface; but if the fibers run upward they 

 will be cut through like stalks of grain. The 

 way the wood splits while trimming readily 

 shows which end should be turned toward 

 us for planing. In the case of undressed 

 lumber one has merely to pass the hand over 

 the face or edge of the board to learn how 

 the fibers run. The plane should travel in 

 the direction that is most pleasant to the 

 hand. 



It is when doing rough smoothing that one 

 learns most readily the importance of proper 

 adjustment of the bedplate and chip-breaker; 

 for if these are not in proper relationship to 

 each other there will be various kinds of 

 trouble. For instance, the shavings may 

 choke up the throat of the plane and stick 

 between the chip-breaker and the blade. 

 This choking is almost certain to occur when 

 one is working against the grain of the wood, 

 and the preventive is to turn the board 

 around. But should the choking happen 

 when planing with the grain, then the cause 

 is either too narrow a throat or the chip- 

 breaker is set too near the cutting edge of 

 the blade. Of course it is assumed that too 

 deep a cut is not being attempted. 



We all know that a knife or razor cuts 

 more effectively when it is not held at right 

 angles to the direction of the stroke, but 

 slightly inclined, and, better still, if a sawing 

 motion be imparted to •!. It is impossible 

 with a plane to get motion in more than one 

 direction, but we can considerably incline it 

 to one side, the left. The right forward cor- 

 ner of the plane will, in consequence, always 

 be a trifle ahead of the left, and an examina- 

 tion of the shavings made by inclined and 



