Here is a quick episode showing how the Scrub plane can be used to quickly trim a board to width. Most only think of this plane as a tool for milling a board to thickness, but I show how a small part that would be hard to clamp for sawing can be trimmed with the scrub. 1 inch or more of material takes no time to remove at all.
Enjoy!
I faced a similar situation the other day on a 3 foot piece of oak, and solved it with a Drawknife for the major hogging of waste, followed with a bevel up Jack for touch up. Very similar to your method, and you have to have a drawknife handy, but it worked very quickly.
I don’t have a scrub handy, but I might think of picking one up with my Christmas money.
Don’t set aside too much money. I have a Veritas Scrub and it was given to me as a gift. I would not have bought it otherwise. It’s not that it isn’t a great plane it is that the Scrub doesn’t have to have a sole that is even close to flat nor a tight mouth. In other words, you can go and drop $10 on the ugliest plane around and maybe spring for an aftermarket iron like a Hock, remove some rust and be off to the races.
G’day Shannon!
Thanks for this tip and for the education you give us through your blog.
I started some woodworking in my backyard last year to make a toy truck for my new born and faced this situation. I had no skill of using a plane nor did I have one. I tackled this problem by clamping the piece vertically making sure the line was perpendicular to the ground and sawed to line. Feeding the piece through the clamp as the saw cut went deeper.
Just thought of sharing.
Cheers,
Jude.
Shannon,
Using your scrub plane is an interesting idea; I though have an issue with using it to hog off nearly 1″ worth of wood when sawing it would have worked. It mayn’t be as practical, but you could have put it in the vise as you did and then sawn the waste off. At least that is how I would likely have done it. Maybe due to the fact that mahogany is relatively expensive for me to get here and I don’t like to waste anything (that isn’t a comment on you, more that maybe I’m a wood miser/packrat).
That said, I wouldn’t have thought to use a scrub plane and thank you for opening my eyes to the idea. I would have gone for my jack plane instead and worked out for awhile (and my bench would have moved about 6″ down the room (not as solid or heavy as I would like it to be)).
Anthony and Jude as you both just illustrated, there are 20 ways to skin a cat and I think that is one of the most exciting things about woodworking. Sawing the piece vertically is a perfectly good way to do this too. I think I was feeling lazy and wanted a very fast way to do it. The draw knife idea is probably the fastest one around, but like the scrub this will turn that 1″ scrap into shavings.
I should show you my tiny scrap drawer someday that barely closes because it is so full of little pieces like this and you’ll understand why conserving a 1/2x1x8″ piece wasn’t a high priority. Of course working for a lumber company does color my perception a bit too.
Hi Shannon!
You said: “what would I do with an 1″ piece anyway?”. Well I was thinking, that if You had some precious wood or not much left of the one you’re currently using…whatever, just want to keep as much as possible. I think one could screw the piece to a sacrificial board with needed overhang for sawing. The backer board has to be wide enough to be securely clamped to the bench with ie. holdfasts. Then one looses only the length needed for screws, probably less with nails or even less with double sided tape 
Kindest Regards,
Lukasz.
PS. Great videos! They are highly professionally made and are a delight to watch
I have an old #3 that I bough on Ebay that has a gouge in it. I am thinking about opening up the mouth and grinding the blade to make it work like a scrub plane. Any hints/suggestions? Think it will work?
