Where to Buy Quarter Sawn American Beech for Planes - UPDATE

I have some pretty great news for all you out there that have been hunting down quarter sawn beech for planemaking. Usually if you can even find QS beech it is usually sold in large quantities at some random sawyer that has no clue what you are wanting to do with it. When you tell you him you don't want 500-1000 bf of it in the green you can hear him rolling his eyes over the phone. He's too nice to just hang up but he's ready to get off the phone and get back to trying to make some money. 

I know your pain. I spent a lot of time and energy getting what I work with. Maybe someday we'll all have a simpler source than practically going and cutting the tree down ourselves and drying it. Well that someday just got a little closer. Isaac Smith over at Blackburn Tools has just acquired a large section of QS beech that looks fantastic in the photos I've seen. He is guaranteeing the quality of the wood which is a plus. I consider his prices quite fair considering it is cut to rough size and you can purchase in such a small quantity. (as of 8/27/15)

On behalf of all the aspiring planemakers out there Isaac I say "thank you." Very nice to see you offering this and I hope you keep doing so. Spread the word so that Isaac makes this worth his time and will keep it up!

Why Use Beech For Traditional Wooden Planes?

First off I would say that traditional planes have been made out of a number of woods. I plan to discuss those at another time. But the vast majority of traditional planes have been made from beech without a doubt and for good reason.

If you haven't seen my post on "Why Use Quarter Sawn Wood for Wooden Planes?" then you should probably read that before this post.

So, you ask "What is so special about beech". Well, most people would think nothing much is special about this wood, especially here in the US. It is very hard to get compared to other hard woods and almost impossible to find quarter sawn. It is not like the wood is rare or anything. It is quite abundant. The biggest reason, I think, is obvious why it isn't used much. It is terrible to dry properly without growing fungus, which mars its light color, or it checks very badly. This keeps saw mills from wanting to bother with the wood. Plus it brings a low price. As you can imagine these businesses are geared to being profitable, as would be expected.

Interestingly the latter problem of it checking has so much to do with its abundant and distinct rays that we discussed in the preceding post. And this is in fact what makes this wood so suited to making planes with it. We will get to that but lets consider something else before that.

A few things that you want to consider in choosing a good plane wood is that it be a wood that is harder than other woods that you plan to be planing. This should make sense without me explaining, right. Beech is harder than most woods that we commonly use. It is the same density as red oak and only a little softer than white oak.

So you might then wonder "Why not just use white oak?". Good question. It is harder. Well the problem is that oaks are ring-porous woods. That means that the early growth is much less dense than the late growth wood which is what makes us associate oaks with being "hard". When you look at the growth ring of an oak log you can clearly see the band of early wood that is full of holes while the late growth wood is dense and usually darker.

Here in lies the problem for using it as a wood for planes. The primary weakness in a wooden plane is the mouth. It takes a lot of abuse. When the soft early growth layer of the wood crosses the mouth of the plane it is quickly worn away and it leaves a place for shavings to quickly jam. Not something you want. Of course there are other places in the plane that would suffer from this same weakness but for me that is enough to eliminate this wood as a choice for a tool that a workman would count on day after day.

So what you want to use is a diffuse-porous wood species. Diffuse-porous means that the early and late wood growth is consistent in density. Often climax forest systems contain these types of trees. Beech is one of these woods and is diffuse-porous. But what makes it more preferable than the rest. It again comes down to its abundant rays. Here we are back to my illustration. As we discussed in the previous post, the rays a perpendicular to the long grain fibers. They run from the inside of the tree to the outside. What this means is that the end of the ray fiber emerges on the tangental face of a board. That is to say the plain sawn face of a board will have the end of the ray fibers showing.

End grain of ray on sole of plane makes it highly wear resistant

What does that mean? Well as you know end grain is much much much more wear resistant than the long grain fibers. You see, beech has, according to one reference work, approximately 40% of the plain sawn face of a board covered with the end grain of the rays. That is why beech is so appropriate for wooden planes. When the wood is oriented with the quarter sawn face on the sides and the plain sawn face on the sole of the plane then you get the best of both functions of the abundant rays that beech poses.

End grain of rays look like small dashes on plain sawn face for beech. 

So while there are other hardwoods, as well as some tropical woods, that are harder they don't beat the wear resistance of the "end grain" function of the rays. Though I wouldn't argue that they couldn't be comparable in wear resistance. I frankly haven't made enough from tropical woods or ebonys to give my opinion on that.

Now, keeping in mind what we just discussed, add on to that beech is so plentiful, readily available in areas where planemakers were at, it wasn't competing for other uses like cabinetmaking, that it has relatively easy working characteristics and that it grows into large trees, unlike many of the alternative planemaking woods and you can see why it became the wood of choice.

Now this discussion isn't with the aim to say that using other woods is wrong. But many I know have wondered why this wood was chosen. I hope I helped answer that question to some degree.

As I mentioned there were other woods used to make planes and I plan to post what woods were also used. But in the meantime what ever you choose just make sure that it is at least two things. First it is quarter sawn and second that it is diffuse-pourous. Try to keep its density higher than the woods you plan to work.

If I couldn't find quarter sawn beech then I would first look for hard maple. It would almost without a doubt not be in a quarter sawn option but you could look for some really thick plain sawn boards and produce your planes with the quarter sawn face on the sides of the plane.

Happy planemaking!

Boxing for Wooden Moulding Planes

One hard thing to acquire when making a moulding plane is the material for boxing. For any of you that are not familiar with the term boxing it has to do with the wood that is inserted into high wear portions of the sole with a very hard wearing wood. The traditional wood was almost exclusively Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens). The boxing wood is placed in such a way that it orients the end grain of the wood toward the sole of the plane. It is inserted on a bias to the sole that is parallel with the bed angle or the wear angle.

Moulding planes that would have this in particular are those with quirks of some sort that need a sharp area of a profile to project from the sole. Side bead planes are a good example of this. However, the sharp edge of a plane that receives high wear such as a rabbit or filister plane would commonly be boxed since its edge would be presented to the work repeatedly. At other times you may see the inside corner of a complex profile moulding plane's integrated fence being boxed since the fence would be pressed against the stock to keep the profile in position during the cut.

Cove with fence boxing and side bead with boxed quirk

Rabbit plane with persimmon boxed edge

So where can you get boxing wood? It is a real challenge. So I am going to help you identify some wood that is native to the US that you may be able to find that is appropriate for boxing. I am also going to share a source of Buxus Sempervirens that is sold here in the US currently.

First off is a native source that is the only North American tree in the Ebony family. It may be a surprise but it is Persimmon (Diospyros Virginiana). This wood is possibly in your backyard or neighboring forest and you didn't even know it. It often goes unnoticed because the forest grown trees may not bear fruit since they don't receive enough sunlight if they are in the understory growth with taller trees around. These trees often don't grow in groups and are sparsely populated in the forest. This could be due to an animal such as a deer eating the fruit and then the seed germinates wherever the droppings land. Generally I find the trees growing along the tree line to an open area or a path through the woods rather than out in the middle of the forest.

Here are some pictures of the most important way to identify the tree, the bark. You need to know what the bark looks like because very likely the tree that is big enough for you to cut down for lumber will be too tall to see the leaves well. The forest grown trees will be slim and tall with the foliage grouped near the top. Also the best time to cut most trees is during the winter months while the foliage is lost.

This is the bark of a relatively small tree, about 9" in diameter. Just large enough to get usable wood. Notice the bark is a rusty red color where it is broken. This is a good way to confirm you have the right tree. 

Now notice the bark if this much older Persimmon. It is much different. It looks more like a mosaic of plates of bark rather than ridges. This tree is about 14" in diameter by comparison.

This is a piece of persimmon lumber cut so that you can see the layers of bark. Notice that the layers alternate black to rusty red. The bark will break at the reddish layer. The layer that divides the bark and the inner wood is quite distinct as well.

Plain sawn Persimmon

This is the color of the wood that has been milled and air dried. It has taken on a light flesh tone color that will darken to a beautiful light brown tone when oiled.

Last, the supplier of Boxwood (Buxus Sempervirens) is Rare Woods USA. The owner is Rory though anyone one can help you that answers the phone. He is from South Africa and began importing exotic lumber to the US about five years ago. He is not new to the business since he worked with exotic lumber in South Africa for about 25+ years. I learned of his exceptional stock of woods from Tim Manney. Thanks Tim! He spoke well of Rory and after speaking to him myself I got the same vibe. He really knows his wood and very quickly understood what I was inquiring about. He does have a minimum order so please be aware of that. Currently it is $300+ shipping. This accounts for his valuable time in selecting the right boards that you may want. He also has quarter sawn European steamed beech for plane making up to 8/4. I encourage you to check out his video about his lumber on his home page. You will see what a unique place he has. If you buy from him please let me and others know your experience by posting in the comments below. I have not purchased anything from him but wanted to pass on the source.

Here are a few photos of some boxwood that I have. It was a very old tree by North American standards. It does grow here in the US but it is hard to come by in this size. You will mostly see it as very small hedges around homes, etc. I really love the smell of this wood.