Also check that the plane sole is completely flat. It’s easy to hit a nail, a metal bench dog or other metal part and get a nick on the sole that will leave tracks on the board, run the plane on some sandpaper on a flat surface to flatten the sole.

Also, it the wood is soft like pine, and you have a piece of wood stuck between the blade and the frog (just behind the cutting edge), that can leave some nasty tracks on the boards you’re smoothing.

Take care,
Luis

Looking at the photo I have to agree with the comments above, the problem is either the lateral adjustment of the blade or the blade itself is not totally flat. I probably have one of the corners digging more that the other.

Take care,
Luis

I recommend this because I, also, am still in the learning phase with the handplaning, and it gives me enough wiggle room in the plane setup for me to keep working on the mechanics of planing, while still getting reasonable results.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for the organizer.

And no, I wouldn’t worry too much about micro-scalloping myself. But
this macro-grooving has got to go. I think Bob’s right, though – I
just need to straighten my blade!

Dunno how Bob does it, but I just “extra-hone” the corners, by hand. (I forget whether you use a sharpening jig. If you do, you’re gonna have to freestyle…)

Also: I could be wrong, but I think The Schwarz would disagree: pretty sure he has a curved blade on **his** smoother. But, I think that’s a “style” thing — like curved versus straight on a jointer plane, or pins-first vs. tails-first for dovetails…

“Flat” is good — but we’re not building pistons or gears, it’s a desk organizer. Wood moves and bends — if you’re taking thin enough shavings, the micro-scalloping (esp. on an outside surface) shouldn’t matter — should it? (Actually, pretty sure The Schwarz had a post saying this, during the last 30 days I think (the one on planing before dovetailing), as well as another post where he looked at the old furniture up close and saw the ripples left over from the smoother…)

–GG

Thanks for that tip, Bob. Such a basic element of hand planing, checking
the blade (and testing it on scrap first!). Hand planing is definitely
my weakest link right now.

How would you “knock off the sharp corners”? Just run it over a 800-grit
stone with some extra pressure on the corners?

There’s rarely a need to camber a #4. Knock off the sharp corners, but don’t camber it. A smoothing plane is for smoothing, and part of that is keeping things flat. You can’t have flat with a cambered blade. Leave the cambering for the roughing plane, the #5 or #6.

Well, yer learning stuff…

None of my plane blades are properly cambered: I just rock them side to side a bit, on an (intentionally!) non-flattened whetstone.

–GG