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I'm having a difficult time hand planing my spruce top.
I seem to either take off not enough, or too big of chunks of wood.
Plane is brand spanking new, tuned it up...however, I have leaned that the sole may not be perfectly flat. Could that be the cause of this problem ? Scincerely, FNG.

Planing Spruce of any kind is a cross grain operation with a narrow mouth opening. Standard plane with non-flattened base and standard mouth opening is surely contributing to your problem.

_________________
Waddy

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Thank you very much Waddy

A well-tuned no.4 with a razor sharp iron should make beautifully clean shavings in Engelmann spruce regardless of planing with or across the grain or whether there is minor runout in the wood.



If the plane sole isn’t perfectly flat however, especially if it rides near the front and back edges, the plane iron will tend to pull the board up at the throat giving you an inconsistent and unpredictable depth of cut. If the iron isn’t razor sharp, or if the chipbreaker isn’t set properly you will likely get tear out.

Edit: I should also mention the importance of planing on a perfectly flat workboard.


Joe

I have rusty old Stanleys and Lie Nielsens, if the sole is flat, (reasonably) sharp takes care of the rest. I have two DMT diamond hones for initial flattening/honing and water stones through 8000 grit for finishing. If it will easily take a nice shaving off end grain hardwood its ready.

Thank you all for the tips, getting good shavings now!