beading plane

tvrgeek · Jan 20, 2024

As I am not going $300 for a LN, had a thought. Use a spokeshave body to hold a scratch stock to scrape a bead. Does this sound reasonable?

I have been trying to use my #45 but just get a mess with "normal" wood. I see demos on You-Tube but with perfect fine grain expensive wood. I am talking poplar, oak, maple. Woods I can actually afford.

pop-pop · Jan 20, 2024

Not sure how that would work. Usually a scratch stock blade is oriented almost vertical.

Holders are easy enough to make from a scrap.

Graywolf · Jan 20, 2024

Scott you could have come to the MWTCA meet in Mebane today and bought a few beading planes and had money left over for lunch. However the scratch beading set up that is suggested works great as well.

Rwe2156 · Jan 20, 2024

Would you need a fence? I’ve used a card scraper. I guess you could fasten a fence to a card scraper.

I guess that’s what @pop-pop alresdy posted

Robert LaPlaca · Jan 20, 2024

I would think a #45 should get the job done.

Just reminder when using a molding plane your stock needs the grain running from your right to your left uphill (as with a standard bench plane), most importantly the grain also needs to run from the far end of the board to the front of the board (uphill) where you are attempting to shape the edge…

Rwe2156 · Jan 20, 2024

A 45 is not the easiest thing to master. I gave up and I’m very skilled with hand planes.

bob vaughan · Jan 20, 2024

I've had several Stanley 66 beaders over the years. I've even made several custom blades for them. I was never satisfied with the result. Sold them to those that wanted them as ornaments for their shop wall.

creasman · Jan 21, 2024

I have bead cutters for my Stanley 45. However, I prefer to use a simple side bead plane whenever I'm cutting a bead on a straight edge. If you sharpen them well and take fine cuts they will usually give you a clean surface. When the grain just isn't cooperating then making a matching scraper helps. One thing about moulding planes is the pitch, or angle of the iron. It's typical to see a bed angle of 45-55 degrees. Figured grain requires one with a steeper pitch of around 60 degrees.

For curves you will most likely want a scraper. For the door on the spice box I used three methods. The straight sections on the stiles were done with a side bead plane. For the curves I used a homemade scraper. It's nothing more than a section of hand saw blade wedged into a slot on a curved piece of scrap cherry. The curve matches the curvature on the door rails. The short beads that connect the straight sections of the rails to the stiles were cut by hand and then smoothed using the other corner of the same scraper (see photo).