Hi all,
I am intrested in finding out the best way/order to plane and oil a oak frame
Do you oil the frame before cutting or after raising or somewhere in between.
Do you just plane the timber or do you sand as well.
What are the best finishes (oils) and how long do they take to dry between coats etc.
Many thanks Alf

hey there, Not many oak frames under my belt but the one that I have done was simply power planed and oiled using LandArk. It brought out the color of the red oak beautifully and seemed to weather well, seeming as we raised it as a hurricane was passing out to sea! Good Luck!

In my experience, your order of work would be cut frame, plane, oil, raise. Depending on your finish preferences, you might want to run a belt sander to eliminate the planer marks. On oak 100 grit with a heavy duty sander should do a good job. For a furniture finish hit it with an R/O sander (120 grit). This is rather time consuming but it works. Another option is to skip the planing and hit the wood lightly with a belt sander to knock down the splinters and fuzz but still leave the saw marks. This is also a very nice finish (depending on your aesthetic preferences). I agree with LandArk oil. Nice stuff. Good luck

Other systems may be different, but if you are doing Square Rule framing, at least, you should plane before layout and cutting your joints, else you will be altering the reference surfaces, and your joinery will not be as tight...

Cheers,
Dan

Dan,
Point noted. This will only be an issue if your reference surface is part of the joinery (i.e. not in a housing which would be below the surface. I tend to house everything, ref. and non-ref., and doing reductions on ends of timbers also minimizes the effects of planing. There are still surfaces that would be affected in terms of tightness (like a 6x6 girt fully housed into a 8x8 post). I guess the amount that needs to be planed off must also be considered. My logic is that once the cutting is done, so is the majority of the handling. At this point all the dings and scratches can be planed out, the piece finished and bundled for the truck. I suppose one could plane, cut, then sand, etc. Also- I don't plane exterior (not visible) surfaces.
As is so often the case, there are many valid notions and methods. This is a great place to share and learn. Thanks!

I can't say that I have sanded a frame before, but we are now putting up a frame that we hand planed. At first this might sound crazy, the time, the money, the physical labor . . . . If you have to power plane then sand, consider hand planing with a number 5 followed by a # 3 or with a #6 then a #4.
We planed at 45 degrees to the grain not with the grain per Jack S. instructions.

So how long did it take? A 50' 8" x 8" Tulip Top Plate, planing two sides took one person 2 hours. a 10" by 16" by 20' Red Oak took 45 min. a side, three sides. After each oak timber we would have to sharpen.

Hand planing really does create an amazing look that - Yes, does require some time & much physical labor.

P Smith

No argument here! Nothing beats a hand planed finish. The main reason for sanding is to get rid of those aweful power planer lines. I'd just as soon leave it rough, myself.

Is it possible to sand the rough wood and then hand plane to give the look of planing without having to spend alot of time taking it down? At least this way you get the look of hand planing without having to take alot of passes over the wood.

Sanding, if done, should be after all edge tool work is done. The sandpaper leaves grit behind that will quickly dull your tools.

Hand planing a timber isn't too bad, especially if you start with timbers from a bandsaw mill. If you really need to save time, I expect that doing the primary planing with a power planer, and following with hand planes will be the quickest combination, especially in hardwood timbers, but I've never done it that way...

Dan

The way Dan described the method of power planing then hand planing is what we found to work best. Not only did the power plane remove any unwanted undulations it also removed surface dirt that dulled the plane irons.

I'm not sure why any sanding would be required. A sharp plane cuts the wood fibers as opposed to sanding which "scratches" the wood fibers. i.e. different sizes of grits equals ever smaller scratches.

I will say that the oak's tanic acids reacted with the medal sole of the plane. Our solution, Butchers Wax, thank god for Butchers Wax! An even better solution would be a wooden soled plane. Alas alas we can't have every tool!

P Smith