Smoothing up the ribs

Now that the ribs are cut out it's time to smooth them up and bring them down to size. Rough sawn they are 1.5-2.5mm thick. I take some of the high spots off with a sharp gouge. Then I even those out with a plane. I have a low angle plane. It isn't much good for ribs. Actually I'm not too impressed with the plane at all. It's hard to hold. Hard to tighten the blade. The latch and lock for adjusting the gap ahead of the blade doesn't stay put, comes loose all the time. There is no way, except beating with a hunk of brass, to get the blade square with the bottom. The blade itself is already worn out because it just won't stay sharp. Most of these are design issues that should have been addressed before they even made the plane. I'll have to keep my eye out for older used block planes at garage sales. Haven't seen one yet, only newer junk. I could make it better. Turn a bigger brass knob for tightening the blade that is up higher and not hidden. Maybe make a bigger knob for the throat adjustment. A new blade is needed anyway. Brass or steel shims on the side so the blade actually fits square and isn't allowed to flop around. I already have the blade up on shims so the clamp doesn't bend the blade. They didn't have any support under the blade there. I don't have any idea what kind of blade I'd get. A2 seems to be the latest craze. I turned hardened A2 at work and it was the easiest of all the materials I worked with. It always cut clean so it might make a great plane blade. On the other hand, the blade in my 18" plane works great, stays sharp, and is just whatever Chraftsman used back before they switched to foreign manufacturing. Probably just high carbon steel.
Many people use toothed plane blades for doing ribs. I use my plane blades for scrapeing because they work, and they are stiff. I found by mistake that the one blade I have is too hard. When I tried to put a hook on it I could hear the metal breaking. What I found was it makes a great "toothed" scraper. That's what I use for roughing the ribs. Then I switch to a smooth one to finish them up. Sometimes
accidents are a good thing.