Hand planing

I recently bought a hand plane.  I figured it was a good thing to have on hand for any future woodworking projects.  I'd never used a plane before, so this was a first for me.  I have an old piece of scrap wood, a 4x4, that I tried it out on.

It was... awkward.

For one thing, you've got to clamp that wood down tight, otherwise it'll absolutely shoot off like a bullet whenever the blade bites into it.  

For another thing, you need a heavy table on which to work, otherwise the whole table will jump when the wood is clamped to it and the blade bites the wood.

The there's the pressure involved on the front end.  How hard do you bear down with the left hand?  Well, that's a trial-and-error thing, apparently.  :/

I used it enough to where I sort of got in a rhythm.  I didn't quite get the wood flat, but I was on my way there--somewhat--when I decided to call it a day.  It's a workout, too, by the way.  If you want to burn calories and sweat, do some planing for a while.

One thing I couldn't figure out is how to plane the area behind the blade.  Am I supposed to start planing with the tool hanging off the end of the wood?  Am I supposed to plane from the opposite direction?  I'm planing with the grain here to avoid tearout, so going from the opposite side seems wrong.  And starting with the plane mostly hanging off the wood seems wrong, too, due to the angle and the leverage and whatnot.  So that's something I'll have to research, I guess.

Anyway, it was a neat experience.  Maybe I'll get good with it with more practice.