Two new shop planes

The ever dangerous (to my bank account at least) Hyperkitten has gone and tempted me again.  This time with a pair of planes to add to my shop set.  Seriously, Josh is dangerous.  But I’m a sucker for good tool at a good price, especially when they fill a need in my shop.

Two new Shop Planes

I have a large wood jointer, but it’s being a bear to tune up, and I am really deficient in the smoother department.   I have a #4 that’s doing well enough, but I wanted to try a smaller one for some of the projects.  The Jointer however was the primary score, as I’ve rarely seen these for reasonable prices at the antique stores, or tool shows.  They just aren’t that common around here for some reason.  This one is in good shape, with a little bit of rust that will clean up easily, and the blade looks like it should be good.  It will need a bit of sharpening clearly, but I have a new “side clamp” style honing guide, and it’s made a world of difference in the blade edges I’m getting.

I tried to learn free hand sharpening, and got moderate but inconsistent results.  I was reading The Anarchist’s Tool Chest and Chris tells it straight on the sharpening front.  It made sense to me, so I bought one, and it does help me get to the part I want to do, namely working the wood.  Too much is made on the internet about sharpening in my opinion, it’s quite literally becoming a religion to some (gauging on how much arguing is done on otherwise respectable internet forums).  I just want to work the wood, and I could care less if I can see myself in the back of my plane iron or chisel.  But that’s just me.

Another thing that I am excited about is a Wonder Pup that I got for my carving bench.  I had been braining all kinds of ways to hold the carving work in place, that wouldn’t get in my way, and I realized I COULD have solved it on my own, but there was a reasonably good solution already made, and again do I spend time working on the set up or do I spend the time working the wood?  Where is my time better spent?  Especially when I get so little of it in the shop. Plus the wife said I could buy it.

I’ll be starting a new project in the shop soon, so more pictures will be showing up.  Probably a tool box for myself, with some S scroll carving.  Or I could get totally side tracked and make a chisel rack, who knows. :)  I’ve also started drawing out a bookshelf on some paper to hold our every growing library of books.  We’ve filled all the book cases in the house, and need more space.

What can I say, we both love books.

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