First Two Planes-A Hit and A Miss

 

  My wooden planes all have a story.  This plane was a gift from college friends 35 years ago.  Their idea was for the plane to sit on my desk as a paper weight. I knew nothing about wooden planes and my friends picked this one because it looked old, nice and was reasonably priced.  So, for years the plane sat on my desk, and then on a shelf in my shop and other than having the dust blown off it occasionally  it was not a tool, it was an ornament. As my skills increased and the shop became filled with tools this coffin shaped smoother was re-examined.  

  Around that time I made the decision that all my tools had to be working tools, so this had to be made to work or find a new home.  About fifteen years ago I imported some speciality wood working planes and started to study planes in general. I bought some books, watched videos and began to experiment.

This plane had seem lots of use before it came to me.  The throat had been worn away and the sole had had an insert installed to close the gap.

  Yesterday I added a tiny amount of filler to one corner of the patch.  Once the filler was dry I flattened the sole with sand paper on a marble slab.  The blade and chip breaker had been attended to previously and I've used this plane on and off for at least ten years.   

  Enlarged to this size you can see that this is a quality blade from serious maker. It still does good work for me. 

  Since  have two  really good steel body smoothing planes it is to one of them I turn for very fine shavings at the final stage of planing. This plane fits into the preparation process between my Scrub plane and my bevel up low angle smoother.  Rex is right, a wooden plane feels different in your hands and some times different is therapeutic. 

  The story of this next plane,  Well,  not all stories are happy ever after.  This plane is junk. It looked so lovely sitting on the shelf, The body has lovely flowing curves, As a devise for holding a sharp blade?? maybe its real purpose is for shredding cabbage. Shortly it will be repurposed as a long body sanding block. I was supposed to be an Asian style plane that was pulled instead of pushed. It was cheap, I should have known better, but..it had such lovely flowing curves. 

  Next time another hit and another miss.

cheers ianw

be optimistic, spring is coming.