Matt Calder
01-01-2007, 3:32 PM
All,
My new favorite tool is a POS bench plane I got at HD a few years back. I never got it to do anything useful and really never felt much need for a plane. But now my projects are becoming more refined, and less, well, utilitarian. I also started doing a fair amount of machining work which required some sharpening skills. Then I start using a card scraper and wow that was cool. So for Christmas I got myself a set of diamond stones, those big flat pieces of steel with the diamond dust magically embedded in it. That and a Taunton book on hand planes.
This morning I put a nice beveled edge on a bed I am making and there it was, a long straight edge covered with tool marks and burns from a reliable but probably slightly bent table saw blade. I could have sanded it, I could have used the card scraper. Instead I pulled out the hand plane book, went through the tuning steps, and sharpened the blade. After putting the blade back in (right side up this time), I ran it across some scrap, testing the depth of cut. Then whhhisss, I was making shavings. Actually, shavings isn't the word, these were goassamer films, nearly transparent membranes, slipping off the edge of the beveled board. The tool marks, and the burns came off with an effortless whhhisss.
My new favorite tool is that $20 plane, whhhisss, whhhisss, whhhiss.
Matt
My new favorite tool is a POS bench plane I got at HD a few years back. I never got it to do anything useful and really never felt much need for a plane. But now my projects are becoming more refined, and less, well, utilitarian. I also started doing a fair amount of machining work which required some sharpening skills. Then I start using a card scraper and wow that was cool. So for Christmas I got myself a set of diamond stones, those big flat pieces of steel with the diamond dust magically embedded in it. That and a Taunton book on hand planes.
This morning I put a nice beveled edge on a bed I am making and there it was, a long straight edge covered with tool marks and burns from a reliable but probably slightly bent table saw blade. I could have sanded it, I could have used the card scraper. Instead I pulled out the hand plane book, went through the tuning steps, and sharpened the blade. After putting the blade back in (right side up this time), I ran it across some scrap, testing the depth of cut. Then whhhisss, I was making shavings. Actually, shavings isn't the word, these were goassamer films, nearly transparent membranes, slipping off the edge of the beveled board. The tool marks, and the burns came off with an effortless whhhisss.
My new favorite tool is that $20 plane, whhhisss, whhhisss, whhhiss.
Matt