Don Orr
07-23-2007, 3:16 PM
On Sunday our woodworking club had their annual summer picnic. Good food, good friends, good fun-beautiful day. This year they added a hand plane contest! This is their first time with this and the guy who set it up did a fantastic job. Now I may be mostly a turner, but I happen to know a few things about hand planes. I took 3 planes-my FIL's Stanley #4 retrofitted with a Hock blade and chipbreaker, a 605 with Hock blade and chipbreaker, and a Stanley #6 eBay cheapo standard.
I have to say I did very well in the contest. My 605 had 2 identical passes at full length, full width at .0022" thickness. My #6 only made 1 good pass, full length, full width at .003" thick, and the BBQ lunch precluded me from running my #4:D ;) . The only planes that did better were 2 LN 164 LA beauties. They had to have a "plane-off" to determine the actual winner! The contest was a lot of fun with lots of good-natured banter and heckling.
I think they made up an award for me since they did not expect me to do so well. I won the "Best planing by a turner" award:eek: . I was also the youngest participant-I'm 48. Extra thanks go out to whoever posted the link to Craftsman Studio a few weeks back. They have Hock blades and chipbreakers on sale with free shipping:D .
They also had tape measure races which are very popular and great fun!
So I guess it's my turn to say-
Hi, I'm Don, I'm a plane-aholic!:eek: :D ;)
I have to say I did very well in the contest. My 605 had 2 identical passes at full length, full width at .0022" thickness. My #6 only made 1 good pass, full length, full width at .003" thick, and the BBQ lunch precluded me from running my #4:D ;) . The only planes that did better were 2 LN 164 LA beauties. They had to have a "plane-off" to determine the actual winner! The contest was a lot of fun with lots of good-natured banter and heckling.
I think they made up an award for me since they did not expect me to do so well. I won the "Best planing by a turner" award:eek: . I was also the youngest participant-I'm 48. Extra thanks go out to whoever posted the link to Craftsman Studio a few weeks back. They have Hock blades and chipbreakers on sale with free shipping:D .
They also had tape measure races which are very popular and great fun!
So I guess it's my turn to say-
Hi, I'm Don, I'm a plane-aholic!:eek: :D ;)