Boy am I blown away; or You guys are sure good at greasing the slope

[Thom Sturgill]

Couldn't decide on the proper title for this thread :D.
After getting several planes off of eBay, I squared and sharpened the blades, and cleaned (citric acid bath) and flattened the soles on most of them (thanks for all the good advise on the site guys!) But I had yet to really try any of them, though I had used my new LN small block plane.:D

I had also decided to build a Krenov style smoother. When I needed to smooth and square a block of hard maple (I had already flattened one side and glued a 1/4" piece of cocobolo for a sole) I reached for the #5C that I had cleaned (only slightly) and sharpened. I was totally amazed at the ease with which it cleaned off the saw marks and how well I was able to keep the side flat while squaring it to the sole. After cutting off the cheeks I cleaned those cuts up too.

All I can say is THIS is what I got back into woodworking for...

[Bill Houghton]

I love watching a sharp plane iron magically smooth away rough stuff. Power tools have their places, but hand tools have them beat for sensuality.

[Thom Sturgill]

Absolutely. I grew up with my dad working as a hobbiest luthier and gunsmith , but I do not remember a tablesaw, just a bandsaw and lathe and hand tools, but mostly SMALL tools, rifflers and carving tools.
When I did carpentry and rebuild my kitchen, I used large tools and still like my table saw, and bandsaw. I think my jointer and thickness planer may see less use than I expected and if I can learn to sharpen my scraper properly, I expect to rarely use my ROS. I may invest in a scraper plane...
Next I will have to try my hand at hand sawing dovetails instead of using the jig I bought.