I have a 10 year old son that loves to be in the shop as much as I do. He helped me building the assembly table, the outfeed table, and the clamp cart. For all the times he has helped me in the shop I bought him his first hand plane. It's a Shelton No. 4. I managed to get it sharpened and tuned up so it takes some pretty decent shavings. He was tickled to death to have "His very own plane!" The look on his face as he was taking thin fluffy shavings was priceless. Then I let him try my super tuned Stanley No. 3 with a Hock blade and chipbreaker, and he loved it. I told him if he could be responsible with his plane, that I would shop around and get him a Stanley Bailey No. 4 off ebay one day and tune it up like the No. 3. He was so excited that he had to run into the house to show Mom the shavings that he was making. That was a fun time!
Thanks for letting me share that!
John