Choices, choices

[Winton Applegate]

Cost of casting bronze high.
I could be all wet here and I heard tell there is a dif between casting tools and art but . . .
I worked in an art bronze foundry.
We cast stuff much much much larger than a little O' plane.
Seems like iron would be as expensive to cast since it melts at a higher temp.
I am guessing but I think perhaps bronze flows easier than iron

Maybe George Wilson can enlighten me on that one.

I have personally REPAIRED flaws in the castings using a TIG welder and bronze rod. You can not tell where the repair was done once it is ground smooth (with sand paper flap wheels and metal burrs) and in our case textured or polished to represent what ever the sculpture dictated.

The TIG welder repaired area was xray quality meaning no inclusions or voids in the bronze in or around the weld area.
There could be some distortion from the weld but a good welder can minimize that and the machinists correct for it . . .

In addition I personally gated and sprued (sp) the positive wax castings so that the bronze could flow to all the correct points and so the air and gasses could have many ways to escape as the bronze flowed into the ceramic shells that I personally formed around the wax (think lost wax) (does LN use sand casting ?) so anyway I have a whole bunch of hands on experience with preventing flaws in the castings to start with.

. . . so maybe I am not buying the significant expense increase for bronze and bronze is going to be easier to machine . . .
IeyeDnOh . . .

As far as what to buy I have a whole passel of LN. I got to chew on that some more. The first thing that came to mind was one or two of their panel saws simply because they are so nice and I haven't got one. Yet.

I will probably go for a vintage saw or two when i get more panel saws. I have some basic modern ones for now.
The LNs are sooooooo nice though.

As far as the bronze planes go . . . in my opinion . . . they are for looking at and not using. Too much sole drag for my taste.

PS: no I didn't work on any of this sculpture but it is exactly the kind of thing we did. That was before I had a phone camera or any camera for that matter. Maybe one day I will go around and take some photos of the stuff we did. There are several here in town. That foundry is closed now though.

PPS: speaking of the Jefferson lap desk there it is.

[Chris Hachet]

I like the idea of any of the above. In my shop I have Lie Nielson saws, chisels, rabbit block plane, etc.

My vote would be for the #4 in Bronze. I can get fantastic thin shavings from all of my Stanley and Veritas planes, but the Lie Neilson planes....pure majic, IMHO.

But I am biased because I am planning on getting the #3 and #4 Lie Nielsons.

[James Lehr]

Update: spent the last 2 hrs playing at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. I really liked both the bevel up Jack and the bronze 4. I tried the tapered carcass saw and the tenon saws. In the end I bought the LN Bronze no 4 with a 50* frog. I hope the higher angle frog doesn't present problems. Anyone with experience and opinion about this high angle frog?

[Brian Holcombe]

I have a bronze #4 with a 55 degree frog, I love it. I use a #4 and a #7 on literally every project. I use a low angle BU jack for rough dimensioning and shooting so I have a few blades for it, one is heavily cambered and the other is an o-1 blade with a 30 degree bevel which i use on end grain and for shooting.