Recently, I have been intrigued with the use of hand tools. My shop is full of power tools, but with the exception of 4 chisels and a few hammers is devoid of hand tools. On a whim, I purchased an old Union transitional smoothing plane (from estate sale) and an old Craftsman #5 plane (from eBay). Knowing nothing about planes, I downloaded The Hand Plane Book to my Kindle and started absorbing.

Once I went through both planes, I also tried another first: the Scary Sharp method of sharpening. In the past, I have used diamond stones for planer and jointer knives, so this was a change. The end result was nothing less than magical. There is nothing better than feeling, seeing, and hearing that shaving ripple off of the chip breaker along the length of a board.

I am currently finishing up a series of projects that are ready for finishing, so I'm not able to use my new-found addiction productively. So I had to use it unproductively . . . by hand planing and jointing about half of the lumber on my rack.

Next, I will be looking for a good crosscut saw and some carving tools.

This is some good stuff . . . .