Who fixed my planes?
Brent Langdon, Sterling VA
>Either my hand planes work much better in cold weather, or I am learning something about using them. The wife and kids are out of town for the week, so while I am not painting in the kitchen I have been able to sneak out to the garage and *finally* do some work on my nightstand project.
Earlier in the week I was able to flatten the oak boards that were giving me fits 6 months ago. To finish the legs, I just needed to add some tapers to the bottoms. I started looking around for material to build a jig for the tablesaw, but then figured that I would give the hand planes a try. My test leg probably took 20 minutes to taper, but the final one was more like 5 minutes (with no tablesaw marks to clean up).
I find that I am sharpening less yet my planes seem sharper. Every time my plane seemed to be dulling, I would stop and go through my all my scary sharp grits using a honing jig. Now I just do a quick freehand touch up before starting and rub some wax on the plane sole when it starts pushing harder.
- Brent "still waiting till the 22nd for my #4 1/2" Langdon
