plane revelations
Jack from Maine
>Some of you may remember recently I was searching for a frog for #5 plane I thought may be a stanley bedrock but turns out most likely is a sargent. I never found a frog but I put the broken one back in(lateral adjuster broke off with the top part of the frog). I tuned the plane and put it aside for now. I also recently got an ECE scrub so I decided to try it out tonight. I clamped an 18" long piece of rough cherry 5/4 by 6" onto my bench. The board had a very visible twist to it.I scrubbed both high corners,checked with winding sticks til fairly straight. Then I used a straight edge and scrubbed the high spots.When I saw the board was fairly flat I grabbed the #5 and tried it out.After about 5 minutes of planing end to end in a slight diagonal I ended up with a flat board that was so smooth that I was stunned.It was so easy! I haven't even touched it with a smoother and this board face could be finished.This isn't straight grained either.
Now that I figured that out it's time to finish truing up the board and dimensioning. I need to resaw into 1/2" boards for a project and I don't have a handsaw capable of doing this or the ability yet so I will use a bandsaw for that part. Can't learn it all at once.
It is a great feeling when a handplane does what it's supposed to do.I can't wait to get to the dovetailing part of this project. Thanks for listening, my wife doesn't understand my excitement.---Jack
