Does it get better than this?
Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
>It�s a rainy Sunday afternoon in Perth. SWAMBO and the GIT (Galoot-in-Training) are occupied and doing their Own Thing around the house. Friends have called to cancel early dinner arrangement owing to a minor injury of their 13-fear old Fearless Warrior on the playing fields that morning. The workshop is mine and I shall not be interrupted the entire afternoon.
I take down the two three-board pine panels that I had previously edge-jointed and glued. It�s time to flatten those suckers. This is going to be a pine and jarrah chest of drawers for the GIT. Pine sides and drawer frames, and jarrah top, skirting and drawer fronts.
Over to the tablesaw and I measure the widths in preparation for trimming the ends square and roughly to size. Mmm� 668mm at the one end and 668mm at the other. Panel #2 � 664mm at the one end and 664mm at the other. Good grief, I have rarely had such accurate lay-ups after gluing up. I don�t even have to square it up. I�ll do the final sizing after it has been planed down.
For once the workshop is clean and tidy, a minor miracle on its own, and the workbench and Stanley #7 beckons. Gee, that goes more easily than expected. I don�t work much in pine and I forget just how pleasurable it is to plane. The #7 is heavy and continues under its own momentum. It uses a Japanese laminated blade and the finish is so good that I think that it could easily get away without a final smoothing. But I take down my Stanley Bedrock #604, remove its LN blade and chipbreaker, and spend 5 minutes running through 1200 and 6000 waterstones, with Veritas green hone at the end. Adjust the blade for a slight cut. And then it�s to the panel.
Shhhiiikkkk �.. shhhhikkk goes the blade down the timber. It�s like a hot knife through butter. Full width shavings without even trying hard. So whispery thin that they look like they�ll float away. The pine top gleams like it has been polished.
Does it get better than this �..?
Regards from Perth
Derek
