Take 2 - Report - OWA 2005 Plane Fest!
Denis Chénard, Orléans, Ont.
>(apologies for the picture problems)
A.k.a. The Plane Orgy...
Earlier this summer I was offered the opportunity to test drive a number of Veritas planes. Being a member of the Ottawa Woodworkers Association (www.ottawawoodworking.ca) I thought that association members would be interested in trying these planes too. After receiving the OK from the various parties I sent an invitation to the association members, and to others that I knew would like to participate in such an event. After polling the participants as to the Veritas planes that they owned and the ones we wanted to try out, I borrowed the missing Veritas planes, six in all. Because of the summer date, many people had previous commitments and could not make it to the party, but we still ended up with nine participants. The event was held on August 28.
The unofficial theme was "Veritas planes versus the rest". People brought with them the planes that they owned, Veritas and others. Unfortunately, the ones that couldn't attend were the ones who owned Lie-Nielsen planes, so we had only one (the scraper plane, and its owner forgot to bring the blade). I would have liked to be able to compare the two brands, maybe the LN owners stayed away because they feared the competition? :-)
Bob Demers, the OWA program coordinator, graciously came over and helped set up the venue (which was held in my garage, my shop is too small and cluttered). We installed two workbenches, made bench hooks, set up two sharpening stations and prepared wood for testing the various types of planes. Here's a view of the "calm before the storm":
You can see in the background the "plane table". Here it is with the first wave of planes:
From left to right: wooden jointer, Bob's Stanleys from #8 to #2 (#2 being a Bedrock), Veritas #4, #4 1/2, scrub, BU smoother, large shoulder, medium shoulder, LA jack, apron, cabinet scraper, Stanley #6C, Defiance #3, Record #4, Stanley handyman (don't laugh, it packs quite a punch for the money).
But something is missing...
In the invitation I wrote for the fest, I hinted at a surprise. Bob was itching to find out what it was, but I kept mum, I even managed to keep him distracted enough that he didn't even mention it the whole afternoon he was there to help with the setup...
Naturally, we had to test the planes before the party to see if the planes were ready for action (they were, especially the borrowed ones), and if the beer was good and cold enough (it was):
Rickard's Red shavings! Actually tulipwood, plus maple and birch, mostly.
Sunday afternoon, the guests slowly arrived and put their planes next to the others:
Some of the planes are not in this picture, but at no point we did get all the planes there at once, there was always someone using one or another...
Finally, the surprise... To thank Bob for his help (he also wrote for the fest very good handouts on handplanes), my wife wrote him a little card:
It said that, as a reward for his help, he would be the one opening the surprise box, and be the first to try it...
Here it is!
The Veritas Low Angle Jointer! After all the teasing, I think he liked the surprise...
Of course, Bob couldn't wait to give it a try, Paul is watching intensely...
That was a pretty nasty piece of maple. With the LA blade there was a bit of tearout, but by switching to the high angle blade, the board came out smooth as a baby's bum... People were very impressed...
I had written an agenda for the plane fest, with "activities" scheduled every half hour: plane use and care, brief plane history with emphasis on Veritas' innovations, refurbishing old planes, electrolysis de-rusting, hot-rodding humble planes, wooden planes, etc. Well, that agenda flew out by the window, participants were too giddy with all these planes around to stop for five minutes and watch a demonstration... In the end the only demonstration that was made was the electrolysis de-rusting. Here's Guillaume (trivia: "guillaume" is French for shoulder plane) finishing setting up the bath:
It's bubbling, that means it's working:
Jack found out that his LA smoother wasn't as sharp as he liked, so off to sharpening:
That granite plate is great for sharpening, 9" by 18" by 3" thick, and inexpensive too (around $45). Nice hat by the way, Jack...
Here's a closeup of yours truly cleaning up a tenon (with the medium shoulder plane) that I (very crudely) bandsawed the day before:
And here's the partial result:
We didn't dust off before taking the picture, but look at how clean the end grain on the shoulder is...
Meanwhile Jack's still honing...
That A2 steel can take a while to hone...
Here's Norm demonstrating some of the wooden planes that he built, while Henry is sipping Nova Scotia's pride, Alexander Keith's:
Here he is with another of his wooden planes (Rosewood Studio does that to you :-} )
Notice the Stanley transitional jointer on the bench (#27?). The wood, we found out, is Spanish cedar (something I found back in my days of pallet-hunting), a "plane's best friend" according to Norm... Take note of the gizmo behind that plane, left of the Coke can, story on that later...
For a tougher test, the same plane doing blackwood. Doing pretty well, I'd say:
Jack's finally done!
Putting his plane to work...
Yours truly pushing (really pushing) the BU smoother on a piece of divi-divi:
That wood is so hard, they had to hold the bench! But the wood itself isn't "difficult". I need a heavier bench...
Back to the gizmo mentioned above... Louis is my brother-in-law. He manages to do amazing stuff with very few tools, compensating with his ingeniosity. He builds harpsichords, and is now working on a clavichord. But planing is something he has little familiarity with. He had problems getting good results with his card scrapers, so he brought them along, along with a homemade scraper holder, and the aforementioned gizmo... I should have taken a picture of the thing... Picture a piece of wood shaped like bull horns, in which is inset a truck kingpin... That's his scraper burnisher! The guy was putting the mother of all hooks, thinking that's the way it's supposed to be. I didn't want to sound mean, but I couldn't help but burst in laughter when I found out...
Well, Louis didn't leave empty handed... Allan walked him through the whole process of tuning a cabinet scraper, including the proper pressure to put on the burnisher (ounces, not 60 pounds...):
Hard to get good pictures with the sun in the background...
Speaking of Allan, here's what I call a "mini-jointer" that he built during his time at Rosewood Studio:
I didn't get the chance to give it a try, but we live in the same area of the city, so I'll get another chance in the future.
Here's one rare shot of Henry not holding a beer!
He did put the large shoulder plane to good use...
Allan giving a long look at the BU smoother:
No, I'm not pregnant, in case you're wondering, I'm just trying to make my wife feel good (she is pregnant).
Yours truly testing (again!) the BU smoother on another piece of wood.
Bob's testing one of Norm's wooden planes:
"Now that I got Bob distracted, let me play with the LA jointer!"
Some of the guests had to leave early, but the rest of us stayed for a BBQ.
What caption would you use for this picture?
"IN VINO VERITAS!", of course...
L to R: myself, Norm, Paul, Guillaume, Henry, and Bob.
After the guests were gone, and the kids put to bed, I didn't have to play host anymore, and I had a bunch of Veritas planes to play with, all by myself... I stayed up until 1:00 AM...
Since this is a long story already, I will summarize some of the participants' comments and impressions that I gleaned all through the day:
- the LA jointer was a definite hit. I think a few were sold that day...
- bevel-up planes seemed to be the preference of many users.
- minimal backlash in the Veritas' adjusters was really appreciated.
- the BU smoother received a mixed reception, not because of its performance (superb), but rather because of the weight and feel. I for one prefer my LA jack.
- shoulder planes are both awesome, some wished the medium one had a knob in front like the large one.
- the scrub plane is an absolute hoot! I purchased one afterwards...
All in all, we had a great time.
In my personal name and that of the OWA, I would like to thank Veritas for providing the planes that helped make this event possible, especially the LA jointer, which was a pre-production item. Also thanks to Bob Demers for helping to set up the venue and taking the time to write very good handouts, and to Guillaume (aka "shoulder plane") for his electrolysis handout and demonstration.
Thanks also to Greg Sloop for hosting the pictures!
DC
Usual disclaimer applies.