It's amazing! (RE: Follow up on LV BUS)
Felix B.
>Good evening,
About a week ago I posted about troubles I was having with LV BUS plane where in order to get even shavings I had to make such a large lateral adjustment of the blade that it was noticeably out of parallel with the mouth (about 1/32�). Making it impossible to adjust the mouth, etc... Many of you responded and it was an extraordinary help to resolve my problem. I decided to replace the plane with another one.
To make a long story short � Lee Valley has one of the greatest and easiest CS gangs I�ve dealt with in my life. The guy I dealt with � Eric. Replacing the plane was not a problem. This I expected. However, I was not expecting not to be charged for shipping it back to the store. In addition, I was not charged extra shipping when I decided to add a couple more things to the box that would have my new plane!
I know Rob Lee checks in here periodically and I want you to know that you have wonderful product and great people working for you. I wish you and your company many great years of success! Thank you.
So, new plane arrived on Saturday, and as I mentioned earlier I also decided to get a new Verita MKII Honing Guide as suggested by William Duffield and 8000-grit water stone as suggested by Derek Cohen. Great advice and I thank you guys!
Let me tell you one thing first: what the hell was I doing without these two things. I know there are many people will argue that with practice hand honing is as good as with a guide. I don�t disagree. Since I don�t have the experience and jig is available � I will use it and spend far less time in order to achieve great results. I also did not think the 8000 grit stone would make a difference� What a WORLD of difference it made! Amazing, but it does not take terribly long sharpen the blade. No more then 5-7 minutes of total time between 800, 4000, and 8000-grit stones.
Anyway, the new plane is absolutely great, as well as the honing guide! I also learned a great lesson: only razor-sharp blade (and 4000-grit stone does not do it!) is the sure way to avoid tear-outs!
Here�s a picture I took of a piece of cherry I planed with a new plane - grain changes as you can see.
My analog readout of the "thicker" shaving. Hey, that�s close enough! They are so light, they are picked up by static and stick to anything - plane, hand, wood, but they don't fall on the floor :~)
What sanding? This is the finish I accomplished with my new BUS � need I say more? A pure joy!
Thanks again everyone for all your help and good night!