Re: D�j� Vu All Over Again
William Duffield, on the Cohansey
>I hope everyone realizes that my first response in this thread included a lot of tongue-in-cheek arguments, and was a bit theatrical, to say the least. I think there is no clear, simple answer, nor even one complicated answer. And even most of our "good" answers can be flummoxed by a small, fine point about the questioner's situation of which we are totally unaware.
What I do know is that both bevel up and bevel down planes, metal and wooden planes, old and new planes, and Occidental and Oriental planes can be made to work successfully by the neophyte, with just a little of the right kind of encouragement.
Still, a bit of flamboyance to stir up some discussion for Mr. Jackson on a subject we might otherwise be getting a bit tired of is better than, "Go away. Don't bother us. The answer to your question is forty-two."
If you are looking for tough plane questions in tough situations, you might take into consideration my state of mind when I saw Charles' question and a few responses yesterday evening. An associate, an ex-paratrooper and woodworker who does not use handplanes, wanted to know which plane to buy first, to solve a particular problem he has: cleaning up panels raised with a router. That made me an hour late leaving work, none of the extra time on the clock, while I explained the uses, features, advantages and disadvantages of three glass cases full of planes, everything from the Kunz #75, new Groz and Stanley bench planes, through the Stanley #92 (on sale) and #93, three different Clifton shoulder planes, to about thirty models of L-Ns: bevel down, bevel up, low angle, high angle and scrapers, skew, side and jack rabbet, shoulder, with and without nickers, with and without fences, with and without depth stops, left handed, right handed and ambidextrous, tilting handle, flat bottom, curved bottom. The only thing that kept me from descending into complete, babbling lunacy by the end of it was that (for some reason beyond my comprehension) we don't also carry Veritas planes. In the end, after an in-depth discussion, with lots of spectators who don't know hand planes much better than he does, he made up his own mind, we gave all the planes a wipe down with camelia oil, locked them up and put them away. He rung up his purchase, and I started the 45 minute drive home.
The first half of the trip is 4 lanes in each direction, everyone else out there was more than ready for a three or four day holiday. After two weeks of stop and crawl across the bridge, the construction was no where to be seen, and everyone put the pedal to the metal, heading for the Jersey Shore. I pulled off the Turnpike at Exit 2, looking forward to a relaxing drive through rural West Jersey marshes, farms and woods, when my rear view mirror was suddenly filled with the grill of the truck from Spielberg's Duel. After a few miles of this harassment, I turned off on a farm road with a weight restriction, and he continued on down the main highway. On the back of his trailer was stenciled "SHIMP 235". I thought about writing it down, but then realized there was no need. That was our P. O. Box number, and I recognized that name.
Finally at home, I washed down two Naproxen with a Sierra Nevada, poured a double shot of Captain Morgan into a leaded crystal old fashioned glass, signed on and clicked on the WoodCentral Hand Tool forum, where "First Hand Plane?", "Here We Go Again" and "I've Seen This Movie Before" just pushed me over the edge.
This afternoon, on the way home from the local farmer's market, with some fresh apples and vegetables to encourage me to plant the apple trees I had bought there a couple weeks ago, I crested a hill approaching a local tree nursery, one of many, when d�j� vu struck. A semi pulling a flat bed full of newly dug and balled apple trees pulled out of the Shimp yard at the top of the next hill and headed my way. I started breathing again when it got close enough that I could see it wasn't the same color. Yesterday's trailer was no where to be seen, but the tractor was parked right beside the road. I decided that stopping in at the office and complaining would not be prudent, and no one leaned out of the cab to wave me past.
BTW, the Captain chose the L-N 60-1/2R. Do y'all think that was the right decision?
