Rumors of Holtey kits

can be light or dark

Larry Williams

>Persimmon is hard, strong and tough but ranges in color from a light cream to a dark olive color. The wood is very shock and wear resistant and heavy. The small black pith is the only real heart wood in persimmon, this continent's only indigenous member of the ebony family. It has no taste or odor.

It's commonly used for loom shuttles, golf club heads and pool cues. It polishes instead of abrades and stays in place very well once dried.

I knew it had the properties to make a suitable substitute for boxwood which nearly impossible to find in sizes big enough for plane boxing because boxing is usually set with its grain on a bias when compared to the grain of a plane body. I have to admit having some lingering doubt as to how well it would compare with boxwood after hearing of how poorly African boxwood substitutes perform as plane boxing. I had my concerns put to rest a couple months ago when I was able to examine one of our planes that has been in heavy, almost constant, use for two years in a demanding environment. This plane has been shared by five guys who use it on nearly every piece of wood they work. It's an abrasive harsh set of circumstances for any plane. The plane definitely showed wear but not to areas protected by the persimmon. While I don't have a head-to-head comparison yet, I think the persimmon may well out perform boxwood for plane boxing. It's also easier to work than boxwood and less likely to check.

Yes, it's a Clark & Williams plane

Wiley Horne

>Tony,

First thing, C&W planes are great users. I think this is because they reproduce what the wooden plane had become at its zenith, after many generations. The planes are made to extreme standards of fit and final tuning--everything lines up and everything works right and they don't skimp on materials. They sweat the details, such as what Larry is talking about in his post above about the boxing. Look at the brass depth stop on that filletster, and you'll see a little steel shoe screwed to the bottom of it to take the wear.

When you take one of these planes out of its wraps, it just knocks you dead--it's kinda like when you look at a piece of period furniture and you think 'how did they do that?'.

I'm real grateful for this plane, because it had to be one of the first planes that Larry Williams made after his miracle second shoulder operation that saved his career. Larry and Bill Clark and Don McConnell are magnificent craftsmen. The planes look great, but when you talk to them, all they are thinking about is function and performance and the engineering details of how to achieve it.

Wiley

Re: The other source in the southwest

paul womack

>His planes are really overpriced

The free market says otherwise.

BugBear